FS#11416 - configure system: list of files and some things to do automatically

Attached to Project: Release Engineering
Opened by Jules (Misfit138) - Sunday, 07 September 2008, 15:13 GMT
Last edited by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Sunday, 19 July 2009, 11:10 GMT
Task Type Feature Request
Category AIF
Status Closed
Assigned To Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be)
Architecture All
Severity Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version None
Due in Version 2009.08-alpha
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 1
Private No

Details

Description: Currently, these files are offered for configuration during installation:
/etc/rc.conf
/etc/fstab
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf and /etc/modprobe.conf
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/hosts
/etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow
/etc/locale.gen
/boot/grub/menu.lst

I propose that /etc/profile be added to this list. It seems an obvious choice that would improve the logical procedure of system configuration during installation.
For your consideration; choosing a pacman mirror is prompted, but there is no option to edit /etc/pacman.conf nor /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

I understand if you want to keep the installer the way it is, though the inclusion of the above files seems to be a _nearly_ complete list,so in my view, /etc/profile and /etc/pacman.conf and /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist should also be included.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be)
Sunday, 19 July 2009, 11:10 GMT
Reason for closing:  Implemented
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Saturday, 24 January 2009, 11:39 GMT
I don't think many people will need to do changes in /etc/profile or /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist (if they have choosen a mirror during installation).
Note that you can easily edit such files yourself by going to another shell and editing /<target root mountpoint here>/etc/*. Maybe the best solution is just to tell the user that, on the "configure system" screen above the predefined list of files.
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Saturday, 24 January 2009, 18:35 GMT
Oh and btw there is an option for /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist . at least in aif, most likely also in arch-installer
Comment by Aaron Griffin (phrakture) - Saturday, 24 January 2009, 23:02 GMT
What is in /etc/profile that needs configuring? It was written in such a way to NOT require changes except for edge cases. All custom things should be done in /etc/profile.d/ and in user-based profiles.

I do agree with the pacman.conf selection though - mirrorlist selection should probably be automated though
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Sunday, 25 January 2009, 09:08 GMT
Aaron, what do you think about adding a notice above the list of files that tells the user "if you want to change any file not listed below, you can go to another tty and update /mnt/<file> yourself"

Imho:
1) add the above notice
2) automate mirrorlist updating if a mirror has been choosen at the beginning of installation (i think this is already supposed to work but could be buggy), but keep the mirrorlist entry anyway.
3) don't add /etc/profile
4) add /etc/pacman.conf (if that is not the case already)
Comment by Aaron Griffin (phrakture) - Monday, 26 January 2009, 17:18 GMT
@Dieter: That sounds good to me. I'm not going to worry about this in the installer, but something like this in AIF would be great
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Friday, 30 January 2009, 18:20 GMT
We should not edit /etc/profile, we should even remove it from the backup array. We could create /etc/profile.d/local.sh to store user settings and make that editable by the user. Users can create this file himself, but creating it by default will throw them a bone :)
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Saturday, 14 February 2009, 21:20 GMT
What do you guys think about adding /etc/hostname to the list?
Isn't the hostname something pretty much everyone wants to customize as well?
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Saturday, 14 February 2009, 21:22 GMT
The hostname is changed in rc.conf.
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Saturday, 14 February 2009, 21:25 GMT
okay.. silly me :)
Comment by Aaron Griffin (phrakture) - Saturday, 14 February 2009, 23:17 GMT
How about /etc/hosts? Or perhaps we can automate the addition of the hostname to that file
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Saturday, 14 February 2009, 23:51 GMT
Good idea. I'll implement the things discussed above and also the addition of hostname to /etc/hosts.
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Sunday, 08 March 2009, 16:34 GMT
Notice added.
/etc/profile not added
/etc/pacman.conf added
/etc/hosts automatic updating arranged. it was already in the list, I've kept it.

TODO: verify that all of this, and mirrorlist updating works

Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Sunday, 19 July 2009, 11:10 GMT
notice looks good
pacman.conf looks good
/etc/hosts updating seems to work
mirrorlist updating seems to work

Loading...