[arch-releng] Notes/ideas on 'aif -p interactive'

Jud jud at judfilm.net
Mon Apr 13 02:48:07 EDT 2009


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'

'Select Source' Could it be possible here to have; if no option selected
then it selects/reverts to the boot media?

FTP Installation:
Pressing the 'Cancel' button seems to do nothing, shouldn't it return
to 'Main Menu'?

Mirror Selection dialog takes up all vertical space, shouldn't it be
kept below the 'Arch...Installation' header line?

Could it be possible to have an option to run the pacman 'rankmirrors'
script? note: I think it requires python

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'?


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)

The ntp option needs ntp installed, could this be added to the
packages.list? Great work on the slick dialogs here!

'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)'?


Prepare Hard Drive(s):
Could the information from dialog 'Available Disks:' be presented in
the next dialog 'Disc Selection'?

If you go in and out of 'Partition Hard Drives' the line 'Disabling all
swapspace...' appears multiple times.

After using cfdisk to manually create partition(s) should it preselect
the next drive or 'DONE'?

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'?

Option 4 - 'Rollback...' Could this option appear only if needed? atm
it does seem confusing to have an option but is not needed


Select Packages:
'Select Packages to Install" Again another large dialog box - too tall.


Install Packages:
Really need the dialog box "Package installation..."?

Progress dialog box - takes up whole screen??? What if it could be
80/90% of screen?

It doesn't preselect 'Configure System' on returning to 'Main Menu'


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?

/etc/fstab
Would it be possible to use UUID like /arch/setup?

/etc/hosts
Great work with adding HOSTNAME to the 127.0.0.1 line!

'Rebuilding initcpio images...'
Sometimes a message will jump outside the dialog box.


Install BootLoader:
Software RAID dialog - could it be possible to only show this if more
than 1 Hard Drive processed/present?


Exit Install:
The last dialog box doesn't fill me with confidence, is there a better
way?

Could it be possible to clear the screen then exit to prompt?


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.

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.

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?

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)

locale/glibc - does it really need to process straight away? It is
done again after configuration which makes sense.

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?


Overall a very good job by Dieter, previous authors and the Release
team, thanks for all you hard work!


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