On Sun, 16 Dec 2018 11:10:20 +0100
KatolaZ <katolaz@???> wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 15, 2018 at 08:19:31PM -0500, Steve Litt wrote:
> > On Wed, 12 Dec 2018 14:36:45 +0000
> > g4sra via Dng <dng@???> wrote:
> >
> > > Media partitioning, formatting
> > > Configure mountpoints
> > > Install Bootloader
> > > Install Kernel, Modules & Firmware
> > > Install Shell & package management software
> > > Configure console
> > > Configure network
> > > Boot
> > >
> > > Discuss...
> >
> > Above all else, query the user for his/her preferences, and coach
> > the user while making such decisions. Such decisions serve as input
> > to your list, which seems quite complete to me.
>
> I would be quite happy to write from scratch an installer that does
> *exactly what is reported in that list* and nothing more. I mean,
> something that just *installs the base system and a boot loader and
> reboots you to the login prompt*.
>
> However, I am pretty sure that 99.9% of the Devuaners would probably
> find the result quite uncomfortable, inconvenient, skinny, and overly
> archaic. The main reason being that they (we) are used to perform part
> of the system configuration *at install time*, and we just don't
> realise how many other different things are done by d-i under the
> hood.

Perhaps reframing it would make a difference. Perhaps renaming the
second program "Install Software" (install_software), and having it
boot into install_software, would satisfy all but the most
windows-phobic that the sum of the two programs are "the installation."
Adn the first time you run install_software and click OK, it deletes a
flag file the first installer (the one that boots from DVD or Thumb)
put there.

Now that I understand what's involved. I don't at all begrudge Windows
for booting in the middle of an install.


[snip]

> >
> > You know what would really be fun? An installer that asks *all* of
> > the necessary questions right at the front, so you can walk away
> > and do something else while it installs itself. I find installers
> > that keep asking me questions every 10 minutes annoying.
> >
>
> You can use preseeding for that. And you are not asked any question at
> all.

Not the same thing. I want the discoverability of a menu when I define
all aspects. Perhaps the best of both worlds could be obtained by
having a Curses or GUI program providing questions to create the
preseed. Now THAT would be cool!

SteveT

Steve Litt
December 2018 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21