[gentoo-dev] Gentoo Text Menu Installer Idea

[gentoo-dev] Gentoo Text Menu Installer Idea

[Kumba]

Okay, I'm writing this mail up to see what people think of the idea of a 
menu system for installing Gentoo.  Now before the mob drags me out and 
lynches me, I'm not talking about some bloated X11 thing, but something 
more simple akin to Debian's installer or FreeBSD's sysinstall.

I tried to help several people today on different IRC networks install 
Gentoo, one who was totally new to Linux, the other who was very 
experienced with it, and both had issues with the excessive use of the 
Command Line.  Now I myself am a fan of the command line, and have no 
problem with installing gentoo via a command line interface, but not 
everyone likes this.

Since Gentoo's mantra is about choice, I think a menu-driven system 
could succeed, or supplement the command line interface, giving the user 
the choice of going either route.  I've taken a brief look at the 
install manuals, and the basic steps taken are universally similar. 
Some differences are only in the fdisk setup (depending on your 
architecture), stage selections (like GRP and Portage's upcoming binary 
installing ability), and so on.  It's really not until the end of the 
install, right around the kernel installation, where things change, 
mainly due to the bootloaders used, and final cleanup tasks and such.

Right now, this is just an idea.  I would probably need to create a GLEP 
for it to get it more cemented, after some logistical ideas get worked 
out (like whether to use dialog, ncurses, or lsdialog, etc..).  However, 
I think it's an overdue idea, and complete implementation of it will go 
a long way to making the install process easier for users.  So let's 
start trading ideas on this.

Debian's Installer can be found here (Source):
http://cvs.debian.org/debian-installer

FreeBSD's Sysinstall Source:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/usr.sbin/sysinstall/


So, Ideas, Thoughts, Comments......Flames?


--Kumba

-- 
"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: 
small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are 
elsewhere."  --Elrond


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Text Menu Installer Idea

[Lisa Marie Seelye]

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On Tue, 2003-08-19 at 21:57, Kumba wrote:
> Okay, I'm writing this mail up to see what people think of the idea of a 
> menu system for installing Gentoo.  Now before the mob drags me out and 
> lynches me, I'm not talking about some bloated X11 thing, but something 
> more simple akin to Debian's installer or FreeBSD's sysinstall.

Have you taken a look at GLIS? http://glis.sourceforge.net. It more or
less accomplishes this task. (though I didn't bother with it)

-- 
Regards,
-Lisa
<Vix ulla tam iniqua pax, quin bello vel aequissimo sit potior>

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Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Text Menu Installer Idea

[Kumba]

Lisa Marie Seelye wrote:

> Have you taken a look at GLIS? http://glis.sourceforge.net. It more or
> less accomplishes this task. (though I didn't bother with it)

I think I missed the mail on this, will look into it.


--Kumba

-- 
"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: 
small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are 
elsewhere."  --Elrond


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Text Menu Installer Idea

[Nathaniel McCallum]

kumba@gentoo.org writes:
>Okay, I'm writing this mail up to see what people think of the idea of a 
>menu system for installing Gentoo.  Now before the mob drags me out and 
>lynches me, I'm not talking about some bloated X11 thing, but something 
>more simple akin to Debian's installer or FreeBSD's sysinstall.
>
>I tried to help several people today on different IRC networks install 
>Gentoo, one who was totally new to Linux, the other who was very 
>experienced with it, and both had issues with the excessive use of the 
>Command Line.  Now I myself am a fan of the command line, and have no 
>problem with installing gentoo via a command line interface, but not 
>everyone likes this.
>
>Since Gentoo's mantra is about choice, I think a menu-driven system 
>could succeed, or supplement the command line interface, giving the user 
>the choice of going either route.  I've taken a brief look at the 
>install manuals, and the basic steps taken are universally similar. 
>Some differences are only in the fdisk setup (depending on your 
>architecture), stage selections (like GRP and Portage's upcoming binary 
>installing ability), and so on.  It's really not until the end of the 
>install, right around the kernel installation, where things change, 
>mainly due to the bootloaders used, and final cleanup tasks and such.
>
>Right now, this is just an idea.  I would probably need to create a GLEP 
>for it to get it more cemented, after some logistical ideas get worked 
>out (like whether to use dialog, ncurses, or lsdialog, etc..).  However, 
>I think it's an overdue idea, and complete implementation of it will go 
>a long way to making the install process easier for users.  So let's 
>start trading ideas on this.

I am the author of GLIS.  What you have been proposing is exactly what
GLIS has aimed for.  We are currently rewriting from scratch to be more
modular.  Our rewrite reads system configuration from a "kickstart" type
file, and executes install.  Then GUIs will be written seperately to
generate the "kickstart" and call the GLIS script.  This allows one to do
the install various different ways:
1. by hand
2. by hand-edited kickstart (useful for servers)
3. by GUI(s)

We are also looking for more help on this project.  If you want to help,
join #glis on freenode or email me :)

Nathaniel


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Text Menu Installer Idea

[Chris Gianelloni]

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On Tue, 2003-08-19 at 21:57, Kumba wrote:
> Since Gentoo's mantra is about choice, I think a menu-driven system 
> could succeed, or supplement the command line interface, giving the user 
> the choice of going either route.  I've taken a brief look at the 
> install manuals, and the basic steps taken are universally similar. 
> Some differences are only in the fdisk setup (depending on your 
> architecture), stage selections (like GRP and Portage's upcoming binary 
> installing ability), and so on.  It's really not until the end of the 
> install, right around the kernel installation, where things change, 
> mainly due to the bootloaders used, and final cleanup tasks and such.

I think a simple menu-based installer would easily be able to accomplish
these requirements, especially if we dropped a person to an editor to
make their changes to their respective bootloader, etc.

> Right now, this is just an idea.  I would probably need to create a GLEP 
> for it to get it more cemented, after some logistical ideas get worked 
> out (like whether to use dialog, ncurses, or lsdialog, etc..).  However, 
> I think it's an overdue idea, and complete implementation of it will go 
> a long way to making the install process easier for users.  So let's 
> start trading ideas on this.
> 
> Debian's Installer can be found here (Source):
> http://cvs.debian.org/debian-installer
> 
> FreeBSD's Sysinstall Source:
> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/usr.sbin/sysinstall/
> 
> 
> So, Ideas, Thoughts, Comments......Flames?

Slackware's installer is also a good place to look.  =]

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Developer, Gentoo Linux

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