sysinstall colours

[Alexander Best]

hi there,

sysinstall is probably one of those ancient relics everybody tries to avoid
dealing with from a developers point of view but i just found this beautiful
screenie of a (probably) ncurse-based installer:

http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=yoper_2009_beta&image=yoper_dresden_7_lrg

i was surprised how much better it looks with those nice colours compared to
sysinstall.

is there any way the sysinstall colours could be adjusted (without a lot of
work) to also feature such beautiful colours? i had a quick look at the
sysinstall, libdialog and ncurses sources and to me it seems that to change
sysinstall's colours the hardcoded values of

COLOR_BLACK
COLOR_RED
COLOR_GREEN
COLOR_YELLOW
COLOR_BLUE
COLOR_MAGENTA
COLOR_CYAN
COLOR_WHITE

have to be changed in contrib/ncurses/ncurses/base/lib_color.c or is there an
easier way? because this would of course affect all apps that are linked to
ncurses.

cheers.
alex
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[jhell]

On Fri, 9 Oct 2009 21:52 +0200, alexbestms@ wrote:

> hi there,
>
> sysinstall is probably one of those ancient relics everybody tries to avoid
> dealing with from a developers point of view but i just found this beautiful
> screenie of a (probably) ncurse-based installer:
>
> http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=yoper_2009_beta&image=yoper_dresden_7_lrg
>
> i was surprised how much better it looks with those nice colours compared to
> sysinstall.
>
> is there any way the sysinstall colours could be adjusted (without a lot of
> work) to also feature such beautiful colours? i had a quick look at the
> sysinstall, libdialog and ncurses sources and to me it seems that to change
> sysinstall's colours the hardcoded values of
>
> COLOR_BLACK
> COLOR_RED
> COLOR_GREEN
> COLOR_YELLOW
> COLOR_BLUE
> COLOR_MAGENTA
> COLOR_CYAN
> COLOR_WHITE
>
> have to be changed in contrib/ncurses/ncurses/base/lib_color.c or is there an
> easier way? because this would of course affect all apps that are linked to
> ncurses.
>
> cheers.
> alex

sysinstall looks like this too when it is ran in a gnome terminal or some
other terminal that is ran in a X environment.

--

  ;; dataix.net!jhell         2048R/89D8547E 2009-09-30
  ;; BSD since FreeBSD 4.2    Linux since Slackware 2.1
  ;; 85EF E26B 07BB 3777 76BE  B12A 9057 8789 89D8 547E

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[james toy-5]

Alexander,

==8<==
>> http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=yoper_2009_beta&image=yoper_dresden_7_lrg
==8<==

   The head maintainer of Yoper; Tobias G, runs a kernel patchset I
work on from http://zen-sources.org as his default kernel.  I am sure
he would be more than happy to discuss some of their methods if you
are interested in learning or modifying the current sysinstall system.
 Not sure how much this will help; however, it cannot hurt to ask.
Taking ideas from Linux distros is rarely a good idea I've found
though :)

=jt
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[Randi Harper-3]

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 12:52 PM, Alexander Best <
alexbestms@...> wrote:

> hi there,
>
> sysinstall is probably one of those ancient relics everybody tries to avoid
> dealing with from a developers point of view but i just found this
> beautiful
> screenie of a (probably) ncurse-based installer:
>
>
> http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=yoper_2009_beta&image=yoper_dresden_7_lrg
>
> i was surprised how much better it looks with those nice colours compared
> to
> sysinstall.
>
> is there any way the sysinstall colours could be adjusted (without a lot of
> work) to also feature such beautiful colours? i had a quick look at the
> sysinstall, libdialog and ncurses sources and to me it seems that to change
> sysinstall's colours the hardcoded values of
>
> COLOR_BLACK
> COLOR_RED
> COLOR_GREEN
> COLOR_YELLOW
> COLOR_BLUE
> COLOR_MAGENTA
> COLOR_CYAN
> COLOR_WHITE
>
> have to be changed in contrib/ncurses/ncurses/base/lib_color.c or is there
> an
> easier way? because this would of course affect all apps that are linked to
> ncurses.
>
> cheers.
> alex
>

Seriously?!?!?! All the problems with sysinstall, and your idea is to change
the color? Are you trying to start a bikeshed? If so, I prefer pink.

