I found it very interesting to install DOS onto a PC from CD-ROM -
this is something I've not done since Caldera gave me the sources for
DR-DOS 7.02 on CD-ROM!
I found the setup process a bit fraught, though. It seemed to me to be
far more complex than it needed to be.
For one thing, it seems to me to be unwise to boot to a config menu. I
think that an install CD should, Ubuntu-style, try to stick to the
KISS principle: "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"
I'd go for a sensible mid-range config - UMBs, a page frame, load some
stuff high so it's got a reasonable amount of free RAM but not obsess
over it. Then provide a simple tool to run post-install to choose,
say, from the 3 predefined options.
Similarly, the setup program. I was bemused by the many menus with
many layers. On the opening one of keyboard selection, it didn't seem
to work correctly; the "M" in "More" was highlighted, but it didn't do
anything, I had to enter 11, I think, then pick "other" then finally I
could pick a UK keyboard map.
('Cos, y'know, the UK is an obscure little country. Only the one that
invented the English language. :¬) )
Going on to the type of setup...
I could choose a simple or custom install. I tried both. I still had
to sit there and go through about a dozen screens of packages, both
ways. That cannot be right.
If I choose a custom setup, OK. But if I choose a simple install, that
should be it. What folder, what drive, are you sure, go and the rest
should be unattended. It is not possible to do an unattended install
of FreeDOS, as far as I can see. I have to sit there for 20min going
"down down down okay, yes, down down okay, yes, down downdown down ok,
yes," over and over again until I was getting /really/ irritated.
Once it was complete, then it goes on to install dependencies. (Odd,
in my day, DOS apps generally didn't have dependencies!)
At this point, both with simple & custom installs, it tells me I have
conflicts. What? When I just accepted the defaults, I have conflicts?
That can't be right!
The main one I remember is that I had vim16, vim32 & some other
version of vim and it seemed to feel I could not have all 3. Well they
should not all be in the default install then!
One 1 PC, with built-in Ethernet, setup failed to detect the card, and
then went on to ask me various questions about my Internet config
anyway. Next it tried to download loads of stuff and this failed as
there was no connection.
If there is no Internet connection, I suggest that there should be no
Internet config at this stage.
On the other PC, it found my DEC Tulip-based PCI card and proceeded to
attempt to get an address via DHCP.
(That's fine; I have DHCP and it works fine.)
It took about 5min. That's not fine.
When it got one, it did some downloading of something... then did DHCP
again... for 5min... then downloaded something... then did DHCP
again... for 5min... then downloaded something...
You can see where this is going, I am sure.
The setup took about 2 HOURS to complete. I have no idea what it was
doing, but every instance of wget did DHCP again. This is completely
unacceptable; it was terribly terribly slow, on a direct, unswitched
100Mb/s connection into the router providing a 16Mb/s broadband link.
It took longer to install than all of OpenSolaris 10 on my old PC!
*Summary*
[1] I suggest removing the different memory configs as they will confuse novices
[2] No issues with offering a custom install but there needs to be a
difference between custom and simple install. Simple should ask a
couple of questions and then be unattended.
[3] It is a bug to install conflicting components by default.
[4] If there is no detected network config, then skip networking stages
[5] If there is a detected network, then save the DHCP into into a
RAMdisk or something, because it is /way/ too slow to reacquire an
address dozens of times
--
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lpro...@gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven
MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508
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