Quoting Junyong Liang (2026-08-24 17:03:12) > My point is, debconf configuration handling is very convenient, but > it isn’t intuitive for users. I ran the command you provided; take > the `sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata` command as an example. I can > select some configurations during this process, but (assuming I’m a > novice) I don’t understand the meaning of these options, and I have > no way of knowing the differences between them.
If you are a novice and don't know what a timezone is, then you hit ENTER and hopefully get something sensible (possibly because your system is network-connected and a timezone was signalled via DHCP or some other locale-bound hinting). If you are less of a novice but cannot be bothered with making choices then you can also just hit ENTER and hope for the best, or you can run `sudo dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low tzdata` to tell ahead of time that you don't want to be bothered. As package maintainers we have the opportunity to provide descriptions for each configuration choice, exactly to aid in our users not feeling lost, and when we do we trigger a network of translators that help get our guiding messages across to non-english speakers. > Regarding ohmyzsh—I got it wrong. What I meant is powerlevel10k, a > script that beautifies zsh, allowing users to set the shell prompt > style. Users can preview the results after changes in real time. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfaZ2vfauDQ is a preview video starting > at 7 minutes. You can see how users complete the configuration using the > preview option. > > For example, we could ask the user if they can see the current color bar > to determine whether truecolor is required. Then we could provide > several color options for them to select the theme. > > I have a couple of questions: First, can debconf implement the above > process? Second, when should this configuration process occur? When > using apt, there isn’t often much configuration to ask me about. debconf is a protocol to separate configuration choices from messages explaining them from routines selecting them from interfaces presenting them. We can add a plugin that calls your mom or ChatGPT to make choices on your behalf, or randomly pick a choice with a priority on prime numbers keywords with more vowels and blueish colors over their counterparts. And users not wanting to depend on their mom or a roulette to setup their systems can bypass our "wonderful" UI and use different interfaces - notably that's what blind Debian-users do: as I understand it, they appreciate debconf-enabled packages and work slower when forced to use "beautified" user interfaces not taking their needs into account. Helix installation experience should ideally be equally optimized for color sighted folks *and* blind folks *and* one-armed astronauts on space-walk. > I’m also not in a rush to provide example configurations. As I > initially hoped, I want users to be able to display theme colors > after installation, as long as their terminal supports it. As for > other configurations, since the default installation opens a blank > configuration via the `:config-open` command, I attribute my initial > confusion to this issue. Are you saying that you are open to solving this the solid way, rather than the quick'n'dirty one? - Jonas -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ * Sponsorship: https://ko-fi.com/drjones [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private
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