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Revision 1 as of 2005-11-22 16:01:04
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Revision 71 as of 2006-12-05 13:57:05
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Overview of open issues and things to be done for the ["DebianInstallerGUI"]. = Introduction =
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= Issues = This is an overview of some of the bugs and issues that presumably will be left open or workarounded only in Etch and that i hope will be fixed later in a point release.
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There is currently one remaining issue that blocks including the graphical installer from being included in the main installer build infrastructure: udeb dependency resolution. This is no way meant to be an exaustive list of every bug somehow related to the graphical installer, for a complete buglist see packages [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=rootskel-gtk rootskel-gtk], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=directfb directfb], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libdirectfb-0.9-25-udeb libdirectfb-0.9-25-udeb], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libgtk-directfb-2.0-0 libgtk-directfb-2.0-0], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libgtk-directfb-2.0-0 libgtk-directfb-2.0-0-udeb], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=rootskel rootskel], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=rootskel-gtk rootskel-gtk]
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== udeb dependency resolution == [[TableOfContents([2])]]
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During a build, not all dependencies between udebs can be resolved if all udebs are taken from the official mirrors. The current workaround is to copy some udebs to "localudebs", but this is not acceptable for the main build infrastructure. = Architecture indipendent issues =
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The problem occurs if some udebs depend on a normal library package (libfoo.deb) while other udebs depend on the corresponding udeb (libfoo.udeb). * Input is not handled in UTF-8 mode, some letteres cannot be correctly typed. [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=401296 #401296]
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There are two known solutions for this issue.
 1. Change dependencies in udebs in such a way that they all depend in the same manner. This is what currently happens for the main installer. Problem with this solution is that the udebs involved are not maintained by the d-i team. Also, this would be ignoring the structural problem.
 1. Fix the toolchain (mainly dpkg-dev) to improve automatic dependency determination when udebs are build. A patch for this has been proposed but has not yet been implemented.
* Support dor dead keys was added in DFB post 0.9.25, but GTKDFB does not handle deadkeys anyway, so backporting the DrectFB patch is useless ATM [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=394871 #394871]
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== Other issues ==
 * Frontend crashes when user switches to a different virtual console while the frontend is busy. If the frontend is waiting for input, console switching works.
 * Option in the main menu to exit to a shell does not work.
* Touchpad support in linux_input was added to DFB in CVS and then backported to 0.9.25-5 via a patch i wrote; Ville Sryala produced an updated, better, patch which unluckily crashes on some systems and hence we weren't able to include in our sources.
As we want to give best support possible to laptop users Ville's patch should be fixed and bacported in our sources. [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=400579 #400579]
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= TODO = * Diagnostic tool dfbinfo is now provided by libdirectfb-udeb, later we should move it to a specific udeb, possibly with the df_input tool [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=390437 #390437]

* A cdebconf-gtk-entropy plugin is needed if we want to be able to install on encrypted volumes with the the GTK frontend too.

= Per-architecture issues =

We're trying to schematize bugs affecting the g-i on a per-architecture base, architectures considered here are i386, PPC, AMD64 .

== i386 specific ==
 * For historical reasons the vga16fb module is still loaded even if a framebuffer device is already provided by vesafb: this forced us to check that DirectFB actually accesses the framebuffer device provided by vesafb , better would be not starting at all two fb devices concurrently (this also wastes little memory). [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=401685 #401685]

== AMD64 specific ==
 * The console switching problem on AMD64 [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=373253 #373253] was workarounded by adding libgcc1.so.1 via the EXTRAFILES option available in the installer.
Proper fix requires adding that library via an udeb, or removing pthread_cancel() calls from DirectFB source code.

== PPC specific ==
* On PPC the framebuffer device has a fixed size that cannot be set at boot like it's done on i386, so the GTK frontend should adapt itself to go "fullscreen". [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=401693 #401693]

* DirectFB's linux_input input module seems particulary willing to crash on this architecture, and as a result we had to selectively disable such module basing on experiments on on various PPC boxes.

