Contents of /trunk/installer/doc/TODO

Things we really should fix before rc2:

        - tasksel/aptitude problem that prevents installation of standard
          packages
                (fixed in aptitude 0.2.15.6-0.sarge3 in t-p-u)
        - aptitude bug that prevents tasks from working in some locales
                (#264716)
                (apparently fixed in aptitude 0.2.15.6-0.sarge3 in t-p-u)
        - finish 2.6.8 and 2.4.27 kernel upgrades, all applicable arches
        - fix syslinux parameter bug #269424

Things that would be nice for rc2, but can't block it:

        - pcmcia-cs resource range detection
        - X's failure to use read-edid at all (#264792)
        - s390-dasd lacks a progress bar while formating disks (fixed in trunk)
        - vmelilo-installer needs to remove no_bootloader
          from /target/etc/kernel-img.conf
        - whiptail breaks time zone selection for argintina, other bad bugs
                (fixed in whiptail 0.51.6-12)
        - gnome-cups-manager fix #271405 (ugly error on desktop install)
                (fixed in 0.22-2, not yet in testing)


This TODO list can only touch on some larger issues, but there are a great
many open bugs on various components of the installer. See all bugs tagged
d-i in the BTS. Also, there are many unprocessed installation-reports bugs.


Status for different parts of debian-installer.  The numbers are
approximate (as in +/- 50%) and may change in any direction, at any
time.

[0%] Not begun
---------------------------------------------------------------------
        - some architectures
                hurd-i386 (we will ship w/o this)
                sh (we will ship w/o this)

[30%] Might need large rewrites. Current implementation might
      work by accident
---------------------------------------------------------------------
        - GUI frontend to cdebconf.
                There are some basic implementations. The trick is to make
                it a GUI that does not suck, while still using debconf
                underneath.
        - ppp support
                  Not as important for analog dialup, as for ISDN, pppoe.

        
[60%] Needs some work, but does its grunt work
---------------------------------------------------------------------
        - I18N
                Mostly done, still filling in minor holes.
        - translations
                Varying languages translated to varying degrees.
                http://people.debian.org/~seppy/d-i/translation-status.html
        - boot loader installers (lilo, grub, etc)
                Work, except for when they don't. See BTS.
        - anna
                Works, mostly.  Needs support for Release files.
                Support for signed Release files would be cool, but
                needs gpgv-udeb.
                Needs to have load-installer properly split out of the anna
                binary to save space on root floppy. Or removed, not used
                anymore.
        - disk selector, partitioner
                We have switched to partman everything except a couple of
                subarches and s390.
        - bugreporter-udeb
                only supports saving to floppy, which many lack
                should offer a way to save via network or to usb stick
        - post-reboot configuration
                base-config is stable, though it could use more polish
                i18n is needed.
                Some questions repeat questions from d-i.
        - web site
                http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
                Could be better laid out, lacking some sections, other
                parts are quite good.
        - archive integration
                No automatic propagation to testing.
                No source propagation for udeb sources!
        - pcmcia support
                Much improved, generally works now.
                Automatic PCI resource range exclusion based on probing
                still needed, work in progress.
        - low memory support
                Where "low" is 32-46 mb!
                Works, but user must be careful to set up swap ASAP.
                There is no sanity checking, and some bad failure modes.
        - user documentation
                Installation manual is up-to-date for i386.
                Needs sanity checking for other architectures.
                Translations need updates.
        - developer documentation
                We understand it, but casual hackers have a high barrier to
                doing simple things like using a custom kernel.
        - 2.6 support
                Works on i386, with minor bugs.
                Works on powerpc, at least newworld. Testing on
                other subarches needed, especially G5 and oldworld (with
                mkvmlinuz).
        - preseeding
                Some things still cannot be preseeded. This is generally a
                bug in the udeb's use of debconf.
        - some architectures
                i386
                ia64
                powerpc
                mips
                        SGI (mips/r4k-ip22 and mips/r5k-ip22)
                                - fix parted's DVH disk labels support (#239371)
                                - install dvhtool
                        Broadcom SWARM (mips/sb1-swarm-bn)
                                - Needs a working boot loader in the archive
                        Documentation, manual
                        XXX the above may be somewhat out of date
                mipsel
                        DECstation (mipsel/r3k-kn02 and mipsel/r4k-kn04)
                                - cannot boot from CD (see end of #241231)
                        Cobalt (mipsel/cobalt)
                                - figure out whether to set link_in_boot=yes
                                  (see trunk/packages/rootskel/debian/templates-arch)
                                - boot has to be ext2 -r 0
                                - support installs via SSH, w/o serial console
                                - boot: use: execute rd_start=0x{initrd-start} rd_size=0x{initrd-size} console=ttyS0,{console-speed}
                                - debconf should output progess on the LCD
                        Documentation, manual
                        XXX the above may be somewhat out of date
                m68k (some subarches)
                alpha
                sparc
                arm (some subarches)
                hppa
                amd64 (unofficial)
                s/390
                        lowmem issues
                        On its first release, probably still some problems.

