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• Launchpad Entry: ubiquity-oem

• Packages affected: ubiquity, oem-config

Summary

Merge the OEM installation process into Ubiquity.

Release Note

OEMs can now install Ubuntu using the desktop CD.

Rationale

OEMs like to work with just the desktop CD, and by not having to bother with the alternate CD, they only have to worry about a single image.

Use Cases

• Comp-U Computers would like to use Ubuntu on their systems, but the use of the alternate installer and the inflexibility of the system makes preparing images difficult for them.
• Some OEMs cannot guarantee the video card or monitor on the end user's system, so need to reconfigure X at oem-config time. We do not want to do this across the board since some other OEMs may have carefully-crafted X configurations that they want preserved.

Design

The system will be brought into Ubiquity and several changes will be made to clarify and simplify the process for OEMs and users.

Implementation

Ubiquity

• Ubiquity will be taught to honour the same command-line argument used to enable oem-config in the alternate CD (now oem-config/enable=true in Gutsy). When this option is present, it will:

  • adjust its title bar to indicate that it is running in OEM mode [done, ubiquity 1.5.5];

  • hardcode the user's full name to "OEM Configuration (temporary user)", the username to "oem", and the UID to 29999 [done, ubiquity 1.5.5];

  • install the appropriate oem-config-FRONTEND package on the target system [done, ubiquity 1.5.5];

  • install an icon for oem-config-prepare on the oem user's desktop [done, ubiquity 1.5.5].

• oem-config-gtk or oem-config-kde as appropriate will be added to the ship-live seed [done, ubuntu.gutsy r988].

• Ubiquity will ask for an OEM ID which is saved as /var/log/installer/oem-id on the installed system. This could allow us to special-case around bugs in OEM images if necessary [done, ubiquity 1.5.5].

General oem-config improvements

• A hooks directory will be added to allow OEMs to provide additional code to further configure the system while the end user is running oem-config [done, oem-config 1.17].

  • Hooks will run noninteractively, although they will have access to the debconf database as long as they do not try to use the INPUT or GO commands.

• The hardware database notification will be disabled for OEM installs [done, oem-config 1.17].

• The oem user will be automatically logged in, removing the need to log in manually [done, oem-config 1.17].

UI changes

• oem-config's user configuration will be made to match the functionality in the user-setup page of Ubiquity. That is, it will include proper inline error checking [done, oem-config 1.17].

• An icon on the OEM desktop will replace the need to run sudo oem-config-prepare manually [done, oem-config 1.17].

• An indication that the user is in OEM mode will be added to the alternate CD by adding an oem-config-check component to d-i's initrd (similarly to rescue mode) [done, oem-config 1.15].

Documentation

• Additional documentation will be provided to the OEMs for common tasks such as reconfiguring GNOME settings.
• Note that reconfiguring X could replace some custom settings in xorg.conf created by the OEM.

Test/Demo Plan

[to be filled in during implementation]

CategorySpec