April 2007 - YaST Development - openSUSE Mailing Lists

[yast-devel] Fw: Fwd: Mockups pre kdump
by Maneesh Soni 05 Jun '07

05 Jun '07

Hi Bernhard, We have the following observations & suggestions about the mock-up screenshots. Sorry about the long mail and taking some time in replying. We would also like to suggest changes in the kdump user scripts (kdump initrd) and based on that the yast kdump configuration screens will need changes. ************************************************************** 1) General Settings =================== We liked the three way enable/disable settings and they are at the right place, but the other portions like kernel command line or kdump commandline should be part of the expert settings as generally user should be provided with default set of kernel command line options and rarely one has to change them. Instead of command line settings, it would be useful to have the setting related to reserving memory for kdump kernel. The tool can have display like ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total system Memory (MB): 4096 (just informative) kdump Memory (MB): (A list box with a minimum memory value like 128, and option to increase should be there) Usable Memory (MB): 3968 (this is also informative) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Dump Settings ================ This should capture the settings about dump target and other misc settings about daump saving. Apart from this, "the dump filtering" options for the "makedumpfile" utility can also be integrated here. So, Dump Target ----------- (a radio button to select either of the three targets like o Local filesystem - here we can have a list box with list of valid disk partitions with supported filesystems - path location o Network - This is for possible future extention of dump saving mechanism using which we can save the dump over network ie over NFS or scp, through the kdump initrd. For this we will need following settings - a radio button for selecting NFS or SCP - IP address of the server - path (exported path for NFS or target path for scp) o Raw disk - here we can have list of available paritions without any filesystem on them Default dump path (ie relative to the dump target) ----------------- [ /var/log/dump ] (select directory button) Dump filtering options ----------------------- - This should capture settings for options for using the dump fitering tool "makedumpfile". I am not sure right now if we need a separte screen for this or "Dump settings" is ok. 3) Expert Settings ================== - kdump kenrel command line options [ ] - path to custom kdump kernel [ /boot/vmlinuz-my-kdump-kernel ] - path to custom kdump kernel initrd [ /boot/initrd-my-kdump.img ] - Note: The current approach is to provide user a distro built kdump kernel. But some users would like to use their own kernel to minimize the reserve memory requirement. Also. the kdump initrd might be different if the user is trying to save dump thruough initrd in soe unsual envirnment like multipath IO etc. ************************************************************************* These might be confusing but please let me know if I can elaborate more. The kdump initrd related changes I was taking about are probably not the right stuff for this mailing list but please bear it here.. so that we can have the right context for discussions 1. The current approach in of using a _dedicated_ disk partition somewhat defeats the purpose of kdump flexibility. This mandates that use has to have a separte disk parition allocated just for kdump. The alternative is to have initrd based solution. In past we have done a prototype for such approach http://lse.sf.net/kdump/patches/automation/sles9-sp2-mkinitrd-1.2-27.9-auto… Here using initrd we copy the dump directly to the disk filesystem and avoid the intermediate step of copying to a raw partition and then to target path. This approach does make initrd somewhat bigger in size but it doesn't need user to have a dedicated disk partition just for kdump. 2. As of now there is no support for saving the dump over network using NFS or scp. The network dump can also be done using the kdump initrd once the user has specified right config parameters. So, overall kdump initrd should be able to copy the dump to all possible targets depending upon the user settings. 3. As of now the dump filtering tool is not integrated with kdump user scripts so we can get that also integrated in the initrd and have smaller size dumps based on options given to "makedumpfile" tool. Thanks Maneesh ----- Forwarded message from Bernhard Walle <bwalle(a)novell.com> ----- Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 00:32:22 +0200 From: Bernhard Walle <bwalle(a)novell.com> To: Maneesh Soni <maneesh(a)in.ibm.com> Cc: tiwai(a)suse.de Subject: Fwd: Mockups pre kdump Hello, as you may remember you wanted some discussion about the new kdump YaST module. Here I got some early screenshots. I think we should continue the discussion about on the yast-devel(a)opensuse.org mailing list. See http://en.opensuse.org/Communicate how to subscribe. Thanks, Bernhard -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH Tel. +49 (911) 74053-0 Maxfeldstr. 5 GF: Markus Rex 90409 Nürnberg, Germany HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) OpenPGP DDAF6454: F61F 34CC 09CA FB82 C9F6 BA4B 8865 3696 DDAF 6454 From: Jiri Srain <jsrain(a)suse.cz> To: bwalle(a)novell.com, tiwai(a)novell.com Subject: Mockups pre kdump Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:23:41 +0200 Hi Bernard and Takashi! I already have some mockups for the YaST dialogs for kdump, find them attached to this mail. I hope that the desired functionality of the module is obvious form them, even though some of the widgets may need better labels. Please, comment on them, also feel free to forward them to IBM. Jiri BTW: How should the module be called? Is yast2-kdump OK with you? -- Regards, Jiri Srain YaST Team Leader --------------------------------------------------------------------- SUSE LINUX, s.r.o. e-mail: jsrain(a)suse.cz Lihovarska 1060/12 tel: +420 284 028 959 190 00 Praha 9 fax: +420 284 028 951 Czech Republic http://www.suse.cz ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Maneesh Soni Linux Technology Center, IBM India Systems and Technology Lab, Bangalore, India

