Install instructions badly out of sync with 5.1

Dub Dublin dub at infowave.com
Tue Jul 1 01:51:15 UTC 2003


Someone needs to do a MAJOR rework of the installation instructions for 
5.1.  It's quite obvious that a LOT has changed w.r.t. the install since 
those instructions were written, especially since CD-ROM installs are 
barely mentioned and I cannot find any information anywhere on the site 
as to what exactly the miniinst ISO image is supposed to do - if it's 
there, it's well-hidden.  This compounds the fact that the installation 
process itself is quite painful due to its seriously counterintuitive 
nature in many places.

In addition, documentation on hardware support, perticularly for laptops 
and PCMCIA cards appears to be completely lacking - I only hope that it 
doesn't reflect an equivalent lack of real hardware support.  (For 
instance, my very common Netgear PCMCIA Ethernet card is apparently not 
supported on anything on the CDs, leaving me stranded without net 
access, which is completely unacceptable, especially for someone that 
can't figure out how he's supposed to find and install new drivers on an 
OS that's only half-installed.

To put this in perspective, let me say that I am NOT a newbie - I have 
nearly 20 years of Unix expereince, and was once a Sun SE and Network 
Ambassador.  I have installed and worked with nearly every major Unix 
out there starting with Version 7, as well as several Linux distros 
including the dreaded Debian.

The really sad thing is that I have so far been absolutely unable to get 
anything remotely approaching a fully functioning system installed in 
three tries.  If I can't do it, you guys are hosed.  I really want to 
use BSD, and I am staunchly opposed to the GPL, but really, the area of 
installation needs some major work or you're never going to win anyone 
over simply because they'll never see it run.  

I'm not a coder, but I'm a pretty good architect and a darn good product 
manager, so if you need someone to head up a new installer effort, 
please let me know - I'd be happy to help.

Thanks,

Dub Dublin
dub at infowave.com





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