Re: working on text mode

[James Olin Oden <james oden gmail com>]

On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 2:10 PM, Chris Lumens <clumens redhat com> wrote:
>> So, our only reason for using the text install is to do serial
>> installs.   Even then as long as we get the full functionality of
>> anaconda as seen by kickstart then were completely good.  So the
>> questions is, will kickstart installs via the text interface work the
>> same?
>
> I'm planning on completely preserving the existing kickstart+text mode
> functionality.  You'll get all the progress bars and indicators and
> stuff you normally would.  Now if you are doing interactive
> kickstart+text mode installs, you'll be in trouble because not all the
> screens will be available.
>
Ares are fully automated kickstarts so that won't be a problem.

> I'm also hoping to make the serial console installs less ugly.  Every
> bug report I've seen with output from the serial console looks terrible.
> If that's what it really looks like, I'm not sure how people tolerate
> it.
>
In our case, the text UI is mostly just a way for errors to be
displayed.  Since we work across a limited set of hardware most of
those are caught in our test cycle, and then only hardware failures
are typically seen in the field.  Installs for us are usually less
than 15 minutes, so even progress is not so important.  The only
important thing is we know what anaconda was doing when it died.
There are multiple ways to leave that sort of evidence, but in general
the current serial output has sufficed.

Thanks...james