From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 7 19:24:52 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 618071065678 for ; Mon, 7 Jul 2008 19:24:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fjwcash@gmail.com) Received: from ti-out-0910.google.com (ti-out-0910.google.com [209.85.142.185]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DDC3F8FC15 for ; Mon, 7 Jul 2008 19:24:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fjwcash@gmail.com) Received: by ti-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id d27so555309tid.3 for ; Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:24:50 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to :subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=8U922IDw6BowmmwU2jTddE9QX7G7k9n6x0nrGlLm/CQ=; b=vICiF9jQPZMOO2oiV2vjO0R5nxaffQBi+FKIa7Qepk7TIkrCCEffOVyrB7L0Zv/tGZ 7AAM0sF2jNbsI72reArirH7nhngKMSky/x3zyvjcz7lgXYj81cQfcwpnUXz7huqa2Wvz OgIwawO3cIGIsxerW7dZ5pwZnhm9KEEKHEzko= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition :references; b=bR5qUf0YpNU6r6Bqa/1VH8VbL5amuXLMJm1cI0UAEjLhcaqOaniLYZzqMSBeHi+KOD imsjwJEysZDSYfrl0sOrGOCj+GgwhEh1iEW+rWL11dZIGm9mKmpXZ/1SI5IlOVlr0PiP 4eEhC4C8pqLjA3JlPotxP7sxU5iu4RBry70Vs= Received: by 10.150.227.14 with SMTP id z14mr8686146ybg.145.1215456941749; Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:55:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.151.154.17 with HTTP; Mon, 7 Jul 2008 11:55:41 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 11:55:41 -0700 From: "Freddie Cash" To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <486F8C57.9050908@wubethiopia.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <784966050807021123l267aa20en39eb513c12c90ad2@mail.gmail.com> <20080702235800.H47773@fledge.watson.org> <486C8700.5020100@lobraun.de> <20080703092511.T69986@fledge.watson.org> <486F8C57.9050908@wubethiopia.com> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Re: Sysinstall is still inadequate after all of these years X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:24:52 -0000 On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 7:59 AM, Mike Makonnen wrote: > Also, the installer's job should only be to install a useable system. Post-installation chores like configuration, > adding/removing users, etc should be done by another application. You shouldn't need the installer once > you've installed the OS. Hear, hear! To be honest, this is the only bit about the current sysinstall that I really dislike: the fact that it can be used for post-installation configuration and package installation. This causes no end of trouble for newbies, who seem to view sysinstall as "The One True System Admin Tool" and try to use it for configuring/installing everything. Too many times, on various BSD forums, I've had to walk people through cleaning up /etc/rc.conf and showing them how to correctly install/configure things (using standard FreeBSD tools), since they used sysinstall for everything. IMO, the installer should allow you to partition the disk(s), format the partition(s), install the OS, configure a user, and reboot the system. Anything beyond that should be handled by the OS tools, from within the installed and running OS. The tricky part will be getting the disk slicing, slice partitioning, and filesystem formatting to work reliably, with all the power of FreeBSD's GEOM modules, and ZFS. -- Freddie Cash fjwcash@gmail.com