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