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On Sunday, April 13, 2003, at 09:49 am, Jeff Rose wrote: |
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> One of the major pains in the redhat like installers deals with |
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> package selection. I think it is ridiculous to give people a list of |
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> a thousand packages and tell them to pick. Especially since the |
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> package documentation is horrible. Most people probably wouldn't know |
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> that its important for them to have the e2fsprogs installed, for |
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> example. So, this |
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> is the portion of the installer where I see the most room for |
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> innovation. |
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Hear! Hear! |
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I work (for my sins) in an evangelically M$-only environment. Our IT |
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Director has obviously read something in the newspapers recently about |
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Linux, so he dusted off his "old" Vaio c-series & installed DeadRat, |
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then brought it to me when it booted to Gnome & didn't set-up the circa |
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1180 x 480 screen resolution properly. |
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Some things I found: |
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- sendmail started at the default runlevel when I booted it up. |
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- he was logging in to the GUI as root, and didn't even now how to get |
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a virtual terminal using ctrl-alt-f1 |
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- gcc wasn't installed and the VaioCam stuff needs installing from |
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source. |
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- RH8 allows you to copy the CD .iso files to hard-drive (in DOS for |
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instance), boot from a floppy, and then continue the install from these |
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HD images. Unfortunately, once the system is installed, the "control |
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panel" package manager doesn't know where to look for CDs, and fails |
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anytime you try to add packages. I couldn't find an option to change |
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this at all, so ended up mounting the .iso files as `-o loop` (mind |
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you, at least I learned something), running rpm from the CLI, and |
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fulfilling dependencies by hand. Yeuch! It's cute & ironic that Gentoo |
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is intended for "power-users", as against RH's ease-of-use, yet such a |
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problem cannot arise with Gentoo. |
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- I want a Vaio c-series |
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|
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Now, I rather like the current Gentoo install process, but I've been |
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using Linux for a couple of years already. A friend with only Windows |
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experience recently overheard me talking about Gentoo, and decided to |
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try it. Because he does not live locally, I can't visit him to help |
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when he has problems with his install, and I really feel I should have |
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recommended Mandrake. |
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We'll see how it goes when my friend resolves his present issue with an |
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older CD-ROM drive resolved, but I would not complain if an installer: - |
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helped with network card detection, |
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and helped ensure that /etc/modules.autoload was suitable |
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- saved typing when partitioning |
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- automated the copying / extraction if the stage.tar files |
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- did the chroot automatically |
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- prompted the user for a root password |
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- insisted on adding an initial user |
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(making sure it gave that user wheel privileges, so the user can `su`) |
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- offered to install a GUI of the user's choice |
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from the KDE / Gnome grp tarballs |
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- did NOT add xstart to the default run-level, but added info on how to |
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do so to the MOTD. AFAICT configuring X can be a a bit complicated, |
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and autodetection of hardware could be quite a task to write. So IMO, |
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when the system is booted for the first time, it should go to the |
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CLI, and newbie users can't complain if X doesn't handle their |
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graphics card / monitor: the answer is "it's not intended to do |
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that". |
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- on the same theme, I'd like the installation process to disable root |
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logins to the GUI. |
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- some other stuff I can't think of at this time in the morning |
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|
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It arises however that Gentoo has some very nice features for its new |
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users: |
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- Gentoo installs a simple Unix system, with no bloat. |
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This really is what Unix is about: I often read in Linux newsgroups |
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posters asking "Why doesn't foo happen when I click bar in the network |
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options box of the Linux control panel". |
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So many GUI configuration tools are available in modern distros that |
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they become, perhaps, less usable, and harder to support. |
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Unix is NOT Windows - why do folks so often try to make it that way..? |
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Equally I feel that Gentoo probably shouldn't be marketed as a first |
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distro (and it's bit unfortunate that so many newbies consider |
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themselves power-users & like the idea of a "small, tight, |
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highly-optimised system", but have expections of GUI configuration |
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tools). |
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- Gentoo doesn't impose a particular GUI on you, or install 5. |
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I remember finding the choice a bit overwhelming when I first tried |
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Mandrake. |
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- It's not Unix if cc isn't installed. |
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I've met OS X sys admins who are afraid to install from source, and I |
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remember my trepidation at the idea when I first started Linux. |
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Gentoo overcomes this VERY well. |
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So, anyway, I'm probably preaching to the converted here, and so |
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wasting my breath. I usually try not to advocate operating systems. I |
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guess I'm proposing balance in any installer that is written: if you |
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don't try to make it do too much, I think you could be very successful. |
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Stroller. |
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-- |
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