useability for dummies

[Mikus Grinbergs]

Today several packages showed up (in more than one repository!)
without being signed with public keys.  Since I did not know how
to overcome the "safeguards" which 'smart --gui' imposed, I
ended up going to /var/lib/smart/packages (where 'smart --gui'
had downloaded them but refused to proceed with the install)
and issued 'rpm -Uvh *.rpm'.  That installed those packages -
*without* giving me a fuss !!!

Afterward, I went looking for a 'smart' mechanism to accept such
packages.  (With 'apt-get', its config file's comments told me
what to change to get this done.)  For 'smart', I found in the
depths of the wiki a description of 'smart config --set
rpm-check-signatures=false'.  Haven't tried it, but sounds like
it should work.


My point is that 'smart config' is not even mentioned by 'smart
--help'.  When faced with an ABORTED 'apply' of a whole bunch of
updated packages, is it reasonable to expect computer users to
go searching wikis for obscure incantations ?

At the least, 'smart' ought to have an option "keep going, don't
abort" (usable even by dummies) that would install the remaining
packages (if downloaded and approved, and with their dependencies
met) even if some packages in an 'apply' batch had problems.


mikus  (running on SuSE 10.1)