Hello,
The anna TODO list contains :
| * Include all packages that will be autoinstalled in the question about
| what to install, in addition to those that will not be installed.
| In corner cases the user mqay need to omit a particular package
| from being installed even though it would be normally (think kernel
| module udeb with a module that hangs with the given HW or something).
The attached patch implements it this way :
- A new template (anna/choose-mode) asks the user (priority low) the
way udebs should be selected : automatically, propose additional
modules (default, current behaviour), full control.
- If full control is chosen, automatically selected components are
added to the list, preselected. The user can deselect them and they
won't get installed.
I had to add a new template and change anna/choose-modules. Since i'm
not an native english speaker, reviewing the changes may be necessary.
If these changes are conflicting with the freeze plans going on, but
there is some interest in the patch, i'll keep it in sync with CVS until
it can be applied.
Note that the only way I can reach the partitionning (=swap-space
creating) step without getting out of memory is using these changes (as
well as the rootskel patch in #219528).
IMHO it would be better to simply have the current behaviour on priority medium and your new "full control" behaviour on priority low. I don't see the point of choosing the mode in priority low because if the user chooses to run at this priority he already has told d-i that he wants full control. gaudenz
priority (which is supposed to control which questions are shown,
nothing more) seemed to be a dirty hack.
Here are the big problems to be solved with this piece of code :
- The user must be warned (even at priority=low, IMHO) that he risks
to break things if he deselects things, but only if he's offered
the opportunity to do so.
- It's quite hard to write a long description for
anna/choose-modules which works in both cases.
- We shouldn't break automatic installs, when the debconf DB already
has values.
Using an additional template, its answer is stored in the DB, so if you
need to deselect modules in an automatic install, you can do so with
preloaded values even at priority=critical.
I'm just thinking of another way :
- Use two alternative anna/choose_modules, one for limited control,
one for full control. (fixes the description problem and the warn
problem)
- Use yet another question, _not to be shown_, for which one to
choose. If not yet seen when we need its value, set its value
depending on the debconf priority. (fix the automatic install
problem, since the question to ask will be recorded in debconf's
database).
Do I just code it ? Ideas, anyone ?
BTW: can I use a substitution for the Default: field, rather than
setting the value before the qustion is shown ?
It does not seem so to me. From a usability point of view it's the best solution IMHO. Having more choices in a select list at lower priority seems like a natural extension of the debconf priority concept to me. This could be aranged with a note at priority low just before the udeb list. Indeed it would be nice to have a warning, but I don't think it's a big problem, because the user can go back and reselect the deselected module anyway at priority low. ACK. I don't see how my suggestion would break automatic installs. Just prefill the value of anna/choose_modules and set the question to seen and you should have full control over which udebs get installed. This would also be possible, but I don't see why it should be needed. If you prefer to do it that why, I don't object. My primary concern was about the user-interface. I don't know. gaudenz
You're right. I was just nitpicking about the technical mean...
(snip.)
So we're going to have two templates anyway. This fixes the warning
problem, too.
If one launches an automatic installs at priority=critical, anna won't
include preselected modules in the question, and keep them at
di_package_status_want_install, and won't consider their removal from
the list. That's what the unshown question workaround is for.
BTW, anna does :
debconf_fset(debconf, ANNA_CHOOSE_MODULES, "seen", "false");
before the question is asked. I think there are other instances of this.
Maybe this sould be moved after we input the question ?
Yes ;-)
Good :-)
I'll try and see, so we don't need a "seen" test not to overwrite
prefilled values.
Definitely. Unconditional "fset seen false" should not be done unless there's some really special reason for it, as it breaks debconf preseeding. /* Steinar */
Ok, I'll look into these too. I'll test the new patch and send it tomorrow evening.
Well, this was more like 2 weeks, but here is a patch anyway. Can
someone have a look ? (to anna's changelog too, BTW, it looks weird.)
Changes:
- Include all components to be autoinstalled in the modules selection
question, when anna/list_all_modules is true or debconf/priority is
low. (Closes: #219888)
- Get rid of unconditionnaly resetting the seen flag. Instead,
instanciate multiple questions from the templates, depending on the
retriever passed on the command line.
Ideally, udebs calling anna should pass it their name or debconf root
for item #2, rather that letting us use the retriever name for
instanciating questions, but it don't cause any problem for now and i
guess it's not really the moment to change interfaces.
