svn commit: r223897 - in head: release usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts

[Marc Fonvieille]

[...]

Umm, _configured network_ even for original English docs? In 8.2R those doc
packages for every lang were installed by sysinstall from CD (DVD1 actually),
as it should really be for new user - e.g. if network could be configured only
after reading Handbook, installing mpd5 from CD/DVD packages, and so on.
Or am I missing something, and it will still be available on the disk?

The packages are really big (40 MB per), and there's only a small amount
of space available on the disc.

7.4-RELEASE$ du -chd 0 /usr/share/doc/??_*
832K /usr/share/doc/bn_BD.ISO10646-1
212K /usr/share/doc/da_DK.ISO8859-1

[...]

And still a packed onto installation disks. Why was there space earlier?
And for it is wasted nowadays?

The installation CDs are live CDs now, which means that they provide a
functional fixit environment (ls, for instance) as well as letting
people try out the operating system and expanding the range of system
functionality available to the installer. This takes space. Some of that
space is at the expense of other things, but I personally believe that
trade-off is very much worth while.

We *could* fit the English ones, but it
badly complicates the release scripts to begin doing package generation,
and Marc and I decided to do it this way.

How this can complicate release scripts, when packing release image and
generating packages are two logically separated steps?
Anyway, the impact on user's perception of FreeBSD will be too bad to measure
it the amount of scirpts work. The system just can't live without beginner's
documentation, and I've already given one very practical example when this is
absolutely needed.

This was the decision of the documentation team, and as far as
documentation is concerned, I will do whatever they ask with regard to
the release scripts and the installer. Presumably, the release will also
include a second CD (or DVD) full of packages, which will contain the
full handbook. The complication for the release building scripts is that
they generate finished ISOs, so anything that goes on the image must be
available to the script. The scripts no longer build packages of any
kind, and so building even one package substantially adds to their
complication.

[...]

In the current state of things there is not enough disk space for the docs
packages, so the chosen decision is to allow a remote installation of
these packages directly from the installer. A second CD/DVD will
include the full set of docs packages (with the rest of packages).
There is maybe a way to increase the available space on the disc1 but
this problem will arise again in future with the increase of the binaries
and docs size.

[Nathan Whitehorn]

Hi Nathan Whitehorn!

as well as letting
people try out the operating system and expanding the range of system
functionality available to the installer. This takes space. Some of that
space is at the expense of other things, but I personally believe that
trade-off is very much worth while.

This shouldn't trade off really. Is that stuff using geom_uzip(4) to save
space? This is just as simple as doing mkuzip -v mfs_root.md and tweaking
loader.conf for vfs.root.mountfrom, mfsroot_name and module loading.

The installation disks are also straight ISO9660 now. There is no
mdroot, so none of this is possible.

the release scripts and the installer. Presumably, the release will also
include a second CD (or DVD) full of packages, which will contain the
full handbook.

That's also a variant, but the commit says about requirement to have network,
not CD2, or am I missing something?

There isn't a CD2 anymore. Also, because there is no MDROOT, you can't
use a CD2 from the installer without two CD drives.

The complication for the release building scripts is that
they generate finished ISOs, so anything that goes on the image must be
available to the script. The scripts no longer build packages of any
kind, and so building even one package substantially adds to their
complication.

That's sounds strange - installation disks always included some packages.
How it is done, then?

Package installation is treated as a post-install issue. With the
specific exception of the documentation installation, the installer
doesn't know anything about packages and can't install them.

I also personally think it's not required or even important to provide a
way to install the handbook from disc1. The main documentation format
for it is HTML, for which we package no readers on disc1. Additionally,

There was also a .txt version earlier days.

I'm guessing that basically all of our users read it on www.freebsd.org
these days instead of from /usr/local/share, which potentially makes it
superfluous to package it at all. Further, without the handbook, how
would a new user know to look for it at that path?

The typical path is that user has heard about Handbook and even looked
into a chapter or two on the site. Nobody reads entire Handbook before
install, however (this is just impractical and boring), so he proceeds
and then founds that there is no network in FreeBSD out-of-box for his
particular ISP and he needs to read Handbook (and use mpd5 package) -
but now there will be no Handbook, alas.

There will be on the second packages disk. The user may also have
another computer, have printed out bits of the handbook, be dual-booting
etc. I know I've never used the installed handbook before (preferring
the online one), and didn't even know where it had installed itself to
until starting to work on the release-building code.
-Nathan