[90%] Single missing important feature or bug.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
        - hw-detect
                Working but needs to be switched over to discover2
        - iso-scan
                Works, but does not flag the disk the iso is mounted from
                as unusable by the rest of the installer.
        - netcfg
                Working, pending rewrite for IPv6.
        - bts
                Still need a non-manual way to tag our bugs.
        - language-chooser
                The perennial problem is how to order/present the list of
                languages. Many complaints, but it works.
        - base system installer
                It can break due to testing package churn. cdebootstrap
                would fix this; also debootstrap/apt/archive changes in
                progress to add Base: overrides to Packages files.

[100%] Those shouldn't need to be touched any more 
       (famous last words)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
        - udpkg
        - cd installs
        - net retriever
        - cdrom retriever
        - ethdetect
        - cdebconf
        - floppy retriever
        - main-menu
        - choose-mirror
        - busybox integration
        - install media build system
        - kernel-package integration
        - library reduction
        - wireless support

Common problems and transitions
===============================

This is a list of common mistakes that need to be corrected throughout the
code base:

  * All debconf commands that INPUT, GO, GET or SET questions should check
    their return value. This is pure evil:

    debconf->command(debconf, "GET", "mirror/suite", NULL); /* unchecked return code ! */
    asprintf(&command, "foo %s", debconf->value);
    system(command);

  * cdebconf's debconfclient.h has a set of macros for calling debconf
    (debconf_get() and so on)
    These should perhaps be used consistently throughout the code for
    clarity.

  * There needs to be a centralised logging method. Syslog will do, but
    we currently have a lot of nasty code that appends messages to
    /var/log/messages directly. All of that would be converted to pipe it
    to logger. However, this is a problem, because piping a command to
    logger loses the exit status of the command. Need some way to run a
    command, logging the ouput to syslog, w/o losing exit status.

  * udebs should not include md5sums files, or postrm, prerm, preinst
    scripts. This includes ones generated by debhelper. Linda will find
    these pretty well.

