Brisbane Install Fest

[Jared Norris]

On 29 December 2011 08:38, Chris Robinson <fabricator4 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I don't know about setting up a local repository, but I'll see if I can work
> something out.  It might be as simple as enabling the local drive as a valid
> source as you do for the install CD, but this doesn't get around the problem
> of updating the package lists.  I'm not sure how that works.

Yeah it sounds like a good idea but I don't know how useful it will
actually be. Unfortunately it was someone else's idea, I just happened
to implement the "download the whole Ubuntu repository and set up a
cron job to rsync every day" part of it.

> There's currently over 200Mb of update downloads required for a typical
> Oneiric install.  I do have a procedure for easily putting these on the
> target drive at install time so it gets around having to actually download
> them. (It's a script that you can run alongside the installer)  This doesn't
> get around the need to update the package lists either.  Even if we can't
> update the user's computer at the time of install I recommend we put the
> files on the target machine to improve the user experience when they get it
> home, with the warning that it's going to take 15 minutes or so to install
> all the updates which will have a performance hit.  Regardless, I recommend
> installing without updating, or even with an internet connection present.
> This speeds things up _immensely_ and the updates can be done later even
> while the user is using the machine.

Sounds great!

> I have a brand new 1.5Gb USB drive that can be used for backing up data if
> necessary.  It's something I'm used to doing for PC customers for
> re-installs, including the mail files for Outlook, Express etc.  Of course
> we need to ask before backing up, but most people will not have a problem
> with this.
>
> It's important to ask the question about data and backups before doing
> anything to a user's computer: In my experience people can have things like
> years of family photos on the hard drive that they've never bothered backing
> up, or in some cases have little idea of how to do it.

Exactly. I have a spare stack of CDRs that I'd be willing to take
along for people to burn to and keep "just in case".

> If someone wants Ubuntu installed alongside Windows how are we going to
> handle this?  I haven't done a lot of that, but my recollection is that it
> can take some time to defrag partitions and move them around, though
> defragging can speed up the move/resize quite a bit.  If time is an issue we
> might have to be satisfied with a Wubi install, though that can benefit from
> defragging the Windows partition also.

I haven't done anything to do with Windows outside using it at the
work office in over 5 years so I'm a bit out of date and practice. I
was hoping there'd be someone along who knew more than I but worst
case scenario I was going to scour
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot for pertinent
information.

> Chris
>

Thanks for your input, I look forward to see you and others there in
just over a week.


-- 
Regards,

Jared Norris JP(Qual) BBehSc(Psych)
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JaredNorris