GraphicalInstallerDiscuss

Please note that the current plan is a unified live and installer cd. This should be available by early August.

The current Ubuntu installer operates essentially in text mode, though a simple framebuffer is used where available (for i18n/bterm). In the future, we would like to have a simple, usable, friendly, graphical installer.

The proposed target for this work is the Ubuntu 5.10 release (October 2005).

Milestones

  • We decided in Mataró that the most feasible option for the graphics system was likely to be GTK's linux-fb backend; our X maintainer has serious reservations about whether using X in the installer makes sense, with which I tend to agree. However, the linux-fb backend does need a bit of work, as it's been suffering from a lack of upstream maintenance. I have a patch which makes it build and somewhat run, but it fails to render any text; I can provide the patch to anyone who'd like to help to fix this. This work could go into Hoary if completed in time.
  • Some packaging work needs to be done on GTK to allow it to build
    • both the X11 and linux-fb backends in one go, and spit out linux-fb udebs. This work might be able to go into Hoary if completed in time.
  • Rebuild everything against the new GTK. At this point, we can make
    • it possible for people to test the installer in graphical mode relatively straightforwardly; before this point it requires an installer expert to put all the pieces together. However, it will still be a poor user interface.

Mataró BOF notes

  • current goal is hoary+1
  • design work needs to be done
  • installer exists now, but is ugly and hacky
  • infastructure problems
  • must decide on which backend (framebuffer or X)
  • Mdz mentioned notes about accessablity, other techinical details
  • neither X nor framebuffer may not be good on their one
  • X is big
  • framebuffer has problems with some hardware
  • no other distro has accessible installer
  • some techinical issues with access
  • possible use of live cd to hand off to installer, to get X11 working
  • live cd possibly not really right env? very blue sky?
  • access is long term goal
  • gtk - 2 lib for framebuffer and X
    • decision fb vs X is driven by technical needs, not access
    • no fully working fb lib in gtk
    • to alts gtkfb and gtkdirectfb
  • gtkfb
    • mainline, but not really supported, not really accelerated
    • 2d acceleration may be worth it
    • cannot support multiple apps, but d-i uses one app to handle all internal threads, so not needed
  • gtkdirectfb
    • not mainline, need cvs libraries
    • Daniel says that gtkdirectfb is crack and sort of broken
    • possible hardware support issues
  • no support for widget specific stuff in d-i
  • no support for interactive feedback
    • options to fix
      • write custom designs using glade
        • violates some of the protocols
    • extend the language the allow extra widget to cdebconf
  • currently installer is unthemed
    • themes require backend stuff
    • need to recompile themes again gtkfb
  • need to start working on the build process, as it will take a while if many people are working on it
  • lots of work needed on interface to grey out the stuff, drop down menus, other higgyness
    • Jeff played with glade, will put that on ubuntu-devel
  • Jeff raised comment about multiple questions on each page
  • Colin stated that glade is good
  • Graphical installers are good for displaying information about filesystem
    • possible import of gparted?
    • gparted means less integration with d-i
    • add more hardware types
  • Colin asked if we can start fb backend, can it be built in Hoary
  • Good to avoid a fork with the debian community
  • Possible use usplash to avoid ugly text stuff at the beginning
    • go away at point when asking for language
  • Other issue is after install,debconf
    • may not actually load X, in any case, no X loaded/configured
    • need to add things to debconf(progess bar?)
  • Will still support old frontends (that is current plan)

Discussion

From DagRuneSneeggen Tue Jan 11 07:13:17 +0000 2005 From: Dag Rune Sneeggen Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 07:13:17 +0000 Subject: Why not...? Message-ID: <20050111071317+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

Why not merge the live cd and the install cd? Ship only one cd, which is basically the live cd, but we could write a custom installer for it. Will GTK2 interface. This installer will be a graphical pre-install-configurator, installer, and post-install-configurator. Could be possible to have such an installer...? I don't see any technical barriers we can't overcome... The user would then boot up the new "live cd", and play around. If he likes it, he can click an icon on his desktop named "Install Ubuntu". This would of course warn him that his harddisk will be overwritten etc etc. This way we'd get the best of both worlds wouldn't we? If the problem is with space, could we strip some of the non-essential applications off the new "live cd", and have it be installed by apt-get automatically very late in the install progress?