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[yast-devel] what about a web interface?
by cies 30 Apr '07

30 Apr '07

(i'm afraid this mail might get quite long) i just get home from a party, and read an announcement that yast is now 'community'. the party was good though. well.. i loved suse, but not anymore. mainly because of yast. to me a distro is 3 things: - a good package manage system - an integrated product - some sane defaults everywhere suse from 10 onward was (imho) lacking all. yast basically didn't change; it also was not very 'community'. now there is the *ubuntu family that kind of save all of us by being the cool debian, and all of a sudden yast is not longer a 'strategic advantage' but a large disadvantage. it already became a problem when suse got some strong gnome forces on board. toolkits are a religious discussion; i agree. ;) yast is a more kde'ish app that stands bad in a gnome environment (true). so yast is a problem, and ZEN* is apparently not the solution. so now suse tries to go 'community' with yast. and i think that is the logical next thing to do. i think novell understands that people will not write the core of their distro for them. so some investment is needed. the problem is old: the desktop linux user community needs a standard way configure their computer (the configuration/ system settings windows on other OSes). and preferably we also want console access (besides the GUI) to some of the features (like y as). the solution can be new: why not do the configuring from a webpage (that at the same time has a command line interface)? reasons why: - no gnome/kde/whatever dilemma - today with AJAX we can make very good looking interfaces. - webpages are easier to 'fix' (usability wise) - more people can help - ... features: - plugin based - written in ruby (or python) ((biased? who, me?)) - stylesheets can be used for theme creation - a command line interface (new to the locally served web page) - runs on gecko/khtml (with the accompanying javascript engines) - put in a specially crafted browser, to look very clean - ... strategic: - try to cooperate with other distributions - share the development - seek cooperation with openusability.org - uniformize linux configuration -- users benefit - novell shows that it is really interested in the community as a whole (sorry guys, you kind-of let the free software community -- besides your own userbase -- down by signing that MS deal: you could have know) - ... conclusion: obvious to me: re-write. please think big! p.s.: although i think novell let the free software community down by signing the MS deal; i don't mind they did it -- actually i'm glad! they showed a hole in the GPL that can will now be closed in GPLv3! "what does kill it makes it stronger" p.p.s: did i mention that it might also be a good moment to drop RPM in favor of DEB? (this might even create a strong cooperations between suse and the debian/ubuntu/etc.) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help(a)opensuse.org

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[yast-devel] YaST meta-package module
by Martin Schlander 27 Apr '07

