From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 16361 invoked by uid 1002); 20 Aug 2003 04:14:41 -0000 Mailing-List: contact gentoo-dev-help@gentoo.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Received: (qmail 1344 invoked from network); 20 Aug 2003 04:14:41 -0000 Message-id: Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 00:12:26 -0400 To: kumba@gentoo.org Cc: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org From: "Nathaniel McCallum" References: <3F42D583.6060105@gentoo.org> In-Reply-To: <3F42D583.6060105@gentoo.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the Helpdesk (x2200) for more information X-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (score=-6.3, required 8, BAYES_01 -5.40, EMAIL_ATTRIBUTION -0.50, IN_REP_TO -0.37, REFERENCES -0.00, REPLY_WITH_QUOTES 0.00) Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Text Menu Installer Idea X-Archives-Salt: 3a7c5a1e-5e87-4943-8c2c-d8304d2e361d X-Archives-Hash: daddba7334fc9c9ae66d1f6a7761c088 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