FreeBSD installer (was Re: Newbie Experience #2)
On Monday 11 September 2006 15:56, Jud wrote: everyone who uses FreeBSD knows that a better (meaning, at least to many folks, more simplified and graphical) installer would be nice Perhaps as an option. The problem is that you need to install a graphical environment to run a graphical installer. Simplicity means different things to different people, too. I set up new and replacement servers, using commodity hardware for cost reasons, for our various offices around South Africa. I used to have a KVM switch with a spare monitor and keyboard in my office for doing the installations, or if I was going elsewhere to install delivered hardware or update an existing box, we needed to arrange a spare screen and keyboard at the location. I now have a slightly-adjusted installation CD (I downloaded the disc 1 and 2 ISO images from Freebsd.org, unpacked disc 1 onto a hard drive and edited boot/loader.conf, adding the line console=comconsole then made a new ISO and burned to a fresh CD labelled ``disc 1- serial''). Now the only time my servers get a screen/keyboard connected is to configure the BIOS when they are first unpacked. Otherwise the basic install is done from the serial boot CD with my laptop as a serial terminal, up to the point where I can ssh to the box and start customising, adding packages etc. From my point of view it doesn't get simpler than that. Jonathan ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD installer (was Re: Newbie Experience #2)
On Mon, 11 Sep 2006 16:26:33 +0200, Jonathan McKeown [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: On Monday 11 September 2006 15:56, Jud wrote: everyone who uses FreeBSD knows that a better (meaning, at least to many folks, more simplified and graphical) installer would be nice Perhaps as an option. The problem is that you need to install a graphical environment to run a graphical installer. Simplicity means different things to different people, too. [snip] Now the only time my servers get a screen/keyboard connected is to configure the BIOS when they are first unpacked. Otherwise the basic install is done from the serial boot CD with my laptop as a serial terminal, up to the point where I can ssh to the box and start customising, adding packages etc. From my point of view it doesn't get simpler than that. Yes, I meant at least to many folks literally - there are many people for whom a graphical installer would be overcomplication. I personally like the The BSD Installer URL: http://www.bsdinstaller.org/; it just happens to suit the way I install a system in that it makes available most of what I tweak and I don't use most of what it hides. I wish the Summer of Code project to adapt it for FreeBSD installation (URL: http://wikitest.freebsd.org/BSDInstaller were more alive than it appears to be. Jud -- I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day. - Douglas Adams ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD installer (was Re: Newbie Experience #2)
On Mon, 11 Sep 2006 16:26:33 +0200
Jonathan McKeown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On Monday 11 September 2006 15:56, Jud wrote:
everyone who uses FreeBSD knows that a better (meaning,
at least to many folks, more simplified and graphical)
installer would be nice
Perhaps as an option. The problem is that you need to install a graphical
environment to run a graphical installer. Simplicity means different things
to different people, too.
absolutely. but you don't need to install anything to run a graphical
installer. And, ideally, you wouldn't be forced to have only the graphical
installer option, you'd still be able to use the good old ncurses or hack your
own -serial one :)
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{Beto|Norberto|Numard} Meijome
Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they're much more liable to
collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans)
perceive beauty is intimately related to our ability to process and understand
complexity. A language that makes it hard to write elegant code makes it hard
to write good code. Eric Raymond
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Reading disclaimers makes you go blind. Writing them is worse. You have been
Warned.
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Re: FreeBSD installer (was Re: Newbie Experience #2)
On Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:51:28 +0200
Alex de Kruijff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
absolutely. but you don't need to install anything to run a graphical
installer. And, ideally, you wouldn't be forced to have only the graphical
installer option, you'd still be able to use the good old ncurses or hack
your own -serial one :)
But then two versions of a installer have to be maintained, meaning more
work. Everyone can use the ncurses version. Its seems to me that the
time it takes to make a second version could better go in to other
parts of FreeBSD.
not if both read the same config and display it in a different manner, very
much like the Linux kernel's make config / menuconfig / xconfig
_
{Beto|Norberto|Numard} Meijome
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will
deserve neither and lose both. Benjamin Franklin
I speak for myself, not my employer. Contents may be hot. Slippery when wet.
Reading disclaimers makes you go blind. Writing them is worse. You have been
Warned.
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