Possibility of accepting a network-based installer of Ubuntu as an official flavor?

[Aaron Rainbolt]

On 2/24/23 02:55, Lukasz Zemczak wrote:
> Hey Aaron!
>
> Actually, this is the one thing that sucks when we don't publish our
> team's roadmaps to the public (which I'm trying our team to start
> doing, but it's so busy recently that we didn't manage to yet): there
> is work ongoing on something like this - and actually this cycle!
>
> The MPs for that are still in flight, but Dan Bungert, the maintainer
> of subiquity, is working on a project called ubuntu-mini-iso. We
> already had a prototype done and tested, but now we're trying to land
> all of that to be built by the official infrastructure. The idea is a
> bit similar to what you described, but with a small difference on how
> the system-to-install is being downloaded for installation.
>
> The ubuntu-mini-iso is a small bootable iso that can be either
> downloaded and used on a CD/USB-drive or even via UEFI HTTP that
> brings up a dynamic TUI menu of what Ubuntu images you want to
> download/install to your target system. It uses simplestreams to
> select which images, so it'll be quite customizable regarding the
> selection. The difference is that it then downloads the
> iso-of-interest into memory and chain-boots into it, allowing the
> installation of any image as one would normally do. This has some
> limitations of course, since it needs sufficiently enough RAM.
>
> I'm pretty sure Dan can give more details about this when he's up and
> running. We expect this to be part of lunar in the next weeks.
>
> Cheers,

That's awesome! I'll be watching for this, and if it's welcome, possibly 
trying to contribute to it eventually. Thanks for letting me know!

> On Fri, 24 Feb 2023 at 04:54, Aaron Rainbolt <arraybolt3 at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>> Note, I'm asking this *very* early. I don't have the project I have in
>> mind even started yet. I'm not even sure what I want to name this
>> project. This is more of a "testing the waters" to see if this kind of
>> thing is even a possibility before getting started.
>>
>> I've seen more than one person annoyed by the fact that the mini.iso
>> netinstaller is no more. It was never officially supported anyway, but
>> apparently people got use out of it, so it seems like something that
>> would be handy if it still existed. I'm sure we're not going to start
>> producing it again, so I got the idea of making something that could act
>> somewhat similar to it. I asked people about this idea on Mastodon and
>> the response seemed fairly positive.
>>
>> My idea is to either write my own installer or use a customized version
>> of the existing Debian installer, and package it into a "flavor" of its
>> own, which would be capable of installing any supported version of any
>> official flavor of Ubuntu. The "flavor" would be able to be held in a
>> very small ISO file (preferably CD sized), and it would download and
>> install all of the packages that make up the Ubuntu system at runtime.
>> This would allow a user to install Ubuntu or any desired flavor thereof
>> using a single installation medium, rather than having to flash an ISO
>> every time they want to make a drive install a different flavor. The new
>> installation would be entirely up-to-date from the get-go, and it would
>> enable the use of existing small storage media for those users who don't
>> have sufficiently sized optical discs or flash drives.
>>
>> I would eventually aim to make this into an official flavor of Ubuntu,
>> however it would differ from all existing flavors in several significant
>> ways:
>>
>> * It would be the first flavor that could not be installed onto a target
>> system by itself.
>> * It would be the first flavor that could install other flavors onto a
>> target system by design.
>> * It would be the first flavor that could install versions of Ubuntu
>> other than the one it is based on.
>> * It would have a different installer than any existing flavor of Ubuntu
>> most likely, and would not be able to make use of existing official
>> installers in any meaningful way without large changes to one of them.
>>
>> Because of these differences, I'm not sure if such a project could ever
>> become an official flavor, and I may end up simply maintaining it as an
>> unofficial installer by myself should I end up doing it.
>>
>> Is this kind of project a possible candidate for becoming an official
>> Ubuntu Flavor, or is this enough info to declare it as not a possible
>> candidate?
>>
>> Thanks for your time.
>>
>> --
>> Aaron Rainbolt
>> Lubuntu Developer
>> https://github.com/ArrayBolt3
>> https://launchpad.net/~arraybolt3
>> @arraybolt3:lubuntu.me on Matrix, arraybolt3 on irc.libera.chat
>>
>> --
>> ubuntu-devel mailing list
>> ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
>
>
-- 
Aaron Rainbolt
Lubuntu Developer
https://github.com/ArrayBolt3
https://launchpad.net/~arraybolt3
@arraybolt3:lubuntu.me on Matrix, arraybolt3 on irc.libera.chat

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