Trying to install current from a memory stick and then a DVD and got a new and strange installer.

[Warren Block]

On Sun, 24 Jul 2011, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:

> Can you please describe what you didn't like about it, and what you would 
> prefer be changed? "Reminiscent of the 1980s" is not really helpful, 
> especially given that the new installer in fact looks very much like 
> sysinstall, which you seemed to like.

For myself, two things jumped out:

1. The use of tab and enter in the dialogs is different enough to be a 
problem, particularly when other dialogs like port options still work as 
before.

2. The disk setup screen is unclear, or unintuitive, at least for me. 
For reference, here's a copy:

   Please review the disk setup. When complete, press
   the Exit button.
   ad0           8.7 GB    GPT
     ad0p1       64 KB     freebsd-boot
     ad0p2       8.3 GB    freebsd-ufs    /
     ad0p3       446 MB    freebsd-swap   none

   <Create> <Delete> <Modify> <Revert> < Auto > < Exit >


1. Extending the highlight bar the whole width of the window would 
help to show what is being operated on.

2.  The options don't always really apply.  Create when ad0 is 
highlighted leads the user to think they can create a new device, like 
ad1.  But it will really create another partition.  Delete on ad0 
deletes all the partitions, not ad0.  No warning, either.

3. Tab in the Modify partition window doesn't go to the next field, but 
to the OK button.  Backtab closes the window instead of going back a 
field.

4. "The partition scheme requires a boot partition".  But there's one 
already there.  Possibly this is a bug.

   ad0           8.7 GB    GPT
     ad0p1       64 KB     freebsd-boot
     ad0p2       8.3 GB    freebsd-ufs    /
     ad0p3       446 MB    freebsd-swap   none
     ad0p4       64 KB     freebsd-boot
     ad0p5       926 KB    freebsd-ufs    /

5. This one's about method rather than user interface...  Auto creation 
should probably follow the standard of separate partitions for /, swap, 
/var, /tmp, and /usr.  Swap at the end of the disk will be slower, and 
combining all the filesystems is a big change.