Read also this long [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=342053 thread] about the g-i on PPC machines.

||Tester||Test date||Model||cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep board||cat /proc/fb||lspci | grep VGA||Magic directfbrc||Bad directfbrc lines||Notes||
||<bgcolor="green">Sven Luther luther@debian.org||22/09/2006||Pegasos||CHRP Pegasos ||0 ATI Radeon Yd||ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (rev 01)||no-hardware|| ||
||<bgcolor="green">Sven Luther luther@debian.org||22/09/2006||Pegasos||CHRP Pegasos ||0 ATI Radeon NH|| ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]||no-hardware disable-module=radeon|| || ||
||<bgcolor="green">alessandro de zorzi lota@klez.it||27/09/2006||ibook G4||PowerBook6,7 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh||0 ATI Radeon NV||ATI Technologies Inc M11 NV [FireGL Mobility T2e] (rev 80)||no-hardware||disable-module=linux_input|| ||
||<bgcolor="green">Jack Malmostoso jackmalmostoso@freesurf.ch||26/09/2006||ibook G4||PowerBook6,3 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh||0 ATI Radeon /c||ATI Technologies INC M9+ 5C63 [Radeon Mobility 9200 (AGP)] (rev 01) ||no-hardware disable-module=linux_input|| || ||
||<bgcolor="green">Elena Grassi grassi.e@gmail.com||05/10/2006||ibook G3||PowerBook4,3 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh||0 ATI Radeon LW||ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500] || no-hardware disable-module=linux_input || ||It needs video=radeonfb to be specified at boot time, otherwise even the textual console is corrupted||
||<bgcolor="green">Luca Suriano luka@linux.it||01/10/2006||ibook G3||PowerBook4,3 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh||0 ATI Radeon LW||ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]||no-hardware disable-module=linux_input || || ||
||<bgcolor="green">Marco Bertorello marco@nosgoth.homelinux.org||26/09/2006||ibook G4|| PowerBook 6,5 MacRisc3 Power Macintosh ||0 ATI Radeon \c|| ATI TECHNOLOGIES Inc. M9+ 5C63 [Radeon Mobility 9200 (AGP)] (rev 01) ||no-hardware disable-module=linux_input|| || ||
||<bgcolor="green">Attilio Fiandrotti||26/09/2006||ibook G4||PowerBook6,7 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh||0 ATI Radeon NV||ATI Technologies Inc M11 NV [FireGL Mobility T2e] (rev 80)||no-hardware||disable-module=linux_input|| ||
||Rick Thomas rbthomas55@pobox.com||26/09/2006||PowerMac G4||PowerMac3,5 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh ||0 ATI Radeon QW||ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV200 QW [Radeon 7500] || || || Unsupported video format dtected (!) DirectFB/FBDev: Current mode's pixelformat: rgba 8/0, 8/0, 8/0, 0/0 (8bit) ||
||<bgcolor="red">Rick Thomas rbthomas55@pobox.com||01/10/2006||PowerMac G3 [Blue&White]||PowerMac1,1||0 OFfb ATY,XCLAIM||ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro (rev 5c)||no way to make this work|| ||requires boot arg "video=ofonly" to even do text mode install. Details in Bug#342053||
||<bgcolor="green">Rick Thomas rbthomas55@pobox.com||01/10/2006||PowerMac G4 [QuickSilver]||PowerMac3,4||0 ATY Rage128|| ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 PF/PRO AGP 4x TMDS|| ||independant of enable or disable "linux_input"|| ||
||<bgcolor="green">Mirko Grava mgrava@rhx.it||27/09/2006||ibook G4||PowerBook5,4 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh||0 ATI Radeon NP||VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10] (prog-if 00 [VGA])||no-hardware|| || ||
||<bgcolor="green">Eddy Petrișor eddy.petrisor@gmail.com||27/09/2006||powerbook G4||PowerBook5,2 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh ||0 ATI Radeon NP ||ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10] ||no-hardware disable-module=linux_input || ||disable-module=radeon has no ill effects||
||<bgcolor="green">Attilio Fiandrotti||29/09/2006|| MiniMAC || PowerBook10,2 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh || ATI Radeon Yb ||ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Raeon9200] (rev 01)|| no-hardware disable-module=linux_input|| || Keymap was messed up in DFB after language change ||
||<bgcolor="green">Sven Luther luther@debian.org||30/09/2006|| XServe G5 || RackMac3,1 MacRISC4 Power Macintosh || 0 ATI Radeon QY || ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]|| disable-module=radeon disable-module=linux_input|| || ||
||<bgcolor="red">Jan Schukat shookie@email.de||02/10/2006|| PowerMac G5 || PowerMac7,3 MacRISC4 Power Macintosh || 0 NV32 || nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200 Ultra] (rev a1) || || no way to make this work || ||
||<bgcolor="red"> Diego Biurrn diego AT biurrun DOT de||05/10/2006|| PowerBook G4 || PowerBook6,8 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh || 0 NV32 || nVidia Corporation NV34M [GeForce FX Go5200] (rev a1) || || [http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2006/10/msg00066.html no way to make this work] || ||
||<bgcolor="green">Holger Levsen debian@layer-acht.org||03/11/2006||imac g3 233mhz||motherboard : iMac MacRISC Power Macintosh||0 ATY Mach64||00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage IIC 215IIC [Mach64 GT IIC] (rev 3a)|| || || just works fine :-)||

