Subject: 1.6_RC3 sysinst issues?
To: None <tech-install@netbsd.org>
From: Jeremy C. Reed <reed@reedmedia.net>
List: tech-install
Date: 09/05/2002 19:01:57
My notes for 1.6_RC3 (NetBSD-daily/200209040000/i386) sysinst under i386.
Some of these probably don't matter.

1) fdisk doesn't show extended partitions. I guess this doesn't matter
much. You can (try) after it is installed.

2) It is unclear why fdisk showing in cylinder mode and megabytes mode
shows start before a previous partition's end:

(MB)	Start	Size	End
0:	0	144	144
1:	143	144	287
2:	286	144	430
3:	429	5776	6205

In cylinder mode:
	Start	Size	End
0:	0	19	19
1:	18	19	37
2:	36	19	55
3:	54	737	791

I don't know if that is a problem, but it looks weird to see one start
before another ends.

I also saw this with a different setup where one started at 300MB, but
previous partition ended at 301MB.

3) fdisk shows types like "Linux extended", but if you choose to change,
there is no option to save current partition ID type. So you lose it.

4) fdisk allows you to set active, but never shows it. (No indicator if
active or not.)

5) The boot selector, should use partition ID names as the default boot
selector labels.

6) The boot selector defaults to use first active. But since fdisk doesn't
tell you what is active, I don't know if sysinst even checked if any
active partitions are available. (My system didn't boot. It hung at boot
error 3 after it tried first active, but when I manually chose F1 it
worked fine.)

7) There was no way to exit fdisk to go back (for example to tell it to
use whole disk). CTRL-C works then type "./sysinst".

8) disklabel properly told me that "Standard w/ X" was too big and dumped
me into custom mode. It defaulted to disklabel partition that extended
outside of my fdisk partitions and over fdisk partitions for different OS.
This was user error -- I should have seen this. But I was going quick and
assumed that it was just using the amount of space available. (This may
have caused above #6 boot issue.)

9) It asks about normal versus serial bootblocks. But sysinst never tells
the user what that means. (sysinst is usually good at briefly explaining
strengths and weaknesses of other tasks though.)

10) When it showed the time (in the timezone setup), the screen flickered
a lot. Maybe it should only refresh time every two or five seconds or so.
Or maybe don't rewrite so much of the display each time.

11) When sysinst is "now complete", you press enter. But then you are back
at "Welcome to sysinst". This is confusing. It should have option to
"reboot". (Because exit gives a shell prompt and a person installing could
be really lost.)

Should I send-pr any or all?

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://bsd.reedmedia.net/