[packagekit] User Interaction needed

[Richard Hughes]

On Wed, 2008-03-12 at 19:50 +0100, Patryk Zawadzki wrote:
> May I ask for some other sort of interaction? Let the backend log
> events by capturing the output of transaction. What I seek is a way
> for an upgrade or installation script to tell the user or admin about
> some further steps required.

Already exists: Just use the Message() call.

> Just capturing the output and having the
> transaction viewer display an icon when there is a log available (and
> read the log) would be enough.

A good idea. What kind of icon would be a good idea? We can just emit
different /types/ of Messages() for each type of notification. What
types of message do we have? Could you draw up a short list and I'll add
them as enums.

> It's not super critical for the general
> use case but certainly an important thing when upgrading system
> services (the user is able to do so within the GUI but some services
> might need manual config checks after major version changes or even
> manual data import/export). It's hard to put such information in a
> different yet intuitive and equally reachable place.

Sure. Agree.

> In case of rpm all the files need to be available at the transaction
> commit time so I would expect most tools to copy the needed ones
> locally before asking you to switch media.

Okay, what about starting the transaction, and if we need to change
media then we do the file copy fro the first dist, then fail the
transaction with (ERROR_INSERT_DISK, Please insert dist 1 and retry) and
exit with EXIT_FAIL. The gui will come up, and then the user clicks
install again, and because the packages are already copyied then the
install continues. I think this is cleanest.

> Smart does a decent job here as it uses a weighted algorithm to pick
> the least invasive path without asking the user.

Sane.

Richard.