Here's a scenario that hopefully won't happen often, but might be
fixable:
In trying to install 8.0 (beta3) on my Acer laptop, the first problem
I found was that the CD-RW would not boot; it seems the burner used
was marginally incompatible as the second CD can be read, but number
one cannot be read at all.
I turned to NFS, but the configuration of the other Mdk machine would
not allow me to export the CD; the error I get (after running the
init.d/nfs start and exportfs -a) is "getfh failed: Operation not
permitted" ... I didn't have time to sort that out, so I turned to
FTP, but it also denied access; I am packing for a road-trip and
the fastest way appeared to be to symlink the CD into the Intranet
and use HTTP.
The problem with that approach is the switch from CD-1 to CD-2: HTTP
assumes you are installing from one large collection and half-way
through starts popping up complaints of packages not found. One
solution to this would be to swap the CDs, but I'd also have to
massage the symlinks to change RPMS2 to Mandrake/RPMS
What would be good to have for this situation is one or both of two
things:
1) When a package is not found, the install should stop immediately
and then ask "Skip, Retry, No more, Cancel install"; the only
current options are "Go on anyway? Yes/No" with no explanation
of whether No means Retry, No more, or Cancel Install.
2) The Install should have a go-back button, or at least explain
if the big Cancel button means cancel installing software, or
Cancel the entire install.
Why does the 2nd CD use the RPMS2 convention? Is this necessary?
What would happen if I had built my own Mandrake directory and then
symlinked both RPMS and RPMS2 into it? Would the install try one and
then try the other?
BTW: I don't know how I missed it on the other installations (is it
because they were direct to a CD and not over HTTP?) but the slideshow
of all the Mandrakesoft people is a great idea. Please put some names
on these, even if just first names (to protect against stalkers ;)
so those of us who know you all can put some faces to the emails!
--
Gary Lawrence Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> TeleDynamics Communications Inc
Business Innovations Through Open Source Systems:http://www.teledyn.com
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."(Pablo Picasso)
