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After you open the box, you stick the heavily |
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decorated cd in the disc drive as you boot up. A graphical interface with |
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pleasing and comforting colors greet the user. The user moves his mouse to |
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the proper buttons to start the install process. The user is provided with |
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various help in the install. The user is guided throughout the install to |
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achieve success. |
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|
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This is a bit of a description of what a Linux |
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distribution installer should be like. I wasn't talking about any disto |
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specifically, but I think some of the major n00b distros fit in that |
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description. Gentoo is by far the most powerful and useful of the distros |
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available. Right now, I feel that the distro is aimed at users with a |
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great deal more experience with Linux. |
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|
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There are many different types of Linux installs. |
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The first being Gentoo, which more or less lacks an install. All it has is |
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a basic live environment which contains the commands and programs to |
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install the system yourself. The next is that of an ncurses install, this |
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is seen in both FreeBSD and Debian (last time I used it). The next type is |
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reflecting that of Mandrake and Red Hat. The final type is really |
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different being like SuSE. It is a fully usable distro with the ability to |
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be installed (much like a GUI version of the Gentoo install system). |
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|
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In order to optimally get users to feel comfortable |
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as well as in control of the install is to not limit them to one option. |
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Meaning, whatever happens we should still leave the standard and current |
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Gentoo install for more advanced users. I will now describe my plans for |
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an installer as follows. I am only stating some general ideas that will |
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only apply to Gentoo. I am not make anything that would require a specific |
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language or arch. |
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|
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The first option the user will have would be to do |
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a completely manual install (the current one) or to do the more automated |
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install mirroring that of Mandrake or RH. |
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|
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Since we are not changing the manual install, I |
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will pretend that we picked the automated install. Not that ncurses is |
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bad, but if we are going for the best we are going to want to stay away |
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from ncurses. The alternative to ncurses is setting up an X system with a |
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complete GUI install. That is not too easy on the programming nor the |
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space. |
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|
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The other thing that the new user will detest is |
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that of the extended waiting period to compile. On a slower CPU, the |
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install could take a day at least. Gentoo is known for its speed and high |
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performance due to the compiled programs. I propose that the user will be |
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able to control the exact content that is compiled. Bare with me as I |
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elaborate. In the install,the installer will detect the internet |
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connection, and the CPU speed. With the packages that the user selects and |
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the statistics of the users system, it can calculate times required to |
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install. Meaning, lets say I have a 500mhz system with a DSL line, I want |
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to install a GUI system with KDE. With that, the installer will give me |
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the options of compiling the core components and will take xxx time, and |
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compile the core components and the programs which will take xxx time, |
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lastly one can compile everything which ill take xxx time. Of course the |
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time taken for each of he different options will increase. With this said |
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and done, the user can have a partially optimized system and doesn't have |
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to wait the great time waiting. |
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|
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Once packages are selected, and installation |
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methods are chosen the installation can continue. Media choice can differ |
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depending on if you are installing pure source, pure binary, or a hybrid |
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install. I guess we can have multiple cds available; binaries, source and |
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live. In addition I guess we can have the installer download specific |
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binaries and sources on servers. |
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|
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The next step is the pre-install. We need to partition the drives. This |
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can be done in a number of ways, the simplest being by initially greping |
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the dmesg for 'hd'. In doing that we can have the user select which hd |
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they want, then to retrieve further info we use “df” and “cfdisk”. To do |
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the partitioning we will probably want to use “dd” and “fdisk”. |
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Once we actually have the drive setup, the package roundup will begin. If |
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the user is doing a remote install, all the packages are stored in /tmp. |
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Once we have all the files we need we will start compiling and / or |
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configuring. We must have progress indicators and information |
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concurrently. |
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|
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After the compiling and installing has completed, we must customize the |
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system. Set date, time, time zone. Set root password, and create a user. |
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The user can add special things like printers, video drivers, and sound |
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drivers. |
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|
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Once the system is done installing and configuring we must make it |
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bootable. We will autodetect the other OS's on the system by scanning the |
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hd's. A boot configuration will be created and the user will be asked to |
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confirm it. |
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|
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At this point in time, the user is happy with a fully installed Gentoo |
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Linux system. All of my ideas are simply that, ideas. I wrote this up |
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while sitting in English class, bored out of my mind. If there are any |
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questions on specific things regarding anything I've said I will clarify |
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them. |
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|
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-Dovid Kopel (munky) |
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|
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--- |
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http://www.usalug.org |
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|
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-- |
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