Re: [gentoo-dev] Fwd: noX kernel not on livecd as the <F2> options state

[Georgi Georgiev]

On 02/10/2003 at 08:02:01(-0400), Kurt Lieber used 2.8K just to say:
> For those of us more familiar with the liveCDs and installation process, is
> this message accurate?  Do we really no longer have any sort of non-GUI
> (even framebuffer GUI) way of installing Gentoo?  (Note: I don't consider
> having to pass nofb as a boot flag as a viable option since that isn't
> exactly intuitive and can lead to messages like the one below)

It seems that the only problem is that the message on the F2 screen is not as
clear as it could be.

	At the prompt type "getnoo option"
	available at prompt "getnoo,acpi,memtest"
	or just hit enter if no options are needed.
	Type "acpi option" at a prompt to enable acpi on the default gentoo kernel

It should probably point out clearly that "noX" and the other options listed,
are options that are passed to the kernel on startup and are not kernels
themselves. Well, the message "kernel noX not found" should make it clear
enough that the user typed a wrong command, and that the message is not a bug
on the liveCD.

I think in this case we are facing a user-problem. I've seen this kind of
attitude where the user is happy to have found a bug/problem with a piece of
software, without first doing some RTFM (reading the F2 and F3 messages in this
case)

The first time I booted one of the newer liveCDs, I too had a similar problem
-- I typed the options without typing the kernel name. I got the message
"kernel dokeymap not found" (or whatever the first option was) and I then
proceeded to read the message on the F2 page more closely.

Possible solutions (in reverse order of preference):

  - make the nofb kernel default
  - put an easy to see, clearer message explaining what an "option" and what a
    "kernel" is
  - ignore this kind of users (A guy setting up servers has trouble
    understanding "kernel noX not found"? He doesn't make a difference between
    X and framebuffer? He thinks pressing enter at the boot prompt immediately
    starts X?! Give me a break!)
  - swap the F2 and F3 messages; this way they will first see the presence of a
    nofb kernel and *then* find the noX option;

On a side note: Does the presence of the noX option mean that liveCDs will soon
include X?

-- 
\    Georgi Georgiev   \  Life is just a bowl of cherries, but why do  \
/     chutz@×××.net    /  I always get the pits?                       /
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