  * There is no need to set the seen flag anymore. All code that does so
    should be removed, unless that code is expected to also possibly run on
    a normal debian system (choose-mirror).
1	Things we really should fix before rc2:
2
3	- tasksel/aptitude problem that prevents installation of standard
4	packages
5	(fixed in aptitude 0.2.15.6-0.sarge3 in t-p-u)
6	- aptitude bug that prevents tasks from working in some locales
7	(#264716)
8	(apparently fixed in aptitude 0.2.15.6-0.sarge3 in t-p-u)
9	- finish 2.6.8 and 2.4.27 kernel upgrades, all applicable arches
10	- fix syslinux parameter bug #269424
11
12	Things that would be nice for rc2, but can't block it:
13
14	- pcmcia-cs resource range detection
15	- X's failure to use read-edid at all (#264792)
16	- s390-dasd lacks a progress bar while formating disks (fixed in trunk)
17	- vmelilo-installer needs to remove no_bootloader
18	from /target/etc/kernel-img.conf
19	- whiptail breaks time zone selection for argintina, other bad bugs
20	(fixed in whiptail 0.51.6-12)
21	- gnome-cups-manager fix #271405 (ugly error on desktop install)
22	(fixed in 0.22-2, not yet in testing)
23
24
25	This TODO list can only touch on some larger issues, but there are a great
26	many open bugs on various components of the installer. See all bugs tagged
27	d-i in the BTS. Also, there are many unprocessed installation-reports bugs.
28
29
30	Status for different parts of debian-installer. The numbers are
31	approximate (as in +/- 50%) and may change in any direction, at any
32	time.
33
34	[0%] Not begun
35	---------------------------------------------------------------------
36	- some architectures
37	hurd-i386 (we will ship w/o this)
38	sh (we will ship w/o this)
39
40	[30%] Might need large rewrites. Current implementation might
41	work by accident
42	---------------------------------------------------------------------
43	- GUI frontend to cdebconf.
44	There are some basic implementations. The trick is to make
45	it a GUI that does not suck, while still using debconf
46	underneath.
47	- ppp support
48	Not as important for analog dialup, as for ISDN, pppoe.
49
50
51	[60%] Needs some work, but does its grunt work
52	---------------------------------------------------------------------
53	- I18N
54	Mostly done, still filling in minor holes.
55	- translations
56	Varying languages translated to varying degrees.
57	http://people.debian.org/~seppy/d-i/translation-status.html
58	- boot loader installers (lilo, grub, etc)
59	Work, except for when they don't. See BTS.
60	- anna
61	Works, mostly. Needs support for Release files.
62	Support for signed Release files would be cool, but
63	needs gpgv-udeb.
64	Needs to have load-installer properly split out of the anna
65	binary to save space on root floppy. Or removed, not used
66	anymore.
67	- disk selector, partitioner
68	We have switched to partman everything except a couple of
69	subarches and s390.
70	- bugreporter-udeb
71	only supports saving to floppy, which many lack
72	should offer a way to save via network or to usb stick
73	- post-reboot configuration
74	base-config is stable, though it could use more polish
75	i18n is needed.
76	Some questions repeat questions from d-i.
77	- web site
78	http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
79	Could be better laid out, lacking some sections, other
80	parts are quite good.
81	- archive integration
82	No automatic propagation to testing.
83	No source propagation for udeb sources!
84	- pcmcia support
85	Much improved, generally works now.
86	Automatic PCI resource range exclusion based on probing
87	still needed, work in progress.
88	- low memory support
89	Where "low" is 32-46 mb!
90	Works, but user must be careful to set up swap ASAP.
91	There is no sanity checking, and some bad failure modes.
92	- user documentation
93	Installation manual is up-to-date for i386.
94	Needs sanity checking for other architectures.
95	Translations need updates.
96	- developer documentation
97	We understand it, but casual hackers have a high barrier to
98	doing simple things like using a custom kernel.
99	- 2.6 support
100	Works on i386, with minor bugs.
101	Works on powerpc, at least newworld. Testing on
102	other subarches needed, especially G5 and oldworld (with
103	mkvmlinuz).
104	- preseeding
105	Some things still cannot be preseeded. This is generally a
106	bug in the udeb's use of debconf.
107	- some architectures
108	i386
109	ia64
110	powerpc
111	mips
112	SGI (mips/r4k-ip22 and mips/r5k-ip22)
113	- fix parted's DVH disk labels support (#239371)
114	- install dvhtool
115	Broadcom SWARM (mips/sb1-swarm-bn)
116	- Needs a working boot loader in the archive
117	Documentation, manual
118	XXX the above may be somewhat out of date
119	mipsel
120	DECstation (mipsel/r3k-kn02 and mipsel/r4k-kn04)
121	- cannot boot from CD (see end of #241231)
122	Cobalt (mipsel/cobalt)
123	- figure out whether to set link_in_boot=yes
124	(see trunk/packages/rootskel/debian/templates-arch)
125	- boot has to be ext2 -r 0
126	- support installs via SSH, w/o serial console
127	- boot: use: execute rd_start=0x{initrd-start} rd_size=0x{initrd-size} console=ttyS0,{console-speed}
128	- debconf should output progess on the LCD
129	Documentation, manual
130	XXX the above may be somewhat out of date
131	m68k (some subarches)
132	alpha
133	sparc
134	arm (some subarches)
135	hppa
136	amd64 (unofficial)
137	s/390
138	lowmem issues
139	On its first release, probably still some problems.
140
141	[90%] Single missing important feature or bug.
142	---------------------------------------------------------------------
143	- hw-detect
144	Working but needs to be switched over to discover2
145	- iso-scan
146	Works, but does not flag the disk the iso is mounted from
147	as unusable by the rest of the installer.
148	- netcfg
149	Working, pending rewrite for IPv6.
150	- bts
151	Still need a non-manual way to tag our bugs.
152	- language-chooser
153	The perennial problem is how to order/present the list of
154	languages. Many complaints, but it works.
155	- base system installer
156	It can break due to testing package churn. cdebootstrap
157	would fix this; also debootstrap/apt/archive changes in
158	progress to add Base: overrides to Packages files.
159
160	[100%] Those shouldn't need to be touched any more
161	(famous last words)
162	---------------------------------------------------------------------
163	- udpkg
164	- cd installs
165	- net retriever
166	- cdrom retriever
167	- ethdetect
168	- cdebconf
169	- floppy retriever
170	- main-menu
171	- choose-mirror
172	- busybox integration
173	- install media build system
174	- kernel-package integration
175	- library reduction
176	- wireless support
177
178	Common problems and transitions
179	===============================
180
181	This is a list of common mistakes that need to be corrected throughout the
182	code base:
183
184	* All debconf commands that INPUT, GO, GET or SET questions should check
185	their return value. This is pure evil:
186
187	debconf->command(debconf, "GET", "mirror/suite", NULL); /* unchecked return code ! */
188	asprintf(&command, "foo %s", debconf->value);
189	system(command);
190
191	* cdebconf's debconfclient.h has a set of macros for calling debconf
192	(debconf_get() and so on)
193	These should perhaps be used consistently throughout the code for
194	clarity.
195
196	* There needs to be a centralised logging method. Syslog will do, but
197	we currently have a lot of nasty code that appends messages to
198	/var/log/messages directly. All of that would be converted to pipe it
199	to logger. However, this is a problem, because piping a command to
200	logger loses the exit status of the command. Need some way to run a
201	command, logging the ouput to syslog, w/o losing exit status.
202
203	* udebs should not include md5sums files, or postrm, prerm, preinst
204	scripts. This includes ones generated by debhelper. Linda will find
205	these pretty well.
206
207	* There is no need to set the seen flag anymore. All code that does so
208	should be removed, unless that code is expected to also possibly run on
209	a normal debian system (choose-mirror).