Re: 5.1 installer issue

[David Laight <david%l8s.co.uk@localhost>]

On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 02:20:10AM -0500, Mouse wrote:
> I've recently had occasion to install a few 5.1 systems from the CD,
> which has led me to discover three related problems with the installer.
> (Well, more than three, but these are the only ones I think NetBSD is
> likely to consider problems.)
> 
> I don't know to what extent these are i386-specific.  If there's a
> better place to discuss them, just let me know.

Ok so i386/amd64 install ...

> When partitioning the disk, I specifically switched the input unit to
> sectors and specified an exact sector count.  But then upon telling the
> installer that I'm good with what it's got, it shows me the layout it's
> chosen, and it's gone and silently changed the size - the size I
> specified has been...well, not quite ignored, because the size chosen
> is close to it, but it certainly hasn't been obeyed, even though the
> previous display showed exactly what I entered.

There is code to round to 'cylinder' and/or 64MB.
I can't remember whether it can overridden.
It also may, or may not! apply to the mbr editor or the disklabel one.

> That's problem 1.  Problem 2 arose because the partition in question is
> at the end of the disk, and, when patching up the damage done by the
> previous problem, I discovered that the partition editor provided at
> that point has no way to say "change the size but leave the end fixed,
> moving the start instead"....

Hmmm.... when I rewrote it all I didn't think of that one!

> Problem 3 is comparatively minor: when editing a number (eg, when
> patching up the damage done by problem 1), if the first character typed
> is a backspace, it deletes not the last character, but the whole
> number...

You didn't try hard enough!
IIRC once you've typed any other character, 'delete' just deletes the
one left of the cursor (there might be a 'delete right of cursor'
lurking, since I think the arrow keys work).
The 'delete everything' is a shortcut because you want to do that
quite often!


Oh - that code is all necessarily complicated.
Some of the code might have been easier if it were started
from scratch, but most of the logic is needed.
The actual problem to hand is quite difficult.
(Basically there are a lot of options that have to be
allowed for....)

        David

-- 
David Laight: david%l8s.co.uk@localhost