Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 03:51:28 +0200 (MET DST) From: Mikael Karpberg <karpen@ocean.campus.luth.se> To: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au (Michael Smith) Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: 961006-SNAP comments Message-ID: <199610140151.DAA19170@ocean.campus.luth.se> In-Reply-To: <199610110157.LAA21094@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> from Michael Smith at "Oct 11, 96 11:26:59 am"
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
According to Michael Smith:
> Stefan Bethke stands accused of saying:
> >
> > Well, the few times I had to install '95 or NT (not that I would suggest
> > '95 being an OS or anything), it detected the hardware (SMC Ultra, NE2000
> > clones) without problems (the other cards were PCI). Also I've been told
> > that '95 typically detects hardware quite nicely (I'm not talking PnP or
> > PCI).
> >
> > I now have installed both 2.1.0 and 2.1.5 a few times, and I think better
> > automatic probes would be helpful for people "who probably have no clue".
>
> You're quite welcome to write one. You do realise that the "if the disk
> light stops blinking you should turn the machine off and on again" thing
> is largely there because the sort of brutal probing necessary to find an
> NE2000 is just the sort of thing that totally screws other devices (eg.
> SCSI controllers etc.).
(No, sorry. I can't help write this. Not right now, at least. Anyway...)
Ok, so some are, but it does work for a lot of devices, no? So at least we
could probe the "nice" devices, and set as much up automagically as possible
maybe?
And on the issue of dropping straight into the userconfig...
After any possible autoprobing (of the kind what will not screw anything up),
give a small menu, looking something like:
-----
Before the installation continues, FreeBSD will have to know what kind
of hardware you are using. Please choose the way you would like to get
your system set up:
0. Help
--> 1. Continue with generic boot (Recommended)
2. Automatic probing for special hardware
3. Manual configuration
4. Expert configuration
-----
Help would explain a bit more why we need this information anyway (in a
newbie language way) and what each choice means, in more detail.
"1" speaks for itself...
"2" would (after pretty much the same "warning, if the computer hangs,
reset it" warning as win95 has) do a major probing thing, trying to
find out what the system contained, pretty much like win95 does.
"3" could be a "20 questions" thing, with yes/no answers, as others
suggested earlier.
"4" kick the user into "visual mode"
If you want your good old non visual, boot with -c.
If you want the normal generic boot, just hit return.
Also... There have been a "load preconfigured setup" or something like
that for a while in the setup (haven't tried the two latest SNAPs at all,
yet, sorry) and it just strikes me as pretty silly no to have a "save"
if you have a "load". Would be nice to be able to save instead of commiting
when using the custom setup. Then you set everything up, try, fail for some
reason like your ethernet card being on the wrong interupt, you just boot
with -c, set it, and reload the configuration. Would be nice.
I guess the same thing goes for the userconfig load feature I read about,
but have yet to experience.
I'm going to give the new SNAP a shot soon, I hope...
/Mikael
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199610140151.DAA19170>