Ubiquity Proposal - Add "minimal" setup with kernel parameter

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

Carl Richell wrote on 11/07/17 16:31:
>…
> [1] KB layout currently comes after “Installation Type”. Users can’t
> set their layout before typing a full-disk encryption password.

This is "Local keyboard layout is selected only after entering full
system encryption key" <https://launchpad.net/bugs/1529276>.

There are other similar problems:

*   "OEM ID prompt comes before keyboard layout has been set up"
    <https://launchpad.net/bugs/290421>

*   "Timezone select before keyboard select"
    <https://launchpad.net/bugs/630990>

*   "wrong keyboard layout to enter wifi credential on a non-us
    keyboard" <https://launchpad.net/bugs/871752>

>                                                                 Moving
> KB layout forward would fix this. However, Ubuntu uses the first
> Welcome Screen to display both language and “Try Ubuntu” or “Install
> Ubuntu”. A couple of ideas:
> 
>  1. Boot to a live environment with a “Install Ubuntu” icon on the
>     desktop.
> 
>  2. For a “complete” Ubiquity install, move KB layout after the
>     Welcome Screen.

Besides the design difficulty you raise, hard-coding the keyboard layout
step to the beginning would have two other drawbacks:

*   If you do not encounter any keyboard-requiring steps before the
    installer starts writing to disk, moving the layout choice before
    that point would needlessly increase overall time-to-install.

*   If typing in the first text field you encounter makes you realize
    you chose the wrong layout, you could use the keyboard menu at the
    top of the screen to correct this … but probably you won’t. Probably
    you’ll use the same UI that you used to choose the layout a minute
    or so ago; that is, you’ll go back to the keyboard layout step of
    the installer. The more steps there are between that, and where you
    are now, the slower and more brittle this navigation will be.
    (Unfortunately, Ubiquity has several bugs of the form “Going back to
    step X doesn’t remember exactly what I chose last time”.)

So in the design spec, I took a different approach: “The ‘Keyboard
layout’ screen should appear immediately before whichever is the first
keyboard-requiring step. This might be, for example, ‘Connect to the
Internet’, ‘Allocate disk space’, or ‘Where are you’.”
<https://goo.gl/CKoyUW>

Unfortunately, no-one has implemented that detail yet. I’d be delighted
if someone could.

> [2] Hostname is currently on the “Who are you?” screen. It uses the
> username and DMI information to populate the hostname. We propose
> using the same DMI information, adding 4 hexadecimals to the end (a
> checksum of the MAC address “Galag-Pro-A8F3”), and moving the
> hostname up to the “Installation Type” screen. This enables “minimal”
> installs to set the hostname and business customers can install the
> OS on multiple machines, with automatic or custom hostnames, then give
> the computer to their user for account setup.

I’m not sure why the installer still asks for a hostname at all (the
spec suggests we were going to drop it). But if it is retained, I don’t
think “Installation type” would be a good place for it. This step is
asking a complex and highly consequential question, and each additional
question would distract from it. Also, at least some of the choices
would imply keeping the existing hostname rather than asking for a new
one, in which case you shouldn’t need to see the field at all.

Cheers
-- 
mpt