KubuntuExpress

Revision 6 as of 2005-11-01 16:32:05

Clear message

Summary

Kubuntu Express - port UbuntuExpress to KDE to make sure Kubuntu has a live CD installer.

Rationale

Ubuntu Express will be an important feature of Dapper and we should have equivalent functionality in Kubuntu.

This means we will have a need for only 1 Kubuntu CD, which should make shipit a possibility for Kubuntu.

Scope and Use cases

Install Kubuntu from Live CD.

Design

The user interface for Ubuntu Express will be based on the current implementation of the Guadalinex installer. This has a clear separation of frontend and backend making it relatively easy to implement a new frontend in PyQt.

Ubuntu Express will integrate OEM Installer to reduce duplication in the installer. OEM Installer uses debconffilter as the interface to debconf, meaning we do not need to worry about Qt bindings to debconf.

gparted has been modified to include changes needed by ubuntu-express, listed in GraphicalPartitioningTool. Equivalent changes should be made in qtparted, principally to support mount points.

ubuntu-express will use portman, the partitioner from debian-installer. It is not yet clear how portman will be integrated with ubuntu-express and/or gparted but we should ensure equivalent changes are made in qtparted and kubuntu-express.

Implementation

PyQt uses Qt's tr translation system but we should ensure it uses Python's Gettext module and extend PyQT's userinterface compiler to generate .po files.

We should port OEM Installer to Qt. OEM Installer currently does not have clear separation between user interface and backend. While porting to Qt we should move OEM installer to have a better separation between frontend and backend, we should work with Kamion on these changes. This will give us an OEM Installer for Kubuntu and prepare for kubuntu-express.

qtparted has recently got a new upstream maintainer. We should work with them to get the changes needed for ubuntu-express back upstream.

The timescale for this is unclear at the moment as there is little point porting the current ubuntu-express if large parts of it will be modified soon. The initial work can be the changes to qtparted, then porting OEM installer then creating the Qt frontend to ubuntu-express.

Outstanding issues

impilinux already have a Qt based live installer for Ubuntu. We should make sure this gets uploaded to the ubuntu archives and use the best ideas in it for kubuntu-express.

BoF agenda and discussion

impilinux already have a Qt based live installer for Ubuntu.

BoF agenda and discussion