On Sat, 20 Jul 2002, Hauke Fath wrote:

> # Treat /usr/X11R6/lib/X11 like /etc, don't just overwrite its contents.

Why? It's a bad idea, in general, to customize installed files. Nor is
it required. For "xdm" for example, you could copy
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/ to /etc/X11/xdm/, customize the files in /etc,
and set `xdm_flags="-config /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config"' in /etc/rc.conf.

> # Factor out actions like transition a.out -> elf, upgrading /etc or
> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11, and make them available in a menu.

What's the issue with the a.out -> ELF transition? It should be a
one-time thing, and be unobtrusive for systems which are ELF already.

For "/etc", you could always decline to install the "etc.tgz" set, and
let "etcupdate" take care of it after booting into the new system.

> Overall impression: While sysinst has become quite polished in some areas,
> its structure is still very rigid and unforgiving. Stroll from the Right
> Path, and you're done for.
>
> At this point, I'd advise to ignore sysoinst and upgrade the traditional
> way: Boot with the new kernel to single user, unpack the tarballs, upgrade
> /etc with /etc/postinstall and /usr/sbin/etcupdate.

While most of the problems you point out are valid (and they all look
fixable), I think your overall assessment is overly harsh. You can get
used to sysinstall's warts: If the install bombs because of a typo in
the nfs path, for example, you can just hit ^D and start again -- no
need to reboot. I could never get used to the old Mac OS installer
taking 24 hours to unpack the sets on a Quadra, and what you call "the
traditional way" is hard to support (though I do that myself on the
one headless Quadra, it's not a very nice thing to present that
procedure to a new user), and won't do at all for new installs.

Frederick