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 exhaustive 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=cdebconf-gtk-udeb cdebconf-gtk-udeb], [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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Architecture independent issues

Per-architecture issues

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

i386 specific

AMD64 specific

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

PowerPC specific

Read also this long [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=342053 thread] about the g-i on PPC machines, mainly due to the crashing of linux_input module on most PPC boxes.

A table with test results for a variety of PowerPC systems can be found at ["DebianInstaller/GUIPowerPC"]. Feel free to add results for any configuration that's not yet listed.

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 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.

Games

It would be nice for g-i to have some games to help kill time during lengthy install sessions.

Candidates for inclusion need to have a limited set of dependencies, preferable only those that are already included in g-i, use directfb for graphics, eventually using SDL, sound should be optional, and not need more input device than already detected by g-i.

This excludes c++ implemented games linked against libstdc++, or other language whose runtime is not-available in g-i, as well as all those that link with the gnome libs or other such. A preliminary list follows, out of them, icebreaker sounds like a very good candidate. It is only depending on libsdl, easy to understand, using only the mouse and not the keyboard, and not controversial in any way.