Subject: Re: should not ask for filesets first
To: David Laight <david@l8s.co.uk>
From: Greg A. Woods <woods@weird.com>
List: tech-install
Date: 07/03/2003 16:11:27
[ On Thursday, July 3, 2003 at 18:23:58 (+0100), David Laight wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: should not ask for filesets first
>
> I moved the 'set' question before the disk partitioning, so that the
> disk partioning could depend on the installed sets.

In the long run this makes no sense.  IIRC sysinst can, and should, be
usable to install new sets _after_ the initial install.  (this is
certainly the case with FreeBSD's installer anyway)

In the even longer (or hopefully not so long) run when the system is
installed using pkg_add then this makes even less sense since it will be
possible to add and remove packages at will at any time and sysinst must
expect that at some point in the system's future all system packages
might be installed simultaneously.

The only thing that really makes sense to help determine the initial
disk partition layout is to know what the intended use of the machine
will be and then apply that knowledge to guide heuristics which can
determine actual partition layout based on the available storage.

However before it makes any sense for sysinst to offer anything other
than one basic default layout it must be able to handle multiple disks! :-)


> Then you get a chiken/egg situation, you can't size the filesystems
> until you know which sets to install.  ....

Sysinst must assume that the whole system may eventually be installed,
including X11, and it should warn the user that this will not be
possible if the user chooses layouts which may not give enough room in
the right places, or if the available storage devices are not big enough
in the first place.

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098;            <g.a.woods@ieee.org>;           <woods@robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; VE3TCP; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>