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To: obrien@cs.ucdavis.edu (David E. O'Brien)
cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org (FreeBSD Hacker's list)
Subject: Re: X for install 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 02 Jan 1996 12:24:57 PST."
             <9601022024.AA09773@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu> 
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 1996 17:42:54 -0800
Message-ID: <1164.820633374@time.cdrom.com>
From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org
Precedence: bulk

> IMHO, it would be better to send time dealing with this type of
> installation issues (if time is going to be spent and JHK is interested
> in it :-)) than making a pretty X-Windows sysinstall with no added
> functionality.

Hey, have any of you ever installed NT 3.51 Workstation?  It's sick
how badly it shows us up.  Mind you, when it fails it fails rather
spectacularly (just try installing on a P54NP4 board with an older
BIOS revision - NT install blows up and you're left with *zero* clue
as to why or what to do next) but when it works, it works really well.

Case in point.  I sat down last night with a copy of Windows NT on CD
and the following hardware: P55TP4-XE MB, Compex Ether32 DC21040 NIC,
Generic NCR, Matrox Impression Plus VGA.  A pretty off-the-beaten path
configuration in many ways, but NT handled it with aplomb.  It found
my NIC and popped a configuration screen for it in my face, then it
found my NCR and the CDROM attached, finished its basic installation
then detected my Matrox and offered me a screen setup dialog.  System
reboots and I'm in a fine (heh) Windows desktop with a crisp
1152x864x24 @ 74Hz display, all my networking working.  A few quick
clicks with the File Manager and I've got my other NT box's shares
mounted and all my standard applications available from the desktop.

That's how it *should* work, and as far as I can see, much of the
"magic" comes from a little utility named `NTDETECT' - It apparently
figures out who's where and reports this information back to higher
level code which can say "Aha!  A Forchknacker EMT5023 NIC!  I have a
directory full of crap for this card, some of which I'll just run
now.."

I've often stated my willingness to do the "GUI" grot that would be
required to make all those nifty auto-configuration screens come up,
but the `NTDETECT' side of things is not really in my area of
expertise.  Knowing how to stomp around in the PC memory & I/O address
spaces and deal (hopefully) robustly with errors and cards going wiggy
when probed is a black art.  Any black magicians out there interested
in starting a `FreeBSD Detect 1.0' project? :-)

I can say one thing with absolute authority: The current "hardware
detection" scheme in sysinstall is utterly bogus, hateful and
genuinely evil.

						Jordan