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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uknet!EU.net!Germany.EU.net!gomel.knirsch.de!knobel.knirsch.de!knobel.knirsch.de!andreas From: andreas@knobel.knirsch.de (Andreas Klemm) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development Subject: Re: users - not entirely clear on the concept Date: 11 Jun 1994 21:06:50 GMT Organization: @ $HOME, 41469 Neuss, Germany Lines: 136 Message-ID: <2td91s$chv@knobel.knirsch.de> References: <2t3g9a$s6h@menudo.uh.edu> <2t78ps$avo@rodan.uu.net> <2t7beb$p0n@menudo.uh.edu> <2tamoa$22g@u.cc.utah.edu> <2tbp0a$m1p@menudo.uh.edu> <Cr8EBv.BDM@hippo.ru.ac.za> NNTP-Posting-Host: knobel.knirsch.de X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Geoff Rehmet (csgr@cs.ru.ac.za) wrote: : In <2tbp0a$m1p@menudo.uh.edu> cosc19v2@menudo.uh.edu (cosc19v2) writes: : >In article <2tamoa$22g@u.cc.utah.edu>, : [ ... about tools tables and lathes ... ] : >On the other hand, consider the Linux/Slackware approach. : >It asks : What is your node name ? address ? domain address ? : > name server address ? network number ? netmask ? : >Now, he goes to the site sysadm and ask for those informations. : >After he types the informations, everything works - mail works, ftp works, : >news works .... : Comments like this are always important. One of the things which : we are trying to do is to make the installation of FreeBSD easier, and : to improve the installtion scripts all the time. In 1.1R you will find : that Network interfaces, IP numbers, netmasks are all set up by the : installation script. (My only moan is that it doesn't set you up to : use a nameserver - and I am busy fixing that at the moment - 1.1.5 will : ask you for your nameserver.) Yes, installation has improved very much, I know the old days of 386BSD and NetSBD :) : I don't think that any of us would like to see that installing FreeBSD : is something difficult, and we would like peoples comments, so that : we can improve the installation procedure. I have some comments, would be nice if you find them useful. BTW: I contacted Jordan some days ago ... he asked me to specify my wishes ... Ok, here it comes ... What would you think of some kind of Auto-Installation ?! Not exactly the same as Solaris 2 does, but something that would help installing systems much easier ... Let's assume you would have one Installation program written as shellscript / DOS program or Unix program ... it doesn't matter. This program asks you for several useful things: - system node name - domain name - networking y/n n: -> setup loopback mode y: -> IP-address ? Subnets ? y: -> netmask ? NIS ? y: -> set NIS domain,... - timezone - software selection - bindist y/n - srcdist y/n - securedist y/n - certain main add-on's y/n: - X11 y/n - elm y/n - inn y/n - tin/rtin y/n - TeX / METAFONT make tables with reflect space consumtion in /, /usr, /var, /spool - hardisk Partitioning intelligent setup program that tells you what minimums have to be choosen, since it's known, what the user want to install If spaceconsumption not ok, then optional jump back to software selection - write partitioning to a file ... - Want X11 ? y: -> symlink mouse port to /dev/mouse -> set mouse type - Have modem ? y: -> symlink modem call out device to /dev/modem - Want UUCP ? y: -> modem port -> /dev/modem -> modem speed -> /etc/uucp/port -> pulse or touche tone dialing - Setup Mail ? y: Mail feed via uucp ? y: -> setup feed's uucp name in /etc/uucp/... -> create a sendmail cf from modified uucpproto.mc -> install as /etc/sendmail.cf Mail feed via smtp ? y: -> enter hostname -> enter IP-address -> update /etc/hosts - Setup News ? y: via uucp: y: -> enter newsfeeds name -> update /etc/uucp/sys -> setup inn -> setup crontab file for news -> add /usr/local/etc/rc.news to /etc/rc.local. via nntp: y: -> same as above exept setting up for nntp.... - Setup Printer ? y: local or remote printer ? if local: serial printer or parallel ? if serial: Port ? Baudrate ? Parity ? XON/XOFF or CRTS/CTS ? if remote: remote host ? Ask for IP-address if unknown then update /etc/hosts banner page yes/no ? This SYSTEM DATA should be WRITTEN OUT ONTO A SPECIAL FLOPPY. Lets call it SYSTEM FLOPPY. The SYSTEM FLOPPY reflects the whole system installation data.... With this floppy it should be possible to install future versions of FreeBSD without problems !!! Or if you have to reinstall, then this should happen full automatic ! Or for a company you could use such a floppy to automate installation. For example if you want to setup lots of X-Terminals FreeBSD based !!! This would make BSD very attractive. Best regards Andreas /// -- Andreas Klemm /\/\____ Wiechers & Partner Datentechnik GmbH andreas@knobel.knirsch.de ___/\/\/ andreas@wupmon.wup.de (Unix Support)