OK, so here's another one of my famous proposals again. Note that I'm currently just slinging design ideas in the hopes of getting people revved up about this feature regression from Woody. Here is a step by step, Choose Your Own Adventure type method as to how this package should work...
Firstly, I am not sure whether this should run before or after netcfg. (Perhaps netcfg, in its current state of only detecting the interface used to install, should not run at all if PPP is being used. Suggestions please..) pppconfig should load stuff like serial_cs and the PPP modules when it starts. If they're not available, prompt for them, maybe, or forego usage entirely? 1. Would you like to use a DSL or dial-up connection to install Debian? If not, go on to the base system installer. Random thought: We need to have choose-mirror bug out at the user if he or she has not configured an Internet connected interface at the time that it is run, and send the user back to netcfg/pppconfig/iso-scan. Is this possible with main-menu? 2. DSL (PPPoE/PPPoA) or dial-up? I'm unsure what kind of configuration PPPoA needs. Also, is this question extraneous? Should question #1 be a select of "Yes, DSL", "Yes, dialup", "No, something else/CD"? If DSL, go to 3a. 3. Probe for modem device Steal this wholesale from wvdial/pppconfig... 3a. Probe for DSL connection. Steal this wholesale from pppoeconf. 4. Set up the access number for dialup We'll probably want to do isdigit() on each character in the number. (Cooler yet: convert ABC -> 2, DEF -> 3... :)) This will write to the appropriate place in /etc/ppp/peers (? I forget the path.) 4. Set up chap-secrets Prompt for username and password. Does cdebconf have a 'password' question type? 5. Other esoteric options? Not sure... 6. Payload! Run pppd. Failure, start over at 3 or 3a, this time allow manual selection of device. We might set up pppd to try to restart itself if the connection peters out sometime during the install, and add error correction measures to debootstrap (super wishlist bug that nobody bothers for, cf. ln: /target/bin/awk: File exists) As I mentioned this is a really rough brainstorm draft. I would like to go to the boondocks this summer and install Debian off of a 28.8kbps analog link (just kidding. This is a pretty important feature...) :) -- Joshua Kwan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
