Subject: Re: sysinst report [was: 1.3Beta]
To: None <current-users@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Robert.V.Baron <rvb@gluck.coda.cs.cmu.edu>
List: current-users
Date: 12/05/1997 10:37:00
> From: Jonathan Stone <jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU>
> 
> >From: Robert.V.Baron <rvb@gluck.coda.cs.cmu.edu>
> a good name is a good thing, but i
> don't think it's really relevant to problems with sysinst per se.

I'd still like to see it named "admin" or something sensible.

> 
> 
> >2. In sysinst, most menu's end with an x (exit) option.  This
> >   is really gets you to the next menu so why not call it n (next).
> 
> 
> It doesn't always mean `next', often it means `go back to parent'.
> I'd prefer to just use 'x' consistently to mean `leave this menu' (
> change the `e' in the main menu to be 'x') and have the documentation
> clarify what happens where.
> 
> Would you  be unhappy with that?

There has been a lot of discussion on this point in the mail.  I think
that we should anticipate a next and back solution even thought now
back is hard.  So n should get you to the next step even if that is to
go back to the parent to await a continue step.  The very first menu
does indeed exit so it can use x for that purpose.  I'd also like to
see a q (quit) on every menu so that you can abort cleanly w/o having
to do a ^c.


> 
> 
> >4. As someone remarked, if ftp fails the messages blast by so fast
> >   that you can not tell what happened.
> 
> This has been a *long-standing* problem.  I'm not sure how to bash on
> curses to get around it.  Perhaps Phil can look at it this weekend.
> 
> Another idea i had is to at least check the .tgz file exists; and to
> present a summary after unpacking all sets:
> 	X tarballs selected,
> 	Y not found at all, Z found,
> 	P of the Z unpacked cleanly,  Q of the Z encountered errors.
> 
> I think that would catch most problems or at least alleviate them.
> Comments?

I don't understand the keys letters.
> 

> 
> >5. There should be an option that lets you go out and do the ftp's
> >   by hand and then go back in and do the extracts.
> 
> You can go to a shell and FTP. My own tree ahs code to do the extracts
> _only_, from any of the already-supported choices or an
> already-mounted local dir. Would that work for you?
> 
>7. I decide to do a "local" upgrade.  It chooses sd0 as the Device which is a
>    It sounds like you're trying to use it to specify a path to
>    an already-mounted directory containing sets.
>    My sysinst tree has this, I hope it'll make it into the release
>    tree by this weekend.
Yes, Good

> >b. Well, it's time to bail and do a simple "install" installation.  But before
> >   I do that, I did one last "disklabel wd0".  The root is 277Meg, swap is 258Meg
> >   and /usr is the rest 561meg.  Why is root so big?  Further, I have 128Meg of
> >   primary memory not to swap.  I don't want to waste 258meg of disk.
> 
> I don't know, I'm told it was copied verbatim from the install sh
> scripts.
The install scripts did not default sizes.