[kismac] Re: FreeMacWare mentions us!
- From: Erick van Rijk <emvr@xxxxxx>
- To: kismac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 21:57:53 +0100
What I usually do depending on the target application is the following.
Almost similar to what toto says.
Complex applications that are not self-contained, should have an
installer pkg.
And by complex I mean, something that consists out of a dozen or more
separate files, plugins etc.
If the installer needs to do something with the system itself it
should tell the user that it will install a .kext in the system. I
hate it when a simple application adds kext to the system without
telling you.
Sort of: Yea, I need your admin password for "something". Bad drivers
can cripple a system.
Simple applications should have a dmg, that either is net enabled
(meaning it wil unpack itself, show a readme and copy the app into
the download directory, and delete the dmg) or a standard dmg what
mounts and the user can drag&drop the app to whatever location it
wants (even run the app of the DMG)
Since as far as I can tell Kismac only need drivers installed for
separate 3rd party wifi gear, I would opt for the second option a
standard dmg.
And when a user adds a driver in the preferences menu, to simply load
the driver from userspace. As far as I know you don't need to have
a .kext file in the /System/Extensions folder to do a "kextload
*.kext" you can do that from the application bundle itself. By doing
this you're not copying drivers into the extensions folder and
possibly crippling the system with faulty drivers since a kextunload
or a restart will clear the driver from the system.
I should not that while saying this I'm not a real expert in kernel
extensions, but what I have seen by fiddling with kext drivers myself.
Erick
On Feb 7, 2006, at 6:21 PM, Thomas Kollbach wrote:
MacOS X knows two types of installers by default.
Drag-n-Drop is for simple, self contained Apps
pkg-based is for more complex apps (what e.g. Adobe should be using
if they had any feel for OS X apps - wich they don't)
In my opinion it is a very bad habit for drag-and-drop apps, to
install anything in the file system outside of the usual per-app/
per-user palces (/Library/Application Support/, ~/Library/
Application Support/, etc.). Under no circumstances should a simple
drag-n-drop app alter the /System folder contents in any way (that
in itself is a quite hackish behaviour, but is necessary here).
Because of that I think a pkg is appropriate.
toto
Am 07.02.2006 um 16:33 schrieb Brian:
On Feb 7, 2006, at 10:19 AM, Erick van Rijk emvr-at-etv.cx |KisMAC
list/personal| wrote:
If you do a check I prefer to have the drivers included in the
software bundle, you can always copy items out of the bundle into
the extensions folder if you have use sudo.
Separate installers always end up missing. I rather have Kismac
upon runtime check and ask permission to install drivers if needed.
With special emphasis on "ask permission" -- that's an important
point. :)
Count me in favor of the simple .dmg, drag-n-drop installation
option, too. Installers are quite overused/abused these days. Very
few apps actually require one, and they're not "the OS X way".
- Brian
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