I try not to press for features (that's work!) but a ticket-style helpdesk system would help enormously.

The Possible Installer Static IP Problem

I can't confirm this right now because it came up with the remote provisioning that was setup for us.

The conditions were this:

- A KVM with remote access and its own dedicated access IP
- The KVM was attached to a box that should have its own assigned static IP
- The initial state was the Devuan installer welcome screen

The process I followed was:

- Proceed through installer as normal
- Installer automatically tries DHCP and failed
- Installer asks for static IP, subnet, etc...
- I made an error here and gave it the KVM's static IP (the host forgot to give me the dedicated one for the box)
- The drives were then formatted
- The automated package fetcher could not reach the internet to add packages
- I backed up and changed the static IP and then proceeded as normal.
- The automated package fetcher still could not reach the internet.
- I quit trying and proceeded with minimal base system install with reboot.
- At terminal prompt I login and inspect the network settings.
- The network settings were are all set to the static IP of the KVM (and not the new one I corrected with when I backed up)

My presumption is:

- The first static IP you set in the installer is the one you have to live with.
- If you back up and try to correct the IP it won't take and you'll need to correct manually from the terminal.

The only alternative explanation would be that it's somehow magically binding itself to the KVM's IP and ignoring the manual static settings altogether. I'm doubting this though. After correcting the network files manually from the terminal it ran like a champ.

Proposed Solution

Inspect ASCII installer to determine if static IPs can be retroactively corrected if user makes a mistake the first time.