For me a gentoo newbie, the installation guide is not clear on stage3 installs and GRP installs, I have yet(after 10+ attempts) figured out how to install Gentoo using the install guide. There is very little in the way of knowing what parts are useable for my install type. Please if you could make 4 distinct pages somthing like x86_stage1_install.html,x86_stage2_install.html,x86_stage3_install.html, and x86_GRP_install.html. In this way the problems that arise from getting lost in an already confusing documentation style would be greatly reduced by at least having the different install types seperated. It is very frustrating to have several hours into an install to have it fail, and looking thru the directions not being able to figure out where or why the install failed. Thanks, Robby Cannon Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.install guide displayed on computer A, and Install CD booted on Computer B. 2.Follow Guide thru install process 3.Get lost in guide and "feel my way" through the install guide with failed install as reward. Actual Results: Install guide is not clear on wich parts are Group, the menu does not make sense with the topics or with the directions. Expected Results: The install guide should be clear and concise, and especially concerning stage3 and GRP installs, if these are supposed to be the fast friendly install then assume that the enduser choosing this option knows very little and make an appropriate guide for the Stage3 and GRP install.
Hmmm.... maybe it would be good to make a wizard style install manual which leds you in the right direction. So you have different paths through the manual where you can select various options. This could all be done with plain HTML. However with a Server-Scripting language, you can make it a lot more powerfull. For example you can display at first a main menu where the user can select different configuration and installation tasks. With PHP as a background for example, you can implement some kind of dependency tree. So if the user hasn't configured the network-settings he gets a message when trying install a stage 1, 2 or 3 System and so on. This could be done by using sessions. However the Session thing may break the displaying on browsers with no cookies enabled. Also the separation in various files breaks the ability to print the document. So if this is done the manual in it's actual form should be kept for Users who like the old form more than the guided one and for printing purposes. Also this must not break the current xml-based system as its a vital part of translation and extending of the current documentation. Modifications to the system are possible but an xml-system is mandatory. But this guided format could grow and grow and then the install process gets more and more simplified and at the end each step could be converted to some kind of script or program code. A wrapper script or program around it constructs the frame around the installation tasks and provides a graphical userinterface. This could be implemented by using X (as done in other distributions of Linux (Mandrake, S.u.S.E.,...) or for example in tvision (which is a very good library for deploying userinterfaces and which is very close deseigned to the windows interface so people coming from the windows world will have a good starting point in gentoo linux. But the question at the beginning is: How much expenditure does that mean?
No it doesnt need overly compensated or complicated, simply a single page for each style of install in a step by step progression would be fine, I am actually trying to get away from Red Hat and would like to learn what I am doing, but the guide in its current form is beyond my ability to utilize, so simply extracting stage1 into its own page, stage2 into its own page, stage3 into its own page and GRP into its own page would be fine, and have CLEARLY marked "optional" sections that leave no question in the readers mind as to whether an "optional" step may be skipped. Wizards are fine but as you mentioned are time consuming in the creation. I think simply putting the information that already exists into an orderly format would be a great first step. Rob
We are currently working on a Gentoo Handbook in which the installation stuff is rewritten. As we have to take care of several structures (stage1, 2 or 3, with or without network, GRP or not, genkernel or manual, etc.) it is not feasible to create seperate guides as that would increase the maintenance effort of the documentation enormously (factor 5 to 10). I hope to have the "Installing Gentoo" chapter around on 6 november. We are also looking at a Quick Installation Reference, in which we short describe (1 or 2 pages) how to install Gentoo. However, this is meant for ppl with experience in installing Gentoo.
Okies, guess its back to Redhat or MS Windows then, thanks. Rob
Marking this as WONTFIX. Seperate guides will not be written.
