On 9/19/07, Nick Holland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > did anyone notice that this thread was accidentally brought back > from almost a year ago? > > Raimo Niskanen wrote: > > A lot of people has praised the current OpenBSD installer. > > I too. I think it is at the right level and does the right > > things, without unneccesary hazzle. > > > > But... > > > > There are a few things that I remember really missing when I was > > a beginner, and being nice to beginners is a good thing: > > > > 1) Not every time did I have another machine to go to the > > OpenBSD web site and read the install guide and related docs > > online. It is almost necessary in order to succeed as a beginner, > > and it could be improved upon. > > > > Why not put the install guide and disk partitioning guide on > > the CD (maybe it is), and give very visible hints on how to > > mount and read them during the installation from a parallel > > console (i386) or how to exit to a shell to read during > > installation. > > 1) there are no multiple consoles on the install kernel. > 2) I really think it would be excessively awkward to be trying > to read docs on the same machine you are installing to. > 3) the CD set provides much of this in printed form. > > Granted, I may be an extreme case, but I really can't imagine > there are a lot of people installing OpenBSD on their one-and- > only computer who couldn't have at least printed out some docs > before hand. > > > 1b)Having the partitioning guide available while installing > > is maybe good enough, but it would also be nice if there > > was a disklabel template for large enough disks that > > created / swap /var /tmp /usr sufficient for a potent > > desktop install capable of kernel and ports tree compilation, > > and the rest on /home. > > actually, the FAQ provides a pretty good example for this (if I > do say so myself! :) I've actually been wanting to add some > other partitioning examples (for 1G, 4G, 20G hds with some > specific apps), but obviously it isn't there yet. :-/ > > > 2) Make it more obvious during the installation when the MBR > > gets modified, how and when the MBR code gets modified, > > and how and when the PBR gets written. I was always > > scared to destroy the MBR code and ruin my Windows > > boot (company necessity) - I had to use the NT boot loader. > > > > This is one of those things that you can't win on. > People who understand the process closely will have no problem > seeing where this is happening (covered in the FAQ moderately > well, I think). However, the vast majority of the users don't > understand this, and won't care until AFTER something they > didn't want to happen happens. No amount of red-flag warnings > is going to change this, I suspect. > > The best advice there is in the section about multi-booting > which warns that this is very difficult and easy to mess up > and should be done on a "practice" machine first. > > Unfortunately, many new users want to start on a non-dedicated > machine in spite of all the warnings that this is a really bad > idea (regardless of OS you are a new user on). > > > I understand disk partitioning pretty darned well, I think. I > have had the "interesting" experience of trying to multi-boot > with an OS that claimed to be very multi-boot friendly. The > pretty graphical user interface slowly chewed through the four > or five(!!?) CDs of the install, recognized the other OSs on > the disk...and proceeded to give me a completely non-bootable > disk when I was done. Fortunately, it wasn't too difficult > to fix...with the OpenBSD install CD. :) > > Nick. > > Lean back people. I'm working on DirectX10 and Wii controller support for the installer. For the disc paritioning part you can do the samoan slap dance with the Wii-controller.
/Tony
