Bug 15038

Summary:	sysinstall(8): easy to not notice that selection lists must be scrolled.
Product:	Base System	Reporter:	bobj <bobj>
Component:	bin	Assignee:	freebsd-sysinstall (Nobody) <sysinstall>
Status:	Closed Overcome By Events
Severity:	Affects Only Me
Priority:	Normal
Version:	Unspecified
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description bobj 1999-11-22 07:50:01 UTC

A user who installs system without X sometimes can't 
figure out how to install the XFree86 distribution.  This seems to 
be because when you do sysinstall->Configure->Distributions, 
"XFree86" is not visible if you don't scroll the list up.  It 
leads the user to use "Custom" instead of "Configure" and do a 
re-install, which wipes out the root password and other nasty 
things (should this side effect get its own PR?).

If it were easier to notice that there are more items on the list, 
the problem might be avoided.

Fix: 

Suggestion:
Instead of the subtle arrow that indicates more choices on the 
list, replace the bottom entry with "more..." if there are 
more items to be displayed.  This would be much harder to miss 
when you haven't had enough sleep (that's my excuse and I'm 
sticking to it).
How-To-Repeat: 1) Install FreeBSD (this step is optional if you have a working system)
2) As root, run /stand/sysinstall.
3) If necessary, select Options and enter a suitable release name 
   (e.g. "none")
4) From main menu select "Configure", then "Distributions".
5) Note that "XFree86" is not a visible choice if you don't 
   realize you need to scroll the display.  (Let's just assume 
   for the moment that failing to notice it is reasonable)

Comment 1 Alexey Zelkin freebsd_committer

2000-01-10 13:55:59 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-bugs->jkh

Over to sysinstall maintainer

Comment 2 jkh freebsd_committer

2001-08-31 01:11:45 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: jkh->eric

Why ask why?

Comment 3 Eric Melville freebsd_committer

2001-10-01 20:00:10 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: eric->freebsd-qa

assign idle sysinstall bugs to freebsd-qa, as suggested by murray

Comment 4 Bruce Cran freebsd_committer

2010-04-25 15:52:00 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->closed

XFree86/Xorg is no longer a distribution.

Comment 5 Garrett Cooper 2010-04-26 00:48:13 UTC

    The point wasn't so much that Xorg/Xfree86 isn't a valid
distribution anymore. The point was that the user was requesting an
enhancement to `better' denote the fact that there are more options
available on the list.
    The only problem is that `more:' is very localized to the English
language and isn't suitable for other locales... and in this day in
age with IKEA-like solutions using only pictures to guide users,
unless you are going to solve it in a localized manner, using words in
place of images only increases complexity. A usability engineer may
argue that I'm wrong, but that's how I think it should be so we don't
have to solve this problem N times.
    I do agree though. More options should have been more apparent in
the libdialog UI.
Thanks,
-Garrett

Comment 6 Bruce Cran freebsd_committer

2010-04-26 07:56:23 UTC

State Changed
From-To: closed->open

This is a generic problem that still needs fixed.

Comment 7 Bruce Cran freebsd_committer

2010-04-26 08:00:57 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-bugs->brucec

Take.

Comment 8 Bruce Cran freebsd_committer

2011-01-23 20:56:30 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: brucec->freebsd-sysinstall

Back to the pool.

Comment 9 Enji Cooper freebsd_committer

2015-11-10 09:08:09 UTC

sysinstall has been replaced by bsdinstall in FreeBSD 9.x. Closing.

Comment 10 Enji Cooper freebsd_committer

2015-11-10 09:12:14 UTC

sysinstall has been replaced by bsdinstall in FreeBSD 9.x. Closing.