27 Apr '07

Benjamin Weber has been writing about his metapackage project a few times recently but hasn't received much feedback. So I thought I'd try to help promoting it a bit, since I think it has the potential to solve some very common issues, like the never ending debate about multimedia codecs. Of course we won't be able to include the codecs, but with Benjamins project in the distro we could make such things as installing those codecs ridiculously simple. You'll find a package of the metapackage yast2-module here: http://bw.uwcs.co.uk/mp/yast2-mpp-0.0-0.suse102.noarch.rpm I've set up a quick proof of concept web page to show some examples of how this metapackage handling can help users: http://suse.linuxin.dk/ymp The page is optimized for Konq only, which doesn't matter much, as this is just a proof of concept, and currently only konqueror has support for the metapackages in the abovementioned package anyway. Here are some screenshots of what happens when the user clicks a link to a metapackage: http://suse.linuxin.dk/ymp/catalogue.png http://suse.linuxin.dk/ymp/packages.png http://suse.linuxin.dk/ymp/settings.png http://suse.linuxin.dk/ymp/status.png The "metapackage" (*.ymp) itself is an xml file, with information about repositories and packages to install, the syntax is very self explanatory, try downloading this file and opening it with your favourite text editor: http://suse.linuxin.dk/ymp/kde.ymp The metapackage handler can do much more than what has been described above. It could pontentially also be used to add repos only, without installing any packages. It can be used to install packages instantly when you find them in the package search, also developed by Benjamin. See: http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/webpin/index-test.jsp (hint: look for the "install now" links in search results). I'm sure Benjamin would be happy with any testing and comments. And it would be nice to have some sort of official comment as to whether this is something we have a chance of seing included in the distro. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help(a)opensuse.org

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[yast-devel] Re: Mockups pre kdump
by Jozef Uhliarik 26 Apr '07

26 Apr '07

Hi Bernhard, I had discussion with my colleagues about UI and about usability. The result is some widgets are not clear for understanding their main goals. I would like to change some of them. ,---- Enable/Disable Kdump ---------------------------------, | | | (o) Enable kdump | | ( ) Disable kdump | | ( ) Disable kdump (Remove the Kernel Parameter) | | | ............................................................. The frame "Enable/Disable Kdump" looks good but... The better is split removing kernel parameter and enable/disable kdump service. ,---- Enable/Disable Kdump ---------------------------------, | | | (o) Enable kdump | | ( ) Disable kdump | | | ............................................................. ,---- Boot Option (crashkernel) for Kdump ------------------, | | | (o) Add Boot Option | | ( ) Remove Boot Option | | | ............................................................. What is your opinion? I interested in option "Enable kdump" from the frame "Enable/Disable Kdump". I am not sure if it is good idea enable kdump service without booting with kernel parameter for kdump. Could you write me something about dependencies between "kdump service" and "kernel parameter" for kdump? What happen if machine boots without crashkernel parameter and user enable/disable kdump service etc.? Next there is the frame for switching between options KDUMP_COMMANDLINE and KDUMP_COMMANDLINE_APPEND. ,---- Command Line -----------------------------------------, | | | Kdump Command Line ( ) Append | | [_____________________] (O) Replace | | | | | ............................................................. Radiobuttons Append and Replace are good solution but radiobutton Replace has wrong name. It is not clear what the radiobutton Replace means. Probably better name for radiobutton will be "Normal". Maybe longer description for radiobuttons will be better too. (Append kdump Commandline / Normal kdump Commandline) I prefer solution with 1 checkbox: ,---- Command Line -----------------------------------------, | | | Kdump Command Line | | [_______________________] ( ) Append kdump Commandline | | | | | ............................................................. If user select checkbox "Append kdump Commandline" the frame "Command Line" is changed: ,---- Command Line -----------------------------------------, | | | Kdump Command Line Append | | [_______________________] (X) Append kdump Commandline | | | | | ............................................................. My final question is about KDUMP_KEEP_OLD_DUMPS. Could you write me the maximum value for this options from /etc/sysconfig/kdump? ------------------------------------------------------------- I accept that name of push buttons will be "[Browse]". Using tabs or left-handed-tree: I am sure that final version of UI will has 4 dialogs maybe 5. (There are still some open points) It is not problem transfer left-hand-tree to the tabs. If final version has 4 dialogs I transfer UI to the tabs. I will continue with left-hand-tree. After clearing all options and settings for kdump we can start discussion about using tabs or left-hand-tree. I will delete unclear options from module. It doesn't mean that the deleted parts are lost. :) I only temporary delete parts which are not clear now. You will find new mock-ups on the wiki soon. (http://en.opensuse.org/YaST/yast-kdump) Finally thank you all for their hints, comments and suggestions. best regards jozef -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help(a)opensuse.org

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[yast-devel] Package Search and Simple Install status report
by Benji Weber 25 Apr '07

