Date: Thu, 24 Aug 1995 00:22:31 EST From: Francisco Reyes <freyes@i-2000.com> To: doc@freebsd.org Subject: Install documentation suggestions Message-ID: <9508240425.AA02262@i-2000.com>
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---- Long Message -------- I am a new FreeBsd user. As I was installing I made a few notes and wanted to share them with the documentation team. A couple of the items are suggestions to installation program, but the most of this message will be on documentation issues. * If my memory serves me well there is a menu on the installation that says "step by step installation" or something simmilar. When one selects this option the 'How to assign disk space to FreeBsd" document appears. It may be a good idea to make this document a step by step installation procedure and re-consider the audience to make it more general (ie spell out at least once what acronyms such as NFS, and MBR mean). * Suggested sizes. Although it is difficult to know how much space a person would need since he/she could install a variety of packages the docs could have a few suggested sets. For instance there could be one suggested partition size for each distribution. This would help a lot new comers and will free old timers from having to answer so frequently the question "how much space........." * I found no info on how to install FreeBsd's boot manager. I suggest that either the step by step installation or the on-line help describe how and when to use Booteasy(?) * On the online help there is a note which explains that '=' means that partition starts beyond the 1023 cylinder. What it did not say is that any partition with the '=' symbol can not be booted from. It may be obvious for old-timers, but a number of people, like myself, may not be aware of this limitation until he/she has spent the time to install the software, and then to ask people why it is not booting. This is just a simple note that could save many people a lot of time. * There should be a mention about pkg_manage on the installation docs. The installation makes it easy for someone to get to pkg_manage, but it doesn't say how to get back to it to add additional packages. If there is a note somewhere that mentions pkg_manage then it should be placed in the step by step installation so new users can see it. * Buried under one of the zillion menus I found a list of device names. For non Unix gurus this information is very important and should not be buried. It should be somewhere easy to find. Anyone installing FreeBsd for the first time will have no clue how to configure X because they won't know the name of the device where the mouse resides. I am not suggesting that the docs explain all the ins and outs of how Unix uses /dev instead of names such as 'lpt1', but having at least the list somewhere obvious may help new-comers. ****** Installation programs prompts that could be improved. * It would help if the view program had a print option. * On the installation program acknowledge what media was selected. After I selected CDrom I wasn't sure if the selection was taken since nothing happened after I selected it (just went back to the previous menu) * Using Fdisk I noticed that if I pressed 'C' and nothing happened I had to enter the disk geometry. Why not have the program inform the user if it needs the geometry after the user has pressed 'C'. * At installation and at boot time why not display the name of the devices next to their code. A little prompt 'IDE HD 1' would be a lot more meaninfull that the actual codes.
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