On Tue, 8 Oct 1996, Christopher J Mason wrote:

> I was thinking along the lines of a configuration script that would walk
> you through the process of downloading, formatting, installing, and
> running a netbsd system.  You would choose your machine type,
> perpipherals, networking, and such and it would choose the right kernel
> and installation options for you.  Then it would lead you through the
> steps... We could make sure things like Mode32 and such were setup
> correctly...

Via AppleScript, I suppose?  How about... <PIPE DREAM>

An installer that automagically downloads the correct files for
installation for you, including the kernel, via ftp, pinging all the known
mirrors first, to find the fastest connection, and even comparing the
download speed to the speed of the computer (fake an equation) and
download in parallel from separate sites if your computer exceeds the
speed of the link by a factor of say... 2 or more.

> If we got really ambitious we could even control installation of
> optional packages, some programs and stuff...

Like pine, pico, etc.

> I'd be happy to do this kind of thing.  I'd need to actually have the
> configuration info tho.  Could we figure something out using the systems
> database on Puma??

That doesn't really contain enough information on _current_ kernels to
help, I don't think.  The big question is, what drives work with sbc,
which with ncrscsi, which with both, which with neither....

> I think this is an excellent idea, but it would have to be updated
> regularly.  If we could make it modular enough to be updated with, say,
> an email, does that sound feasible??

If it uses the installer via tcp method, it could simply download a copy
of the current installer data file the first time it runs, and upon
selecting an option from a menu.

</PIPE DREAM>


Later,

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