-- randi
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[Paul B Mahol]

On 10/9/09, Alexander Best <alexbestms@...> wrote:

> hi there,
>
> sysinstall is probably one of those ancient relics everybody tries to avoid
> dealing with from a developers point of view but i just found this beautiful
> screenie of a (probably) ncurse-based installer:
>
> http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=yoper_2009_beta&image=yoper_dresden_7_lrg
>
> i was surprised how much better it looks with those nice colours compared to
> sysinstall.
>
> is there any way the sysinstall colours could be adjusted (without a lot of
> work) to also feature such beautiful colours? i had a quick look at the
> sysinstall, libdialog and ncurses sources and to me it seems that to change
> sysinstall's colours the hardcoded values of
>
> COLOR_BLACK
> COLOR_RED
> COLOR_GREEN
> COLOR_YELLOW
> COLOR_BLUE
> COLOR_MAGENTA
> COLOR_CYAN
> COLOR_WHITE
>
> have to be changed in contrib/ncurses/ncurses/base/lib_color.c or is there
> an
> easier way? because this would of course affect all apps that are linked to
> ncurses.

This have nothing to do with ncurses, colors you like  simple can not
be displayed in current syscons(4) and making support for 256 colors
or even true bit color in sysinstall(so that it looks amazing in
konsole) is waste of time.
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[Alexander Best]

jhell schrieb am 2009-10-09:

> On Fri, 9 Oct 2009 21:52 +0200, alexbestms@ wrote:
> >hi there,

> >sysinstall is probably one of those ancient relics everybody tries
> >to avoid
> >dealing with from a developers point of view but i just found this
> >beautiful
> >screenie of a (probably) ncurse-based installer:

> >http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=yoper_2009_beta&image=yoper_dre
> >sden_7_lrg

> >i was surprised how much better it looks with those nice colours
> >compared to
> >sysinstall.

> >is there any way the sysinstall colours could be adjusted (without
> >a lot of
> >work) to also feature such beautiful colours? i had a quick look at
> >the
> >sysinstall, libdialog and ncurses sources and to me it seems that
> >to change
> >sysinstall's colours the hardcoded values of

> >COLOR_BLACK
> >COLOR_RED
> >COLOR_GREEN
> >COLOR_YELLOW
> >COLOR_BLUE
> >COLOR_MAGENTA
> >COLOR_CYAN
> >COLOR_WHITE

> >have to be changed in contrib/ncurses/ncurses/base/lib_color.c or
> >is there an
> >easier way? because this would of course affect all apps that are
> >linked to
> >ncurses.

> >cheers.
> >alex

> sysinstall looks like this too when it is ran in a gnome terminal or
> some other terminal that is ran in a X environment.

> --

> ;; dataix.net!jhell         2048R/89D8547E 2009-09-30
> ;; BSD since FreeBSD 4.2    Linux since Slackware 2.1
> ;; 85EF E26B 07BB 3777 76BE  B12A 9057 8789 89D8 547E

i'm running sysinstall in xterm with $TERM set to xterm-color and the colors
don't seem any different to me. but you have a point there, because i could
edit ~/.Xdefaults and adjust some xterm resources to change the standard
colours.

alex
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[Alexander Best]

Randi Harper schrieb am 2009-10-10:
> On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 12:52 PM, Alexander Best <
> alexbestms@...> wrote:

> > hi there,

> > sysinstall is probably one of those ancient relics everybody tries
> > to avoid
> > dealing with from a developers point of view but i just found this
> > beautiful
> > screenie of a (probably) ncurse-based installer:


> > http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=yoper_2009_beta&image=yoper_dresden_7_lrg

> > i was surprised how much better it looks with those nice colours
> > compared
> > to
> > sysinstall.

> > is there any way the sysinstall colours could be adjusted (without
> > a lot of
> > work) to also feature such beautiful colours? i had a quick look at
> > the
> > sysinstall, libdialog and ncurses sources and to me it seems that
> > to change
> > sysinstall's colours the hardcoded values of

> > COLOR_BLACK
> > COLOR_RED
> > COLOR_GREEN
> > COLOR_YELLOW
> > COLOR_BLUE
> > COLOR_MAGENTA
> > COLOR_CYAN
> > COLOR_WHITE

> > have to be changed in contrib/ncurses/ncurses/base/lib_color.c or
> > is there
> > an
> > easier way? because this would of course affect all apps that are
> > linked to
> > ncurses.

> > cheers.
> > alex


> Seriously?!?!?! All the problems with sysinstall, and your idea is to
> change
> the color? Are you trying to start a bikeshed? If so, I prefer pink.

> -- randi

of course sysinstall has a ton of problems and should be replaced. no doubt
about it. but look at it from this angle:

current developers don't seem to have any interest in improving sysinstall. so
it's important to get new people involved in freebsd. and the way to do that
is with an attractive looking installer and an easy installation process imo.

sure a good installer doesn't make a good os. but let's face it. when you've
been running windows for a few years and finally want to switch to something
else you're likely looking for an os which doesn't frighten you off right at
the start (which freebsd sort of does).

so i think having a good looking installer is more than just eyecandy. i don't
think hardcore developers who prefer working with a bare X and vi(m)/emacs and
so forth should look down on people who are slowly starting to get involved in
an os, because without new people freebsd will someday be dead.

alex
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[jhell]

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:21, alexbestms@ wrote:
> of course sysinstall has a ton of problems and should be replaced. no doubt
> about it. but look at it from this angle:
>

You should really ask what the FreeBSD angle on this is. It is really well
versed and well planned out and covers many areas among many people which
make the installer a very versatile yet very controversial thing to replace.