= Ideas for future development =
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The graphical version of the installer is currently available for Intel x86, AMD64 and PowerPC. The PowerPC port probably needs work to get different types of system correctly supported. Other architectures the graphical installer could be ported to include Sparc, Alpha and HPPA. The graphical version of the installer is currently available for Intel x86, AMD64 and PowerPC. The PowerPC port [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=341597 needs work] to get different types of system correctly supported. Other architectures the graphical installer could be ported to include Sparc, Alpha and HPPA.
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One of the main advantages of the graphical version of the installer is that it can support languages that use combining characters. We are currently using mainly TTF fonts, with the exception of Japanese and Chinese.
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Fontconfig is used for font management. fc-cache files are automatically generated at startup.

The following issues are open with respect to fonts:
 * Not all fonts needed for the graphical installer have yet been packaged into udebs (needed for inclusion in the official Etch release).
 * Translators should check if their languages are displayed correctly and check for missing characters. Special attention should be given to Indic languages, Arabic and Hebrew.
 * There are known problems for Indic languages and Arabic. These need to be specified and traced. Possibly extra software is needed for correct display.
 * Ideal would be to have each chararter we need present in only one font. The current fonts have a lot of overlap which wastes space.
 * Possibly font configuration can be improved. It would be very nice if we could influence which font is used for a specific language.

=== Requirements for packaging fonts ===
 * Total amount of space used for fonts should be minimized.
 * Only font files that are actually used in the installer should be included.
 * Minimize overlap between fonts. Is is possible to "strip" characters from a font?

=== Overview of fonts currently used ===
FIXME
For font information, please see ["DebianInstaller/GUIFonts"]
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 * Resolution
   * Currently fixed at 800x600. Should be made flexible (adapt to resolution set by system or user).
   * Interface should adapt itself so that text blocks are never too wide for optimal readability.
 * Progress bar in separate window.
 * Interface should adapt itself so that text blocks are never too wide for optimal readability.
 * Improve accessability (for the visually handicapped). One way to do this is to [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=339735 support different themes] (color schemes). (Note: should not lead to a major increase in initrd size.)
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== Reduce size of initrds ==

The initrds are currently very large which also results in fairly high memory requirements to run the graphical installer. Size has thus far not been a major concern, our focus has been on getting things working.

Options to reduce initrd size.
 * Library reduction for graphical libraries.
 * Remove unused files from udebs.
 * Reduction of space used by fonts (see above).
=== Interface design ===
Most of the work on the graphical side has been done by Eduardo Silva. He has set up a [http://www.geocities.com/jobezone/d-i_gtk.html webpage] with images he designed and some comments about possible future changes.

