Warren Block wblock@FreeBSD.org Thinking about Installers: Discord and Happiness
Who Cares? the installer is often a user's first exposure Ever make a bad first impression?
just install the system What is an Installer? just install the system
install the system the user wants What is an Installer? install the system the user wants
the installer does exactly The Perfect Installer the installer does exactly what the user wants
some defaults are correct The Actual Installer some defaults are correct some are always wrong
profile: the full set of installation options Definition: profile profile: the full set of installation options 2012: Paul Schenkeveld
Discord s = n • (Δprofile)2 Δprofile = the difference between the default and what the user wants n = number of installs s = suckage
I was told there would be no math. Discord I was told there would be no math.
Discord
The Key Insight Hexapodia
an installer is really two things: The Key Insight an installer is really two things: a profile editor a profile installer
The Perfect Installer Recursive profiles: a system profile is composed of other profiles disk profile - plain or RAID partition profile - MBR or GPT filesystem profile - UFS or ZFS packages profile - packages to be installed
Profiles Each has a default that can be used or modified After an install, profiles can be saved to any attached media
Profiles At the beginning of an install, profiles can be loaded from any attached media including the installer media or any network connection
The installer looks for and lets the user load any profiles found
Profiles if the exact profile desired is not present, load the closest one, or the default profile, and modify it the new custom profile will be available for the next time
Potential auto-select a profile based on machine hardware let profile show only the fields that require modification share profiles with other users
the installer becomes the perfect The Perfect Installer the installer becomes the perfect installer each time
Summary Profiles Profile editor Profile installer Default profiles (status quo) Custom profiles (the perfect installer)
other desirable features Other Things other desirable features
Other Things Walk-away design
Other Things No entrapment
dialog(1) makes you stupid Other Things dialog(1) makes you stupid
it does not have to be in base Other Things it does not have to be in base
one installer for compatible architectures Other Things do not separate: one installer for compatible architectures 64-Bit: 10-RELEASE 10-STABLE 9-RELEASE 9-STABLE 32-Bit: 10-RELEASE 10-STABLE 9-RELEASE 9-STABLE For i386:
The End http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/ docs/html/installers.html