25 Apr '07

Greetings all, I thought I'd send an email out summarising some of the things I have been working on recently, to obtain some feedback, and maybe even some help. = Package Search = - This is back up for the time being, although I am not confident of it staying up for long, if it's down or slow when you read this email I apologise. adrianS has kindly offered to help with hosting when they have some more resources. - Set up a design page at http://en.opensuse.org/PKGSearch-design - Having spent some time reviewing how people were trying to use the search, I found a large proportion were searching for phrases, not just package names/contents. Therefore I made the package summaries searchable too. eg you could find konversation now with: http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/webpin/index.jsp?searchTerm=kde+irc+client or http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/webpin/index.jsp?searchTerm=bin%2Fkonversation or http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/webpin/index.jsp?searchTerm=konversation - There was a performance problem with people searching for very common and short terms such as "qt" or "kde", this should be fixed now. - I've made some slight modifications to the design based on some suggestions. - I've been working on improving the performance of the trawler, I can now from a clean database locate, download, parse, index the metadata for the main official/community & build service repositories in under half an hour on my desktop. (That's ~900 repositories, ~110,000 packages including summaries/descriptions, ~16,000,000 files), incremental updates where only some repositories have changed are much faster. - Integration with the simple software installation (explained below) that I've been proposing, with "Install now" links on http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/webpin/index-test.jsp = Simple Software Installation = The vast majority of the questions we face when there are not serious things wrong with the distribution are related to issues such as installation of third party software, multimedia codecs etc. Explaining to new users the concept of package repositories, how to add these, and subsequently install software is not trivial. Furthermore, users should not be forced to grasp these concepts in order to easily install software, in my opinion. To solve this we could have a simple file handler that can handle links in web pages or files on distributable media which automates the process of adding repositories and installing software. - I've set up a wiki page outlining the concept at http://en.opensuse.org/MetaPackage-design - I've created a functional prototype yast module, Pascal has kindly made a package which you can try at: http://bw.uwcs.co.uk/mp/yast2-mpp-0.0-0.suse102.noarch.rpm After installing this you can try out some demo uses at http://bw.uwcs.co.uk/test.html The "install now" links on http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/webpin/index-test.jsp Currently the above will only work with konqueror, unless you create the associations manually for firefox/opera in the same way as they are configured in konqueror (this is possible, but difficult to package without having the configuration in the upstream distribution package) Martin Schandler is creating a demo page to show how this could be used to simplify codec installation, for now hopefully you can use your imagination. - In the above package there is also a demo yast client to the search service, you can run with "/sbin/YaST2 PackageSearch" as a normal user, and search for and install packages from the build service in the same way as the "Install now" links on the webpin page. = What I would like help with = - Please could people try out the demo prototype metapackage handler described above, and comment on the concept. - I know ycp only a little, and perl not at all, so if someone could fix the above into a releasable quality that would be awesome. (source is also at http://bw.uwcs.co.uk/mp) = Future = - Search service joint hosting Novell/Community, adrianS is looking into this. - Migration of the frontend to the search to opensuse-community.org - Fix ycp/perl to a releasable state. (someone who knows what they're doing) - Improve the "Install now" functionality of the search service, by calculating the repositories each package depends on (it isn't always just the one the package is located in). I am currently investigating either a simple method looking at the repository dependencies in the build service and manual setup for repositories outside the build service, and a far more complicated method using the rpm requires & depends. - Integration with new build service features such as statistics, using the search service statistics to improve results. - Using search service to enrich client side software. That's all I can think of for now. _ Benjamin Weber -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help(a)opensuse.org

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[yast-devel] Old VERSIONs in 10.3
by Lukas Ocilka 25 Apr '07

