Keith Mitchell wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I was planning on asking how this was going. I think the requirements 
> look good so far. It sounds like you've finalized the decision to use 
> the Ncurses set-up, programming in C. I added just a couple 
> comments/questions in-line below.
> 
> Please note, though, that the wiki link you posted is an internal link, 
> and not available to everyone watching the caiman-discuss mailing list. 
> In the future, just include a copy in the email. Thanks!

It might also be a good idea to add a wiki page for the text-based
installer to the caiman project page on opensolaris.org. If you
need help getting this set up ask and we'll get it going.

-evan

> 
> -Keith
> 
>> *Problem Statement*: Provide installation media for OpenSolaris that 
>> delivers a purely text-based interface for users
>>
>>
>> *Requirements:*
>>
>> *Primary:*
>>
>> 1. Installation media will run on x86 architecture
>>
>> 2. Same options/configuration as GUI installer
>>
>> 3. Ncurses interface
>>
>> 4. Provided as option on current CD
>>
>> /Non-Functional Requirements:/
>>
>> 1. Provide proper documentation
>>
>> 2. Ensure adequate testing is performed
>>
> What defines "adequate" testing? In terms of your involvement with this 
> project, what degree of testing will you be doing?
>>
>> 3. Make sure that ncurses interface is user-friendly
>>
>>
>> *Secondary:*
>>
>> 1. Runs on SPARC architecture
>>
>> 2. Line-by-line interface
>>
>> 3. Network installation
>>
>>
>> *Use Cases:*
>>
>> 1. User has SPARC machine and wishes to install OpenSolaris by 
>> inserting a CD and selecting configuration options through a console.
>>
>> 2. User has x86 machine and wishes to install OpenSolaris, but does 
>> not have enough memory to run GNOME. User inserts the text-based 
>> install CD.
>>
>> 3. User has x86 machine but graphics card is not supported by 
>> OpenSolaris, so they run the text-based installer in order to install 
>> OpenSolaris.
>>
>> 4. User starts install (situations 1-3) and the install runs to 
>> completion with no problems. At the end the user is given back control 
>> of the terminal from which they can explore the system or reboot.
>>
> What are the reasons for supporting this use case? Or rather, for 
> drawing attention to it as desired behavior vs. automatically rebooting, 
> for example?
>>
>> ALT 4: Error occurs during install, user is given log of install and 
>> error messages, user regains control of terminal for troubleshooting
>>
> 
> 
> Thea Gab wrote:
>> The interns from Colorado School of Mines have posted information from 
>> yesterday's meeting and an overview of the text-based installer 
>> project at 
>> http://installzone-wiki.central.sun.com/wiki/index.php/CSMInternResources. 
>>
>>
>> Also, after listening to all of the advice and ways to take this 
>> project from the meeting today we have determined a different approach 
>> would probably be better.  Since we initially did not anticipate how 
>> to connect Dialog to the installer code, specifically liborchestrator, 
>> we feel like using this implementation will result in a much more 
>> roundabout method in order to achieve the goals we're seeking.  
>> Specifically:
>>
>>     * Interaction with liborchestrator will require some intermediate 
>> steps between bash and C which will introduce a new level of 
>> complexity on top of the project
>>     * This additional complexity would also leave the system prone to 
>> breaking more easily than a single self contained C program.
>>     * We also believe that using this approach would make the text 
>> installer easier to implement for SPARC systems in the future, because 
>> Dialog would not need to be added into the repositories.     * 
>> Further, we can reproduce Frank's mock ups to a closer degree.
>>     * Learning how exactly to tweak Dialog to obtain just the right 
>> type of interface could take just as long as programming up a near 
>> perfect representation in ncurses.
>>
>>
>> We now think it would probably be better to just use a straight 
>> ncurses implementation of the text based installer.
>>
>> Thea, Danny, Ryan, Mark
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> caiman-discuss mailing list
>> caiman-discuss at opensolaris.org
>> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/caiman-discuss
>>   
> _______________________________________________
> caiman-discuss mailing list
> caiman-discuss at opensolaris.org
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/caiman-discuss


Reply via email to