Why can't this be done? Has it been thought of?

From MattZimmerman Tue Jan 11 19:25:30 +0000 2005 From: Matt Zimmerman Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 19:25:30 +0000 Subject: Re: Why not Message-ID: <20050111192530+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

Yes, this has been discussed, but is not very relevant to the development of the graphical installer itself. Until the graphical installer exists, it does not make sense to talk about where to put it on the CD.

Note that there is one serious technical barrier: there is not enough space on a CD for both the install data and the live CD data.

From TommasoR. Wed Jan 12 14:18:42 +0000 2005 From: Tommaso R. Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 14:18:42 +0000 Subject: Anaconda? Message-ID: <20050112141842+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

It isn't possible to port the existing installer Anaconda (see fedora core)?

From MattZimmerman Thu Jan 13 00:44:14 +0000 2005 From: Matt Zimmerman Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 00:44:14 +0000 Subject: Anaconda? Message-ID: <20050113004414+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org> In-Reply-To: <20050112141842+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

It is possible; whether it is the right idea is another matter entirely

From BrandonNolte Wed Jan 26 20:00:21 +0000 2005 From: Brandon Nolte Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 20:00:21 +0000 Subject: Anaconda... Message-ID: <20050126200021+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

Yes it is possible to port Anaconda to debian... In fact if you check out http://componentizedlinux.org/anaconda/ You will see that it has been done. Why don't we include this in Ubuntu. I have tested it out and it seems to work great.

From RubenVermeersch Thu Jan 27 08:56:29 +0000 2005 From: Ruben Vermeersch Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 08:56:29 +0000 Subject: Anaconda... Message-ID: <20050127085629+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org> In-Reply-To: <20050126200021+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

I personally, don't consider Anaconda a just-works installer, yes it works well, but it could improve a lot to offer the experience the current installer delivers. Like Matt said: "whether it is the right idea is another matter entirely"

From BrandonNolte Thu Jan 27 15:45:05 +0000 2005 From: Brandon Nolte Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 15:45:05 +0000 Subject: Anaconda? Message-ID: <20050127154505+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org> In-Reply-To: <20050113004414+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

I agree there is improvement to be had, But it is a good first step.

From R.StevenRainwater Thu Jan 27 16:07:54 +0000 2005 From: R. Steven Rainwater Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 16:07:54 +0000 Subject: Anaconda Message-ID: <20050127160754+0000@www.ubuntulinux.org>

Anaconda is GPL'd. It's intuitive. It's already used on lots of other distributions, so users will already be familiar with it. It's way better than installers I've used on any Debian-based distribution. It's not perfect but why not help improve it instead of re-inventing the wheel?

From JohnMoser Fri Jan 28 23:31:41 +0000 2005 From: John Moser Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 23:31:41 +0000 Subject: Anaconda Message-ID: <20050128233141+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

Anaconda could be rewritten to be more modular and driven by extensions. Each screen could be an extension plug-in, with a loose script to say how to procede. Actually, I'm just quoting my original design goals for Capsaicin, which again reminded me that I shouldn't start a SF project for s--- I'm not done designing.

From AndreNogueira Fri Feb 4 12:09:50 +0000 2005 From: Andre Nogueira Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 12:09:50 +0000 Subject: Graphic Design Help Message-ID: <20050204120950+0000@www.ubuntulinux.org>

I'm a graphic designer and also work with usability. I would like to help in the development of the Installer interface. How can I help? []s Andre

From MarceloLiradosSantos Sat Feb 5 00:43:45 +0000 2005 From: Marcelo Lira dos Santos Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 00:43:45 +0000 Subject: Anaconda Message-ID: <20050205004345+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org> In-Reply-To: <20050128233141+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

I really like the Anaconda installer, and though it worked fine on my computer, it refuse to install the system on two more old computers. But with the Ubuntu installer all went OK.

