Feature/UX request: Package download status after installation of update
-
Hey all,
I must admit I do not use pfsense for work purposes, and finances are tight, so I can't afford to pay for this change at this time, so I apologise for that in advance.
When I do an update, or a restore, I get a lovely image of the insides of a hard drive spinning on all of the pages I visit on my pfsense box (see attached).
Unfortunately this doesn't give me any indication of what it is installing, or when it will complete, so I have to blindly wait for it.
Would it be feasible to have a completion bar, with approximate time (or even just a %) to completion to be added to the GUI for this? - It would make the user experience for upgrades/restores much better.
Would be even better if there was a rectangular box which displayed something similar to the package/update pages, showing what is being downloaded and installed.
Just a thought
-
That would be nice - maybe just even to say the list of packages being installed and what package is currently being processed. Should be easy enough to output that sort of progress status to a file as the console moves through the reinstall process, then read from the file and display in the GUI.
But you can look in Status->SystemLogs, and progress messages are in there. It is a bit noisy, but you can still see how it is going without needing to get to the real console.
-
The list is printed in the system log. May not be hard to turn that into a file in /tmp (perhaps dump it as an array and serialize it) and then as packages install it could update the file and read it out in the GUI display.
Wouldn't be precise inside the install, but it would at least give an idea where it's at, e.g. "Reinstalling package 5 of 7: sudo / Packages Remaining: blah, foo"
-
Adding to this, a number of dialogs are "blocked off" during update, where there's no need. As long as the user can't make changes during updating (the page is made "read-only"), there's no harm letting them view pages like firmware/packages, even while an update is happening.
-
Adding to this, a number of dialogs are "blocked off" during update, where there's no need. As long as the user can't make changes during updating (the page is made "read-only"), there's no harm letting them view pages like firmware/packages, even while an update is happening.
They are blocked off on purpose and for good reason. That won't change. Too much room for error otherwise.
-
Wouldn't be precise inside the install, but it would at least give an idea where it's at, e.g. "Reinstalling package 5 of 7: sudo / Packages Remaining: blah, foo"
This is exactly what I'm talking about - doesn't have to be complicated - even a single line eg - "Currently installing X of Y packages, Current package: <foo>- #% complete , Approximate time to complete installation of packages: Min:Sec"
Even if it's not precise, at least you know roughly at a glance: a. it's doing something and hasn't hit a hard stall, b. where it's at.</foo>
-
The time estimate is not possible, but the total number and current package should be.
-
The easiest for this is for packages installed to tirgger a notice if installation was ok or not.
This way no complication will arise. -
The time estimate is not possible, but the total number and current package should be.
Well that still gives you the info that I was talking about so I'd be happy :)
Even if it's not precise, at least you know roughly at a glance: a. it's doing something and hasn't hit a hard stall, b. where it's at.
So revised "Currently installing X of Y packages, Current package: <foo>- #% complete"</foo>
