> On Sep 29, 2024, at 2:02 PM, Eric Auer via Freedos-devel
> <freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Jerome,
>
> if I understand you correctly, you suggest to only install BASE
> by default, then use FDIMPLES to install individual packages
> from the CD or USB stick later?
Not exactly.
I sent the earlier message from my phone. So, let me see if I can clarify my
thoughts a little better.
At present, this is what FreeDOS does:
During Installation, under normal mode, it offers BASE, BASE+SRC, FULL,
FULL+SRC. Under advanced mode, it also offers CUSTOM as an option along with
BASE & FULL. If CUSTOM is selected, the installer passes the list of packages
in FULL to FDIMPLES. FDIMPLES modifies that list and returns it to the
installer. The Installer then installs that modified list.
Since FULL is now everything that is on the LiveCD, that is a lot of stuff.
Many of which will never be used by the end user. Some of which provide the
same functionality as in other packages that will be installed. It seems like a
waste of time and hard disk space.
There are several possibilities for what could be done.
First, under all circumstances and regardless of choices made during
installation, there could be a message added when the installed system is
booted. This message would be similar to the “type HELP for help” message that
is already present. It could say something like “type FDIMPLES to add or remove
packages”.
Additionally, some minor changes could be done during installation.
One option is simply to only provide BASE or BASE+SRC for the install option.
If this were done, a notice should appear at that time to indicate there are
additional packages on the install media and those can be easily added or
removed after installation using FDIMPLES.
A second choice would be to always display the CUSTOM package option regardless
of installation during NORMAL or ADVANCED mode. If the CUSTOM option is always
displayed, we could do away with the FULL option. The choices could simply be
either BASE, BASE+SRC, CUSTOM, CUSTOM+SRC.
If FULL remains as an option in the installer it would install everything
provided on the media. However, there are a couple things that could be done
with the CUSTOM install selection. FDIMPLES automatically selects the programs
in the list it is provided for installation. At present, that is the FULL list.
But, it does not need to be that one. It could be a recommended selection of
packages similar to what T2409 and earlier installed as “FULL”.
A preselected recommended list for the CUSTOM option could easily limit many
things automatically. For instance, select only one or two web browsers by
default. Select to install mTCP and maybe wget but leave many of the other
networking tools unselected. Only select one of the disk partitioners. Etc.
When the user selects CUSTOM, they could easily add or remove the preselected
items. Even pick entire groups to be included or removed during installation.
Modifying the install package set is original purpose for FDIMPLES. It is where
its name comes from. It has be supported by the advanced mode of the current
installer since its original development and has been available since FreeDOS
1.2.
I simply suggest that we maybe drop the FULL option and make the CUSTOM option
available in the normal mode as well. Possible, with a less than FULL set of
preselections.
Personally, I kind of like the idea of always simply choosing between a BASE or
CUSTOM (with preselected recommendations) install.
:-)
Jerome
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