Introduction

This is an overview of some of the bugs and issues that presumably will be left open or workarounded only in Etch and that i hope will be fixed later in a point release.

This is no way meant to be an exaustive list of every bug somehow related to the graphical installer, for a complete buglist see packages [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=rootskel-gtk rootskel-gtk], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=directfb directfb], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libdirectfb-0.9-25-udeb libdirectfb-0.9-25-udeb], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libgtk-directfb-2.0-0 libgtk-directfb-2.0-0], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libgtk-directfb-2.0-0 libgtk-directfb-2.0-0-udeb], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=rootskel rootskel], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=rootskel-gtk rootskel-gtk]

?TableOfContents([2])

Architecture indipendent issues

* Input is not handled in UTF-8 mode, some letteres cannot be correctly typed. [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=401296 #401296]

* Support dor dead keys was added in DFB post 0.9.25, but GTKDFB does not handle deadkeys anyway, so backporting the DrectFB patch is useless ATM [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=394871 #394871]

* Touchpad support in linux_input was added to DFB in CVS and then backported to 0.9.25-5 via a patch i wrote; Ville Sryala produced an updated, better, patch which unluckily crashes on some systems and hence we weren't able to include in our sources. As we want to give best support possible to laptop users Ville's patch should be fixed and bacported in our sources. [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=400579 #400579]

* Diagnostic tool dfbinfo is now provided by libdirectfb-udeb, later we should move it to a specific udeb, possibly with the df_input tool [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=390437 #390437]

* A cdebconf-gtk-entropy plugin is needed if we want to be able to install on encrypted volumes with the the GTK frontend too.

Per-architecture issues

We're trying to schematize bugs affecting the g-i on a per-architecture base, architectures considered here are i386, PPC, AMD64 .

i386 specific

  • For historical reasons the vga16fb module is still loaded even if a framebuffer device is already provided by vesafb: this forced us to check that DirectFB actually accesses the framebuffer device provided by vesafb , better would be not starting at all two fb devices concurrently (this also wastes little memory). [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=401685 #401685]

AMD64 specific

Proper fix requires adding that library via an udeb, or removing pthread_cancel() calls from DirectFB source code.

PPC specific

* On PPC the framebuffer device has a fixed size that cannot be set at boot like it's done on i386, so the GTK frontend should adapt itself to go "fullscreen". [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=401693 #401693]

* DirectFB's linux_input input module seems particulary willing to crash on this architecture, and as a result we had to selectively disable such module basing on experiments on on various PPC boxes.

Read also this long [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=342053 thread] about the g-i on PPC machines.

Tester

Test date

Model

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep board

cat /proc/fb

lspci | grep VGA

Magic directfbrc

Bad directfbrc lines

Notes

Sven Luther luther@debian.org

22/09/2006

Pegasos

CHRP Pegasos

0 ATI Radeon Yd

ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (rev 01)

no-hardware

Sven Luther luther@debian.org

22/09/2006

Pegasos

CHRP Pegasos

0 ATI Radeon NH

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]

no-hardware disable-module=radeon

alessandro de zorzi lota@klez.it

27/09/2006

ibook G4

?PowerBook6,7 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon NV

ATI Technologies Inc M11 NV [FireGL Mobility T2e] (rev 80)

no-hardware

disable-module=linux_input

Jack Malmostoso jackmalmostoso@freesurf.ch

26/09/2006

ibook G4

?PowerBook6,3 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon /c

ATI Technologies INC M9+ 5C63 [Radeon Mobility 9200 (AGP)] (rev 01)

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

Elena Grassi grassi.e@gmail.com

05/10/2006

ibook G3

?PowerBook4,3 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon LW

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

It needs video=radeonfb to be specified at boot time, otherwise even the textual console is corrupted

