Configuration

Earlier today I tested a clean install of Familiar 0.5.2, for once
bothering to note down the things that didn't work smoothly. Obviously
that's mostly a matter for the main Familiar list.

However, I did realise that a few of the problems aren't things that can
be neatly fixed in the current Familiar set up - you really want to be
able to get user input during installation, especially when it comes to
setting up a network connection. (Even if you're using PPP, where setup
can largely be done remotely, you still need to be able to specify a
nameserver to use.) To get user input on machines like the iPAQ you
really need a GUI running.

That all suggests to me:

- That we should make sure that all necessary configuration to get
network connections going, etc. can be done easily through GPE. We
mostly already knew this, but the extra point I'm making is that in the
same way as gpe-login already lets you create a new user account we
should watch for unconfigured machines and offer to help get networking
going etc. (Touchscreen calibration also needs to be offered on machines
where it's appropriate, before we can expect the user to be able to do
anything else at all in X.)

- That it would be useful to make available base images including the
base GPE packages. (Presumably to make these useful we'd want them to be
pointed to, and ideally produced, by distribution installation guides,
rather than just having them on the GPE site?)

As ever, I'm quite happy to help in any of the work I'm asking for, but
I'm posting this before I forget about it; on Friday I'm going off to
Iceland for 10 days.

-- 
Moray