Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 22:01:54 -0500 From: Eric Jones <ejon@colltech.com> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com> Cc: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: sysinstall: is it really at the end of its lifecycle? Message-ID: <385704A2.76A6E27A@colltech.com> References: <2683.945164965@zippy.cdrom.com>
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"Jordan K. Hubbard" wrote: > > > As far as the successor to sysinstall goes, I think it would be > > nice to have both a console version and an X version, with some X > > tookit such as Lesstif or Qt, or Tcl/Tk. It could be a lot like > > RedHat's "linuxconf", where you can use it as both an installer > > or system administration tool. > > Which is about correct, though there's a volume of details behind your > conceptualization of the system in outline form there. :-) Hear hear! > > To really understand where we're trying to go, however, it's somewhat > helpful to take a good look at where we are now, e.g. stuck with our > dear friends sysinstall and the pkg_install suite. > [...] > > We also need to discuss the ways and means of creating not so much an > installer but an installation "nucleus" around which we also have a > general script execution and menu-generation framework which makes it > easy for other people to write "configurators" in secure TCL which > take on the job of configuring some utility like, say, Samba. When > you pkg_add samba.zip in such a system, it runs its configurator to > generate the initial smb.conf file but also drops a copy of the > configuration script into some special config directory under the > Networking category. Now the next time the user fires up the system > configuration tool and goes to the Networking section, they see Samba > there as a new item and clicking on it will bring up the configuration > tool again (perhaps in the same form, perhaps not). If Samba is > deleted from the system, the correspnding item goes away along with > the configuration script and I'm sure you all get the idea at this > point. No more monolithic prototypes! Framework! Frame-work! > Frame-work! [jkh jumps up on a chair and begins waving his hands > enthusiastically before losing his balance and toppling over with an > abrupt scream]. > > - Jordan A worthy manifesto if ever I've seen one. I have to add that I've been pretty well amused by the discussions of pretty GUI interfaces and how they'll attract users. My interest lies in exactly the opposite direction: I want to stick a floppy in and have a box find an install server and follow a pre-defined recipe for building itself, ala Jumpstart or Kickstart. If I'm a Systems Administrator rolling out dozens of web servers or hundreds of desktops (and I frequently am), the last thing I want to look at is a GUI, unless it helps me to build the configuration that'll be installed across a large base. If anything will drive the commercialization of FreeBSD it's manageability enhancements. So, when the framework, Frame-work! Frame-work! is being considered, please keep in mind the pre-configured one disk network install. In the meantime, I'm off to learn what sysinstall can do for me. Please keep me in mind if looking for reviewers, commentators, or (*shudder*) coders and documentors for pushing this project forward. Cheers, Eric Jones Collective Technologies is a pretty GUI. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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