From AlfonsodeCala Mon Feb 7 13:09:50 +0000 2005 From: Alfonso de Cala Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2005 13:09:50 +0000 Subject: Choices Message-ID: <20050207130950+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

We have tested Anaconda, Debian Installer and Metadistros. The first one is nice, but slow. D-I is not bad, but need graphical interface and it's really hard to hack. Metadistro is the only one installing from Live-CD, not using packages. If you take a look on Metadistros, you'll find a lot of patched scripts, difficult to trace. But the final result is really good. A graphical installer, very user-friendly, with clear dialogs and many options, as using to whole disk or resizing your partitions. IMHO, Metadistros has got the options, but not the right code. They were porting everything to Python but I'm afraid they need some help.

From AlfonsodeCala Mon Feb 7 14:42:32 +0000 2005 From: Alfonso de Cala Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2005 14:42:32 +0000 Subject: Metadistro Message-ID: <20050207144232+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

I forgot the URL: http://metadistros.software-libre.org/en/index.php (a new web, maybe incomplete)

From JaapHaitsma Fri Feb 25 10:42:20 +0000 2005 From: Jaap Haitsma Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 10:42:20 +0000 Subject: Live CD Installer Message-ID: <20050225104220+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

Zen Linux http://www.zenlinux.org/drupal/ has a live CD installer which is 100% compatible with the Debian installer. So I guess it might be possible to change that installer so that it is compatible with ubuntu.

From IanOliver Sat Mar 5 14:54:22 +0000 2005 From: Ian Oliver Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 14:54:22 +0000 Subject: Mepis is also well worth looking at Message-ID: <20050305145422+0000@www.ubuntulinux.org>

Mepis is distributed as just the Live CD. You boot off this, play around, make sure you're happy and then just run the installer from its desktop. Dunno how they have room as Mepis is in many ways a more complete distribution than Ubuntu.

From YathiRaj Tue Apr 12 13:49:31 +0100 2005 From: Yathi Raj Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 13:49:31 +0100 Subject: Re:Why Not Message-ID: <20050412134931+0100@www.ubuntulinux.org>

How about using the information (like dependencies) in the deb database of the installed system in the live cd and giving user to select the package that he wants to install insted of installing the entire system?

From JonathanCarter, 09:26 +0200 (Commented on wikipage: GraphicalInstaller)

I like the idea of using the GTK-linuxfb backend. Do we really need a massive system like xorg, just to install the system? Either way, I think an install system such as this will be beneficial in the long run.

From RobertStoffers

I haven't seen any mention of Pretty Good Installer (PGI) yet. PGI is a system for creating graphical and text based installers for the Debian GNU/Linux operating system. I'm sure this could be hacked into something useful to Ubuntu.

Here are some links:

Also see the detailed userguide (xml):

From Viper 550

Okay, I think the installer should be kept as is, but with a few major adjustments: * I don't know if it can be used like this, but we could use GPM to allow mouse usage in the text based installer...if that is actually possible Smile :)

* As I kinda know, if you use Black anywhere on Framebuffer backgrounds, it becomes automatically the background (http://www.ffnn.nl/pages/gallery/initializing-via-ftp94.php hint hint). I thought that we could still make the installer look good by putting a nice background and changing all the blue in the interface to black and put on a backdrop.

ubuntucool_installer.jpg

From Viper550

Okay, bring down the GraphicalInstaller house, we don't need it anymore, Debian is suppling now! http://www.osdir.com/Article7765.phtml

How cool, Debian finally makes a native graphical installer that just works, Dapper Drake, here we come graphically! Now all that installer needs is Usplash and we are on our way!

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GraphicalInstallerDiscuss (last edited 2008-08-06 16:38:07 by localhost)