Proposal for new `post-install userland configuration utility'

[Garrett Cooper]

On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 10:16 PM, Bruce Cran <bruce at cran.org.uk> wrote:
> On Fri, 9 Jul 2010 16:26:30 -0700
> Garrett Cooper <yanegomi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 1. The utility would be presented to the end-user in the motd like is
>> done today with sysinstall.
>
> Could we run it automatically at the first boot? So, the installation
> process may be:
>
> Boot install CD. It partitions disks, installs the minimal
> distribution set and does network and user configuration.

Yes, that's the idea that I had in mind for sysinstall, because it
does a lot more than it needs to today.

> Reboot. post-install utility runs, gives user the option of which
> distributions to install, followed by packages (or ports?) and does
> further configuration.

Sure. Honestly the installed packages should be better customized for
smart defaults, because that was one of the pain points brought up in
BSDCan, and it would solve the general problem with installing the
package(s).

> I'm thinking of something like how Debian works
> (http://mikeoverip.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/debian-5-lenny-step-by-step-installation-with-screenshots/),
> though I'm not sure it does have a reboot step before configuration.

It doesn't.

Thanks,
-Garrett