I don't know how this patch stands wrt the freeze. FWIW, I was able to
install a computer with only 28M of RAM using this patch (and some
rootskel tweak for the tmpfs filesystem size), so this can be regarded
as fixing a problem. I have a patch which only includes the first
change, if necessary.
I tested the patch with load-installer and download-installer, at
debconf/priority=low and medium, and everything has gone well.
Hello, Could someone have a look at the (second) patch I sent to this bug report, and commit it if possible, or tell me what's wrong otherwise ? It works well for me, doesn't change the default behaviour, and permits installation on limited-memory systems. It also fixes some bad things wrt debconf-preloading installs. While i'm at it, if you have the time, #222500 fixes some minor things, but changes the code more. And #201396 is severity "important", but the patch there is against a #222500-patched anna (I can produce another version if needed.) These patches are about 1 month old without comments, which is why I'm writing this message. Sorry if it is superfluous. Thanks,
Why not always display all of the packages, and preselect those that anna would have installed if the question hadn't been asked?
however, is quite impressive (and slow to browse on slow computers), and it's quite uncommon that you need to fiddle with it, or at least it should be, so I didn't feel like it was really worth it at priority == medium. So, we have : - low, show everything, with preselection, - medium, show extra things to install, - high/critical, don't show anything. But of course I can change this if it seems inappropriate.
NAN Joey Hess wrote:
reopen 219888 thanks Well, turns out the patch I derived from the original patch for this bug seems to change anna's behavior at least when priority does not cause the list of packages to install to be displayed. Anna did not install the scsi-extra-modules package for my kernel anymore, although if I go into expert mode, it's selected for install in the list and does get installed then. Also, it seemed that some packages that anna does not normally install (mdcfg and lvmcfg) also got installed after that. I've had to back this out to get the installer working again. I'll attach the patch I tried in case we can fix it.
reopen 219888 thanks Well, turns out the patch I derived from the original patch for this bug seems to change anna's behavior at least when priority does not cause the list of packages to install to be displayed. Anna did not install the scsi-extra-modules package for my kernel anymore, although if I go into expert mode, it's selected for install in the list and does get installed then. Also, it seemed that some packages that anna does not normally install (mdcfg and lvmcfg) also got installed after that. I've had to back this out to get the installer working again. I'll attach the patch I tried in case we can fix it.
Looking at a cdebconf protocol dump of anna with the patch failing to install scsi-extra-modules, it seems to me this might be a fixed size buffer. The SUBST CHOICES line is cut off after lidevmapper1.01-udeb in the middle of libn(-something). The SET line is cut off in the middle of libnss-files-u(deb). Both lines are identical length. Colin, does cdebconf have some bad hardcoded limits that might affect this? If so then the partch might be ok, it's just causing so many choices to appear in this question that it breaks. On the other hand, this may only affect the lines that are logged. (Doesn't explain why I saw mdcfg get installed, but that could be some other problem or user error).
Looking at a cdebconf protocol dump of anna with the patch failing to install scsi-extra-modules, it seems to me this might be a fixed size buffer. The SUBST CHOICES line is cut off after lidevmapper1.01-udeb in the middle of libn(-something). The SET line is cut off in the middle of libnss-files-u(deb). Both lines are identical length. Colin, does cdebconf have some bad hardcoded limits that might affect this? If so then the partch might be ok, it's just causing so many choices to appear in this question that it breaks. On the other hand, this may only affect the lines that are logged. (Doesn't explain why I saw mdcfg get installed, but that could be some other problem or user error).
cdebconf certainly has various bad hardcoded limits, some of which I removed in version 0.80 (but I doubt those are relevant here). What version of cdebconf is this? Knowing the line length in question would be good; I can't seem to get to bugs.debian.org right now to check out the bug.
cdebconf certainly has various bad hardcoded limits, some of which I removed in version 0.80 (but I doubt those are relevant here). What version of cdebconf is this? Knowing the line length in question would be good; I can't seem to get to bugs.debian.org right now to check out the bug.
Colin Watson wrote: 0.80. The limit seems to be in syslog, the logged lines are cut off but the complete list of udebs does seem to be displayed in cdeconf. The bug that's making it not install all the udebs must be elsewhere.
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