> current developers don't seem to have any interest in improving sysinstall. so
> it's important to get new people involved in freebsd. and the way to do that
> is with an attractive looking installer and an easy installation process imo.
>

There has been a lot of expressed interest in replacing the installed
multiple times in the past with unsaid I believe 3 projects going on right
now (someone correct me if I'm wrong) everywhere from graphical to script.


> sure a good installer doesn't make a good os. but let's face it. when you've
> been running windows for a few years and finally want to switch to something
> else you're likely looking for an os which doesn't frighten you off right at
> the start (which freebsd sort of does).
>

When you have been running windows for a few years and you have decided to
research your options you have kept a open mind and willingness to see
what else is out there before you have passed judgment upon something
because of its colors. More people search for functionality and use before
practical looks.

> so i think having a good looking installer is more than just eyecandy. i don't
> think hardcore developers who prefer working with a bare X and vi(m)/emacs and
> so forth should look down on people who are slowly starting to get involved in
> an os, because without new people freebsd will someday be dead.
>
> alex
>

Certainly not going to be dead. Forums as of this email have 8,334
registered users alone. That's not counting all the Corporate entities,
Yahoo if you may and Google if you will plus uncountable more.

--

  ;; dataix.net!jhell         2048R/89D8547E 2009-09-30
  ;; BSD since FreeBSD 4.2    Linux since Slackware 2.1
  ;; 85EF E26B 07BB 3777 76BE  B12A 9057 8789 89D8 547E

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[Ed Schouten-3]

* Paul B Mahol <onemda@...> wrote:
> This have nothing to do with ncurses, colors you like  simple can not
> be displayed in current syscons(4) and making support for 256 colors
> or even true bit color in sysinstall(so that it looks amazing in
> konsole) is waste of time.

Yes. As of recently, our terminal emulator gained 256 color support, but
this gets smashed down to 8 colors, simply because Syscons cannot handle
more than 16 foreground and 8 background colors.

This is how colors are converted:

        http://80386.nl/pub/xterm-256.png
        http://80386.nl/pub/teken-256.png

--
 Ed Schouten <ed@...>
 WWW: http://80386.nl/

[motoom]

On Saturday 10 October 2009 01:59:32 Randi Harper wrote:

> All the problems with sysinstall, and your idea is to
> change the color? [...]

Fancy colors seems to me like a wrong focus of attention too... but maybe it
would be nice to be able to run sysinstall in monochrome mode, for maximum
contrast?  Is this possible already?  Just plain gray text on black
background, and inverse for the selection bar, would be useful for those that
have trouble reading yellow text on a lightgray background.

Anyway, it's great to see that sysinstall gets some attention and useful
fixes.

What sometimes bothers me a bit while using sysinstall is the long sequence of
Yes/No questions at a certain moment  ('do you want NFS server?  do you want
NFS client?  do you want anonymous FTP?  do you want bridging? etc...).  A
more logical user interface seems a list of configurable options with their
current settings, where you can 'point and click' with a selection bar to
toggle Yes/No.

Greetings,

--
"The ability of the OSS process to collect and harness
the collective IQ of thousands of individuals across
the Internet is simply amazing." - Vinod Valloppillil
http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/halloween4.html
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[Julian H. Stacey-3]

> What sometimes bothers me a bit while using sysinstall is the long sequence of
> Yes/No questions at a certain moment  ('do you want NFS server?  do you want
> NFS client?  do you want anonymous FTP?  do you want bridging? etc...).  A
> more logical user interface seems a list of configurable options with their
> current settings, where you can 'point and click' with a selection bar to
> toggle Yes/No.

Would be nice.

Cheers,
Julian
--
Julian Stacey: BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultants Munich http://berklix.com
  Mail ASCII plain text not HTML & Base64.      http://asciiribbon.org
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[k-20]

Ed Schouten wrote:

> * Paul B Mahol <onemda@...> wrote:
>> This have nothing to do with ncurses, colors you like  simple can not
>> be displayed in current syscons(4) and making support for 256 colors
>> or even true bit color in sysinstall(so that it looks amazing in
>> konsole) is waste of time.
>
> Yes. As of recently, our terminal emulator gained 256 color support, but
> this gets smashed down to 8 colors, simply because Syscons cannot handle
> more than 16 foreground and 8 background colors.
>
> This is how colors are converted:
>
> http://80386.nl/pub/xterm-256.png
> http://80386.nl/pub/teken-256.png
>

My God that is hideous. Save us Ed! Three cheers for your recent console
work.
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