25 Apr '07

Hi, We still have some version numbers of YaST modules that are not appropriate for openSUSE 10.3. It should be ^2.15.X, please fix your packages. Of course, some packages don't make sense for openSUSE, some of them have been dropped. I'm asking maintainers of these modules to decide: autofs/VERSION:2.13.1 boot-server/VERSION:2.14.0 ca-management/VERSION:2.14.5 control-center-gnome/VERSION:2.13.2 control-center/VERSION:2.14.5 devtools/devtools/skeletons/agent/VERSION:2.13.0 devtools/devtools/skeletons/config/VERSION:2.13.0 devtools/devtools/skeletons/trans/VERSION:2.13.0 ipsec/VERSION:2.13.0 iscsi-client/VERSION:2.14.10 iscsi-server/VERSION:2.14.3 liby2util/VERSION:2.14.0 mail-server/VERSION:2.13.10 nfs-client/VERSION:2.14.0 nis-server/VERSION:2.14.1 packagemanager/VERSION:2.13.17 pam/VERSION:2.14.0 phone-services/VERSION:2.14.0 printer/VERSION:2.14.23 profile-manager/VERSION:2.14.1 registration/VERSION:2.14.4 slp-server/VERSION:2.14.1 slp/VERSION:2.14.1 testsuite/VERSION:2.14.0 tftp-server/VERSION:2.14.0 y2pmsh/VERSION:2.13.3 you-server/VERSION:2.13.4 Thanks Lukas -- Lukas Ocilka, YaST Developer (xn--luk-gla45d) ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUSE LINUX, s. r. o., Lihovarska 1060/12, Praha 9, Czech Republic

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[yast-devel] update.ycp bug...
by Michael Meeks 18 Apr '07

18 Apr '07

Hi guys, So JP found a bug in update.ycp when run with yast2-gtk, I stopped this crashing yast2-gtk (which was daft), but it looks like there is an underlying issue: We create a Wizard dialog, and we add steps to it, but surely we should do: Wizard::OpenNextBackStepsDialog(); update.ycp:35 instead ? Of course, that rather changes the look, but we can at least see the steps :-) HTH, Michael. -- michael.meeks(a)novell.com <><, Pseudo Engineer, itinerant idiot -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help(a)opensuse.org

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[yast-devel] what is the official YaST home page URL?
by Johannes Meixner 18 Apr '07

18 Apr '07

Hello, I like to enter an URL for the yast2-scanner RPM which points to the official YaST home page. What is the official URL for it? I.e. an URL which does not change from time to time. Is it something like http://en.opensuse.org/YaST http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/YaST http://forge.novell.com/modules/xfmod/project/?yast http://forgeftp.novell.com/yast/doc/SL10.2/index.html By the way: Searching for "yast" on http://www.novell.com/linux/ does not result anything which looks like a YaST home page. Kind Regards Johannes Meixner -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5, 90409 Nuernberg, Germany AG Nuernberg, HRB 16746, GF: Markus Rex -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help(a)opensuse.org

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[yast-devel] Yast UI Future ideas
by jdd sur free 17 Apr '07

17 Apr '07

I wrote some ideas on the discussion page, is that the expected wayout? copy below jdd Hello, Good idea to open this page. Some essential though, for the beginning: It's essential to keep the ncurse UI with complete functionality. openSUSE is probably the only distribution giving an intelligent complete interface, very pleasant through ssh and low bandwith connection. second, YaST is two parts: first time install and system configuration. help is important at install time, but _on paper_ we _must_ keep YaST small to be able to install on oldfashionned hardware with minimal ram (for example). 10 years old computers are today perfectly usable and used even in our countries by money disabled people, very interested by the freeness of Linux. third, I personnally think the way YaST is showing the config at install time is must better than the way it shows it at system config time. I speak of the summary page with all the components in a window with links (and the "change" box at bottom) fourth, the YaST control center is un-consistent at least for the network devices. Why are them separated from the other hardware? fith, the most ennoying YaST lack is the systematic failing of network detect for the printers. I think I have never seen YaST detect an existing printer on my Linux+Windows net (I have from one to three printers available, depending on the period), and the wording is very difficult to understand (I know of "samba" protocol, not about the others) thanks jdd 05:08, 17 April 2007 (UTC) -- http://www.dodin.net Lucien Dodin, inventeur http://lucien.dodin.net/index.shtml -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help(a)opensuse.org

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[yast-devel] Yast UI Future ideas
by Ricardo Cruz 16 Apr '07

16 Apr '07

Hi folks, Opened a wiki page for people to drop some thoughts and ideas with regard to Yast interface. Stop by, and drop yours. :) http://en.opensuse.org/Yast_UI_Future You may notice reply-to is set to the yast-devel mailing list. Please, reply there. Cheers, Ricardo -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help(a)opensuse.org

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