From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?=) Subject: Re: feedback as solicited by Guix manual (Section 7.1.5) Date: Tue, 31 May 2016 23:10:21 +0200 Message-ID: <8760tundc2.fsf@gnu.org> References: <574B8D1E.6080000@ethan-stefan.net> <20160531155854.GA27525@jasmine> <87oa7mxk8b.fsf@mailerver.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me> <20160531175659.GA17589@jasmine> <87mvn6xehy.fsf@mailerver.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:56637) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1b7qvk-0001bn-Th for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 31 May 2016 17:10:30 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1b7qvg-0004Tz-Jt for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 31 May 2016 17:10:28 -0400 In-Reply-To: <87mvn6xehy.fsf@mailerver.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me> (Matthew Jordan's message of "Tue, 31 May 2016 14:35:05 -0400") List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: Matthew Jordan Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org Matthew Jordan skribis: > mentions using ifconfig, correct me if I"m wrong but isn't ifconfig > considered deprecated? This ifconfig (part of GNU Inetutils) is maintained, so I think it=E2=80=99s fine. :-) > It would be nice to indicate that you may need additional swap space to > build the various packages that come with the install. Also sufficient > space under /tmp is needed. In my case I had to bind mount the my tmp > partition from the install target, and turn on the swap to achieve a > successful install. I used these commands to achieve that. > > $ mount --bind /mnt/tmp /tmp > $ swapon /dev/sda3 This is really a bug: =E2=80=98cow-store=E2=80=99 should bind mount /mnt/tm= p like you did. I=E2=80=99ll push a fix shortly. I suppose one doesn=E2=80=99t need swap if /tmp is backed by a real disk, t= oo. Last, ideally, you=E2=80=99d get substitutes for every package during the installation, and thus having /tmp in RAM wouldn=E2=80=99t matter much. Anyway, thanks for reporting it! >> Personally, I don't like putting instructions on how to use 3rd party >> software in manuals such as ours (or the Gentoo or Arch manuals) unless >> the information is very specific to how we use the software. >> >> In my opinion, if there is some deficiency with the 3rd party programs' >> documentation, that documentation should be improved. >> >> Otherwise, knowledge is fragmented into a variety of places where it >> probably won't be updated as the 3rd party software changes. Also, each >> system's manual or wiki will invariably contain some info that is >> specific to that system but not declared as such. And the new, external >> documentation will probably not be reviewed by the upstream maintainers >> for correctness, spreading bad advice across the internet. Finally, the >> upstream manual will *still* not be improved. I concur. We can easily include hyperlinks to the relevant portions of GNU manuals like Parted=E2=80=99s. Maybe someone should contribute improvements to Par= ted=E2=80=99s manual, such as introductory material about partitioning? > While these are valid points, and I have to say I agree with them. Even > Gentoo and Arch (which are among some of the more challenging distros), > do provide some example/recipe to assist with partitioning. I'm not > saying we quote someone's manual, but someone might find it useful. I also agree that providing examples of commands to type and so on is very useful, and we=E2=80=99ve been adding more of that lately. > We could always indicate that one should refer to upstream manual for > the latest info, and still provide some steps based on a partitioning > plan. I think this would be very helpful to those who may not be fully > verse in partitioning. My first time using Gentoo was pretty decent > because of the documentation provided. Here is the appropriate snippet > from my notes; > > Paritioning plan > Assumming disk is 20GiB > Bootloader 2MiB > /boot 300MiB ext2/4 > Swap 1GiB > / (rest of disk space) ext4 > > $ lsblk > Start parted shell > $ parted -a optimal /dev/sda > (parted) unit MiB > (parted) mklabel gpt > (parted) mkpart primary 1MiB 3MiB > (parted) name 1 grub > (parted) set 1 bios_grub on > (parted) print > (parted) mkpart primary 3MiB 303MiB > (parted) name 2 boot > (parted) print I=E2=80=99ve come to think that =E2=80=98cfdisk=E2=80=99 is easier than Par= ted=E2=80=99s CLI. WDYT? Rather than listing this relatively long list of Parted commands, perhaps we should provide a tool akin to what Debian=E2=80=99s installer ha= s, where it offers =E2=80=9Cstandard=E2=80=9D partitioning profiles that peopl= e can use. This could be implemented using the Guile bindings of GNU=C2=A0fdisk or something like that. Thoughts? Thanks, Ludo=E2=80=99.