From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Feb 27 16:16:26 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id QAA26299 for questions-outgoing; Thu, 27 Feb 1997 16:16:26 -0800 (PST) Received: from time.cdrom.com (root@time.cdrom.com [204.216.27.226]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA26290 for ; Thu, 27 Feb 1997 16:16:19 -0800 (PST) Received: from time.cdrom.com (jkh@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by time.cdrom.com (8.8.5/8.6.9) with ESMTP id QAA14952; Thu, 27 Feb 1997 16:16:06 -0800 (PST) To: rdarden@phoenix.net cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: installation difficulty In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 27 Feb 1997 10:10:54 CST." <3315B20E.6C82@phoenix.net> Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 16:16:06 -0800 Message-ID: <14948.857088966@time.cdrom.com> From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > It would be nice if there were easy to use instructions how to install > from a DOS partition, especially the packages. Not true. > Maybe sample configuration files for ftp in FreeBSD, or just WHERE to > put packages in DOS so that the installation will actually find them. All documented in INSTALL.TXT. > How do you expect any sane (oxymoron) Windows-user to WANT to migrate > to Unix under these circumstances? I guess we expected them to read and perhaps think a little. You're right - it's far too much to ask. > WHY ISN'T A SIMPLE HTML BROWSER INCLUDED SO THAT ONE CAN READ THE > DOCUMENTATION? Because you never wrote one and donated it to us? :-) I'd love to use HTML instead (and you *can* read the documentation, it's just in straight TXT) but I don't have the time to reinvent that particular wheel and no one has given me a stand-alone HTML browser that one could plug into sysinstall. Again, if you'd like to do that then I'll be happy to plug it in, otherwise how else did you think things happens in the free software world? God visits us regularly and contributes software on stone tablets or something? No, we require more earthly assistance to move forward. :-) > Installing from DOS can't find the packages index. That's one of those things which isn't covered due to the name smashing problem. Renaming all the packages to be 8.3 compliant, or mapping their names in a different fashion, would be a lot of work and most folks DO have functioning CDROM drives or FTP connections. I agree that this is a problem, but the solution is more work than would be merited right now and it will be dealt with by using a global 8.3->long name mapping file for everything when I rewrite sysinstall. > In short, your installation s$%^s! No, I think UNIX is simply not for you. It's not for everyone, that much is very clear, and while I could fix a number of your complaints with the installer (and yes, it DOES have some shortcomings, as most installers do), the type of complaints you have only indicate that you'd run into something else immediately afterwards and we'd be right back here again. No matter how many times you show him the operations manual, a duck makes a poor candidate for nuclear power station shift supervisor. :-) Jordan