aif (repo/extra) version 2009-04-08 plus FTP patch Tested on VirtualBox 2.2.0 64bit Host, 32bit Client booted from 'archlinux-2009.02-ftp-i686.iso' also installed ntp and ssmtp
Notes/Ideas from a test installation: --------------------------------- Cosmetic: 'Main Menu' not centred vertically but with grub kernel option vga=773 it seems ok - maybe a line out but you'd need a ruler :)
'Select Source' idea for better title 'Installation Source' or 'Install Method' or 'Installation Type' I disagree. it's not about a method or type. it's about the source where pacman will get its stuff from.
'Select Source' Could it be possible here to have; if no option selected then it selects/reverts to the boot media?
On Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:48:07 +1000
Jud
FTP Installation: Pressing the 'Cancel' button seems to do nothing, shouldn't it return to 'Main Menu'?
Yes it should. are you talking about this code block? ask_option no "Source selection" "Please select an installation source" required \ "1" "CD-ROM or OTHER SOURCE" \ "2" "FTP/HTTP" || return 1 note the 'required' option, which should cause ask_option to return >0 on cancel, hence returning to menu.
Mirror Selection dialog takes up all vertical space, shouldn't it be kept below the 'Arch...Installation' header line?
Yes, I consider this low prio though.
Could it be possible to have an option to run the pacman 'rankmirrors' script? note: I think it requires python
Is rankmirrors an officially supported script? then we could incorporate it yes.
Once you select a mirror, it takes you back to 'FTP Installation' dialog, shouldn't it take you back to the 'Main Menu' and pre-select 'Set Clock'?
Yes that's quite odd, since the code that controls the flow is this: execute worker select_source; ret=$?; [ $ret -eq 0 -a "$var_PKG_SOURCE_TYPE" = ftp ] && execute worker select_source_extras_menu [ $ret -eq 0 ] && execute worker runtime_packages && NEXTITEM=2 ;;
Set Clock: 'Set clock' should be 'Set Clock' -- patch to follow
'Date/Time Configuration' dialog - needs some Upper Case for items - too match rest of the menus. -- patch to follow
It displays the current time in UTC (if utc selected) not the users localtime (UTC +- TIMEZONE)
Hmm thanks i'll investigate.
The ntp option needs ntp installed, could this be added to the packages.list? Great work on the slick dialogs here!
Yep. http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/14088?project=6
'Return' option doesn't take you back to 'Main Menu'. Shouldn't it take you back to the main menu and pre-select 'Prepare Hard Drive(s)'?
yes. looks like a bug. are you talking about the "Date/time configuration" dialog? weird because we do `[ "$ANSWER_OPTION" = 3 ] && break` in the wile loop.
Prepare Hard Drive(s): Could the information from dialog 'Available Disks:' be presented in the next dialog 'Disc Selection'?
yeah that would make more sense. i've put it on my todo.
If you go in and out of 'Partition Hard Drives' the line 'Disabling all swapspace...' appears multiple times.
i'll look at this someday.
After using cfdisk to manually create partition(s) should it preselect the next drive or 'DONE'?
I don't care.
After selecting the 'Manage Filesystems' and setting the disk options it returns you to the same spot, should it preselect the next drive or 'DONE'?
probably the next blockdevice.
Option 4 - 'Rollback...' Could this option appear only if needed? atm it does seem confusing to have an option but is not needed
really? i was hoping the help text between '( )' (eg 'you don't need to do this') would help. this text changes if you've made changes.
Select Packages: 'Select Packages to Install" Again another large dialog box - too tall.
well, we use dialog's autosizing feature everywhere. are you saying the contents overlap the title again? that sucks :( sounds more like a bug in dialog to me.
Install Packages: Really need the dialog box "Package installation..."?
i think it's useful.
Progress dialog box - takes up whole screen??? What if it could be 80/90% of screen?
ideally would be as much as possible without overlapping with the titles/text.
It doesn't preselect 'Configure System' on returning to 'Main Menu'
fix committed to experimental
Configure System: /etc/rc.conf /etc/locale.gen Would it be possible to have the correct/best guess setting for LOCALE based on the TIMEZONE setting?
maybe. see other mail
/etc/fstab Would it be possible to use UUID like /arch/setup?
we don't ? uh oh. i screwed up somewhere. sigh. i'll check it out.
/etc/hosts Great work with adding HOSTNAME to the 127.0.0.1 line!
thanks
'Rebuilding initcpio images...' Sometimes a message will jump outside the dialog box.
that's not good.
Install BootLoader: Software RAID dialog - could it be possible to only show this if more than 1 Hard Drive processed/present?
I think this dialog is not even needed, we already have a dialog to select a blockdevice. We discussed about this a while ago but I can't find it back :((
Exit Install: The last dialog box doesn't fill me with confidence, is there a better way?
yes, i could show the summary report, but it doesn't work yet. it's the same box as in the previous installer btw.
Could it be possible to clear the screen then exit to prompt?
yes, i don't see the benefit of that though.
General/Misc: Would it be possible to have "Test Version: $rel_date" or something after the 'Arch Linux...' header, only for test versions, it would make it much easier for future testers to help out.
good idea. i don't know a clean way to implement it though. anyone knows how i should do this? automatic git tags?
Some of the dialog boxes seem to have crazy line breaks in them, shouldn't infofy/notify handle this automatically? "Please wait. Polling DHCP Server on $INTERFACE..." "The Network is Configured" "GRUB was successfully installed" There are a few more dotted throughout the installation process.
Probably. i really haven't fixed the details in the layout. I just know I want the messages to look okay on both cli and dia mode.
DIA_MENU_TEXT - "Use UP and DOWN arrows etc" - could this only appear on the 'Main Menu' or only appear via a 'Help' option and/or key 'F1' or something?
yeah. patch welcome.
Kernel - does it really need to create 'initial ramdisk' straight away? It is done again after configuration which makes sense. (PS they take forever under VirtualBox)
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/13105 I know they take a long time under vbox, i hate it too. Basically to implement this we should just figure out what's a clean way to implement it.
locale/glibc - does it really need to process straight away? It is done again after configuration which makes sense.
hah.. that's new for me. where exactly does it happen where it shouldn't?
FTP, no Mirror selected Breakage: I was trying to make it break, FTP install, no mirror selected 'Pacman preparation failure' ... Check /dev/tty7 for errors" tty7 log: "[LOG] ... *** Executing worker package_list :: Synchronizing package databases... error: failed to update core (could not find or read directory) error: failed to synchronize any databases"
It then lets me continue, shows a dialog to select base, then hit enter, when It dumps to a prompt with this error message: "ERROR: ask_checklist make only sense if you specify at least 1 thing (tag, item and ON/OFF switch)"
How can this be prevented in the code?
show_warning when the user says he's done when he hasn't selected a mirror and is using ftp mode. patch welcome :)
Overall a very good job by Dieter, previous authors and the Release team, thanks for all you hard work!
Thanks. You too, thanks for the input. Dieter