[haiku-bugs] [Haiku] #6106: Suggested improvements for Installer (might affect other parts)
- From: "xeon3d" <trac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 31 May 2010 03:53:15 -0000
#6106: Suggested improvements for Installer (might affect other parts)
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Reporter: xeon3d | Owner: korli
Type: enhancement | Status: new
Priority: normal | Milestone: R1
Component: Applications/Installer | Version: R1/alpha2
Keywords: Installer slow | Platform: All
Blockedby: | Patch: 0
Blocking: |
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'''Problem:'''
At the moment, and I'm not the only one that noticed it, one of the worst
Haiku parts is Installer. While it looks preety much as it's BeOS
counterpart (save for the progress bar and a few bits more) it is __much
slower__ to install Haiku than BeOS on the same computer (assuming both
are installable ofc).
'''Cause:'''
This is due to the fact that the files layout is not really optimized for
reading, so drives __seek a lot__ while installing due to the great number
of small files present on the CD (.h files and some other extensions as
well).
'''Effect:'''
This leads to a __long__ "installation time" (which IMHO contradicts the
"speedy" factor of Haiku), noise (most notable on old and/or laptop ones)
and a __shorter life__ for the mechanic part of the drive (which takes a
toll if it's already old).
'''Possible Solutions:'''
There are a number of possible solutions:
* Reorganizing the file layout so that the drive won't have to seek as
much. (Sadly I tried looking for an article that explained this, but I was
unable to find one, maybe due to the fact that I'm tired)
* Zipping the non-essential-for-boot/running small files in the image and
extracting them at the install process. Reading + extracting a 10 or 20MB
file should be faster than copying 10000 small files.
* Adding an option to Bootman / Installer to read CD contents to RAM
block-wise (as reading them file-wise would be even slower) and installing
from there. This could be autodetected (if lets say >1GB of RAM is
present) + an option to install using the old way, or just manual (force
the user to choose which way he wants to install it.
'''Conclusion'''
I think this can be considered important and not-as-important as well,
depending on from which side you look at it.[[BR]]While the current
installer works perfectly (which makes it not-as-important), the Haiku
installing process (and the boot from CD process as well to some point)
are considered slow. [[BR]]Those two processes (Install/Run-from-CD) are
one of the first things the user experiences when he tries Haiku. It does
not give a very good first impression if you ask me and this is what makes
it important.
__Haiku is coded and getting to be known for being a speedy OS, even on
old hardware.__[[BR]]It is actually faster for me to build Haiku and
install it directly to a partition than to install it from a CD and all
this on fairly modern hardware (HP 6530b notebook: C2D P8400/2GB Ram/160GB
Sata II HD)
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Ticket URL: <http://dev.haiku-os.org/ticket/6106>
Haiku <http://dev.haiku-os.org>
Haiku - the operating system.
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