MaverickOEMConfig

Revision 5 as of 2010-09-29 18:41:16

Clear message

Summary

We will add a slideshow to oem-config and smooth out some rough edges.

Release Note

oem-config now shows a slideshow while configuring the system. It now gracefully transitions back to the loading screen when starting the new X server.

Rationale

The current oem-config removal process is ugly and jarring. oem-config installation takes sufficiently long now to warrant making better use of our interaction with the user during that time.

User stories

  • An OEM would like to use the new slideshow feature in oem-config to display some highlights of their product.

Design

A slideshow will be created that derives from the normal ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu package. This derivative will not include some of the slides to better fit the shorter install time. It will also replace the first and last slides to avoid saying that the process is installation, rather than configuring, and that it will reboot when it is done.

Implementation

Slideshow

We will benchmark the time it takes oem-config to install, on average, and use that as a guide to select a number of slides that will fit within that timeframe. The new slideshow will be added as a dependency to oem-config, expressed as a virtual package so that derivative distributions may provide their own version.

Making oem-config distinction clear

When in oem-config mode, the title of the main window will be set to "configuring system" instead of the default "installing system" string.

oem-config removal

Instead of showing a GTK debconf frontend while removing oem-config, ubiquity will add debconf progress information for removing itself, and will do so while it is still running. It will take care to make sure that it's not tearing the ground out from under its own feet.

When it's done removing itself, ubiquity will start plymouth, preserving the contents of the framebuffer. If this is not possible with the current limitations imposed by X, ubiquity will show the plymouth theme instead.

Michael Terry has some code for this, and we will use his work as a basis for this implementation.

Test/Demo Plan

We will make sure this works smoothly on really slow machines. We will make sure that on sufficiently fast hardware that the install doesn't finish before the slideshow does.


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