Luca Suriano luka@linux.it

01/10/2006

ibook G3

?PowerBook4,3 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon LW

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

Marco Bertorello marco@nosgoth.homelinux.org

26/09/2006

ibook G4

?PowerBook 6,5 ?MacRisc3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon \c

ATI TECHNOLOGIES Inc. M9+ 5C63 [Radeon Mobility 9200 (AGP)] (rev 01)

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

Attilio Fiandrotti

26/09/2006

ibook G4

?PowerBook6,7 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon NV

ATI Technologies Inc M11 NV [FireGL Mobility T2e] (rev 80)

no-hardware

disable-module=linux_input

Rick Thomas rbthomas55@pobox.com

26/09/2006

PowerMac G4

?PowerMac3,5 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon QW

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV200 QW [Radeon 7500]

Unsupported video format dtected (!) DirectFB/FBDev: Current mode's pixelformat: rgba 8/0, 8/0, 8/0, 0/0 (8bit)

Rick Thomas rbthomas55@pobox.com

01/10/2006

PowerMac G3 [Blue&White]

?PowerMac1,1

0 OFfb ATY,XCLAIM

ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro (rev 5c)

no way to make this work

requires boot arg "video=ofonly" to even do text mode install. Details in Bug#342053

Rick Thomas rbthomas55@pobox.com

01/10/2006

PowerMac G4 [?QuickSilver]

?PowerMac3,4

0 ATY Rage128

ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 PF/PRO AGP 4x TMDS

independant of enable or disable "linux_input"

Mirko Grava mgrava@rhx.it

27/09/2006

ibook G4

?PowerBook5,4 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon NP

VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10] (prog-if 00 [VGA])

no-hardware

Eddy Petrișor eddy.petrisor@gmail.com

27/09/2006

powerbook G4

?PowerBook5,2 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon NP

ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10]

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

disable-module=radeon has no ill effects

Attilio Fiandrotti

29/09/2006

MiniMAC

?PowerBook10,2 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

ATI Radeon Yb

ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Raeon9200] (rev 01)

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

Keymap was messed up in DFB after language change

Sven Luther luther@debian.org

30/09/2006

XServe G5

?RackMac3,1 MacRISC4 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon QY

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]

disable-module=radeon disable-module=linux_input

Jan Schukat shookie@email.de

02/10/2006

PowerMac G5

?PowerMac7,3 MacRISC4 Power Macintosh

0 NV32

nVidia Corporation NV34 [?GeForce FX 5200 Ultra] (rev a1)

no way to make this work

Diego Biurrn diego AT biurrun DOT de

05/10/2006

?PowerBook G4

?PowerBook6,8 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 NV32

nVidia Corporation NV34M [?GeForce FX Go5200] (rev a1)

[http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2006/10/msg00066.html no way to make this work]

Holger Levsen debian@layer-acht.org

03/11/2006

imac g3 233mhz

motherboard : iMac MacRISC Power Macintosh

0 ATY Mach64

00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage IIC 215IIC [Mach64 GT IIC] (rev 3a)

just works fine :-)

Ideas for future development

Porting

The graphical version of the installer is currently available for Intel x86, AMD64 and PowerPC. The PowerPC port [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=341597 needs work] to get different types of system correctly supported. Other architectures the graphical installer could be ported to include Sparc, Alpha and HPPA.

Fonts

For font information, please see ["DebianInstaller/GUIFonts"]

Usability

  • Interface should adapt itself so that text blocks are never too wide for optimal readability.
  • Improve accessability (for the visually handicapped). One way to do this is to [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=339735 support different themes] (color schemes). (Note: should not lead to a major increase in initrd size.)

  • Alternative (graphical) ways to start a shell or browse log files.
  • Interface design.
  • Create custom plug-ins for cdebconf to improve handling of some dialogs and make optimal use of possibilities offered by the graphical environment.

Interface design

Most of the work on the graphical side has been done by Eduardo Silva. He has set up a [http://www.geocities.com/jobezone/d-i_gtk.html webpage] with images he designed and some comments about possible future changes.