Subject: Re: Comments about current sysinst (with 1.6ZA)
To: Julio M. Merino Vidal <jmmv@menta.net>
From: David Laight <david@l8s.co.uk>
List: tech-install
Date: 09/14/2003 11:29:19
On Sat, Sep 13, 2003 at 11:51:33PM +0200, Julio M. Merino Vidal wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I have tried to install today's current from scratch and I couldn't get it.
> The problem comes when it starts formatting partitions, and it fails with
> wd0a:
> 
> wtfs: write error for sector 128: invalid argument

I've not tested sysinst since I 'fixed' newfs!
But I can't think where EINVAL would come from (for a small sector number).
(sector 128 is at 64k, so it might have been trying to zap an FFSv2
superblock).

> I have got it installed by hand from the shell without problems, though, so
> it seems to be a problem in sysinst and not the utilities in the boot floppy.

Or sysinst had managed to write enough to change the state?

I'm AFK for most of this week now...

> I'll file a PR if there is no reply...
> 
> Then, I have two suggestions for the disklabel editor:
> 
> /var should appear before /usr, imho.  Why?  Because the beginning of the disk
> is faster than the end, and /var should get more io than /usr.
> Though maybe reason is stupid ;)  Anyway there should be a way to change the
> order of partitions easily; I found that in the confirmation menu you can
> change mount points, but that's too late to change sizes.

It is less confusing to have the partition table in sector order...

> BTW, there is no way to go back at that point.

^C :-)

> And, when you want to assign all the remaining space to a partition, the way
> to do it is confusing.  At last, I guessed that '1+' could do the job, but
> there is no information about it.  Writting a simple '+' character should be
> enough, and there should be a note about this.

There is a shortage of real estate on the screen, and I couldn't think of
a terse enough message.
Actually the partition offet/size input screens could do with being reworked
so that the base of each free area is given, and the maximum size from the
given base (cf the mbr editor).

	David

-- 
David Laight: david@l8s.co.uk