Peter Tribble wrote: > On 2/1/07, Sarah Jelinek <Sarah.Jelinek at sun.com> wrote: > >> > With no choice? What if that's the wrong choice? How does >> > a user who can't use that change it? >> > >> You can choose the non Solaris Express, Developer Edition path on the >> grub menu. This project only replaces that installation experience. > > Oh I see. How does this work on sparc? Or is grub boot on sparc > a prerequisite? It isn't currently available on SPARC. It will be with Dwarf Caiman and we will have to introduce a new boot arg for users to specify. > >> >> Will provide for preservation of existing data >> > >> > How? Is this an upgrade, leaving the data in place, or >> > is there some other means? >> > >> No, it means leaving data in place, like data in your /export. Not OS >> specific data, but other data you want to preserve. We won't >> overwrite that. > > Is this assuming a separate partition for that data? > > A separate filesystem partition, yes. >> The target audience is supposed to be developers. The idea is the lower >> the barriers to installing Solaris for laptop/x86 users, and get them up >> and running with the development tools they need. Your point about >> SUNWCxall being too heavyweight is valid. What would you suggest as the >> default cluster we should install for this target audience? > > I don't think any of the existing metaclusters are suitable. In fact, the > metaclusters need to be changed so they become useful. I think you > actually want to define a specific install profile for this case. > Agreed. Part of the problem we have is our metaclusters are too big, and out of date. It is something we are looking at in terms of reworking the software layout and selection for a Solaris install. >> And, what >> type of default network settings should be consider for developers? > > I think you need to keep the dhcp as the default, but have some escape > route just in case it goes wrong. Either that, or a simple and obvious > network reconfiguration widget available when logged in. And as you've > mentioned laptop users, make sure that the tools they need for mobility > are included. > Agreed. > >> Keep in mind that that user can choose the traditional installation path >> and configure their filesystem layout and network settings if they >> choose. They just won't get the developer tools. These can be installed >> later however. > > Why that separation? Presumably they're on the media already? (And I > realize that the existing installer's way of picking up extra > repositories > to install from is enough to put anybody off, but surely that can be > fixed.) >
The separation is to make it clear that the users are getting developer tools(which imply the developer edition of Solaris), and to provide for the streamlined path for new developers on Solaris. But, I have argued we should just allow for installing the tools no matter what path the user chooses in the installer. I agree we should provide for the tools installation regardless of the path taken, but that is not how we do it today. In the future we plan to fix the installers way of picking up extra repositories, and make it so that the user can start minimal and add software as they choose. thanks, sarah
