Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-bugs (6366 mails)

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https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=270443

           Summary: Simplify the yast2 inst_source configuration
           Product: openSUSE 10.3
           Version: Alpha 3
          Platform: x86
        OS/Version: openSUSE 10.3
            Status: NEW
          Severity: Enhancement
          Priority: P5 - None
         Component: YaST2
        AssignedTo: bnc-team-screening@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
        ReportedBy: casualprogrammer@xxxxxxxxx
         QAContact: jsrain@xxxxxxxxxx


While Bug 265579 is a step in the right direction, I think setting up sources
can be simplified further.

I always had ( and still have ) a hard time setting sources up for Linuxes,
openSuSE being no exception.

As you usually need this information when you start with a distribution for the
first time it can become a major obstacle for newcomers.

As far as I can see there are two general sources to begin with: CD/DVD ( which
is clearly one source ) and Internet.

Both could be integrated in the process to begin with. 

For a normal installation this is the case, as CD/DVD is entered as source from
the boot process, but if you skip the relevant step in the installation process
( either willingly, because you say "later" or unwillingly, because you have no
internet access when doing installation, then you are left without the
slightest hint as to where possible sources are located.

As I know know, all fun starts from:

http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/

and then diverts into
                        -   
[DIR] 10.2/                   07-Dec-2006 08:03    -   
[DIR] 10.3-Alpha2/            14-Mar-2007 15:52    -   
[DIR] 10.3-Alpha3/            11-Apr-2007 18:58    -   
[DIR] SL-10.0-OSS/            20-Jan-2006 14:29    -   
[DIR] SL-10.1/                13-Oct-2006 19:34    -   
[DIR] SL-Factory-non-oss/     01-May-2007 22:40    -   
[DIR] SL-OSS-factory-debug/   01-May-2007 22:51    -   
[DIR] SL-OSS-factory/         01-May-2007 22:04    -   
[DIR] openSUSE-current/       14-Mar-2007 15:52    -   
[DIR] openSUSE-stable/   

As distribution of incoming requests to available mirrors is done automatically
these days, it should be possible to offer a drop down list of the above
sources to chose from.

Likewise it would be a major breakthrough if other sources of interest would be
offered as well e.g. 

http://software.opensuse.org/download/
ftp://packman.links2linux.de/pub/packman/MIRRORS

The choices on the "Media Type" menu could then be reduced to

"Scan using SLP" and "Specify URL..."

as all the other choices are really to be specified via a URL anyway.
Especially people used to Windows will appreciate that. 

As you may know ( or not ) in Windows it's pretty irrelevant whether you enter
a PATH or URL in Explorer ( Nautilus ) or Internet Explorer ( Firefox ), so
this would make life a lot easier for people coming from the Windows world.

If all automation fails there could be a decision tree offered to the user
leading them conveniently to the desired result.


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