[OpenIndiana-discuss] [oi-dev] [discuss] Making OI friendly to new users

[Reginald Beardsley]

I am *extremely* fussy about system builds. So any install on a new system is commonly several iterations to get the desired result. An example would be folding the automounter tables so
/app/bin resolved to the correct binaries for any of 6 different flavors of Unix stored in /app/${ARCH}/bin via NFS along with ${HOME}. 6 xterms using the same ${HOME} on 6 flavors of HW.

On my 3/60 running 4.1.1a I ran 2 ESDI drives per Emulex SCSI-ESDI adapter in the shoebox. Unit 0 and unit 1 per SCSI ID. I noticed the references to unit 0 & 1 in the install process. 4 shoeboxes on 6 ft SCSI cables was not reliable. 3 worked reliably. 4 exceeded the bus length limit.

I do *not* simply accept whatever the installer does. I design the system configuration after I have looked at what the installer and OS do. That's at least 2 installs best case if it's anything more than "tire kicking".

The installer has no hope of knowing what else you are running or how the filesystem needs to be laid out. That's very environment specific.

Before zpool boot appeared I ran a 3 way mirror for rpool and RAIDZ1 for everything else booting from the same 3 disks. That's how my S10_u8 system is configured along with a 3 TB non-RAID scratch space on a 4th drive.

"Unix is very user friendly. It's just picky about its friends." - some long forgotten Usenet .sig

Have Fun!
Reg


On Sunday, August 17, 2025 at 02:37:55 PM CDT, Peter Tribble <peter.tribble at gmail.com> wrote:


On Sun, Aug 17, 2025 at 3:32 PM Reginald Beardsley via openindiana-discuss <openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org> wrote:

 I presume setting up a new system will take several days. Several weeks was a bit much.


Days? I would expect minutes (5 if you're all set, maybe 15 if you have to fiddle
or have unknown hardware). Anything much beyond that and I would need a damn
good reason to persist.

Sadly, the installation experience in the Linux world is pretty mediocre. It needs
to be given some competition.

--
-Peter Tribble
http://www.petertribble.co.uk/ - http://ptribble.blogspot.com/