[S.u.S.E. Linux] Re: EArlier problems - some solutions; still questions abound
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Hi, On Wed, 4 Feb 1998, Tom Schaefer wrote: [...]
That, and "fixing" the installer so that all packages are installed BEFORE a reboot would be great! Yours is the only distribution that requires a reboot to finish the software load. Not a good idea, even if it *seems* to work. :)
This is not quite the case ;-) There is no "real" reboot: Most of the installation process is done when linuxrc is running. YaST is executed directly off the CD. Because of that one cannot switch CDs whilst installing. After all packages from CD 1 are installed, the system completes its boot and starts the just installed base system. This is NO reboot, it's just finishing the first boot process. You can consider this "installing the system whilst booting it". There's only one case if you have partitioned your harddrive. To be on the safe side, we require a reboot to make sure the kernel gets its harddisk info right. This will be improved in the future. Why do we do it this way? Well, we are able to install on machines with only 4MB of RAM (although our hardware requirements are 8MB due to problems with the kernel buffer cache code in earlier versions; but it does work with only 4MB of RAM). In order to install a S.u.S.E. system, you only need one single boot (from disk, CD or using loadlin).
Now from what I have seen of the previous comments your techs and devlopers have posted, your initial reaction will be to dismiss my comments as "some inexperienced user - he just doesn't know Yast" . Exactly. I don't, and I shouldn't have to. But I shouldn't have to try and figure out what you guys are doing so I can "fix" around it either. I have a mantra for all things computing: SIMPLIFY!
You are perfectly right. We are working on that very hard. Your suggestions are very valuable and will not be ignored.
Don't get hung up on my criticisms, be willing to examine them in detail. Your distribution is probably in the best position to make the biggest impact on the desktop. What would really be a nice enhancement is to have a feature that installs a very small "just enough Unix to start and run the machine" image. For example, in Slackware, I can select the A, AP, and N disk sets and create a fully functional Linux system on a 50mb partition. Perhaps some guidance in your docs or in Yast would be enough. Perhaps you can create a "User Image" , "Server Image" , "Router Image" i.e image personalities for different roles.
There are lots of different system configurations including a minimal system. Also you have the possibility to install a demo system onto a DOS partition for evaluation purposes. You can even create your own profile and use it in order to install several similar machines.
"Have a lot of fun!" :) (And you know, the groan you just gave is exactly what I do when I see that!)
-tks-
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