Suggestion: Installation Program for Windows

[Todd Deshane]

On 6/30/05, michael <installer at dslextreme.com> wrote:
> 
> > > anybody who goes through so much trouble will probably be better of
> > > with a live distro
> 
> > looks like a livecd installer is the goal.
> > http://udu.wiki.ubuntu.com/GraphicalInstaller
> 
> If I want to show someone what linux is, a LiveCD is the right tool to
> use, and a LiveCD installer would be even better. However, many Windows
> users do not even know how to burn a CD. They know how to download and
> install programs like AIM or WinZip, but they have no idea what to do
> with an ISO image. A program that would allow inexperienced users to
> install linux as easily as AIM or WinZip would open up linux to many
> more people.
> 
> > For breezy they are working on an OEM installer to
> > "Provide an installation method which is suitable for OEMs."
> > http://udu.wiki.ubuntu.com/OEMInstaller
> > That could be used for the first boot part.
> 
> Good thought.
> 
> > I think once you can do the process manually successfully and
> > reliable, someone could then help with the programming details.
> > And with the breezy pieces you could use out of the box peices
> > it looks like. I have no experience with WINGRUB or GRUB4DOS,
> > but if you can provide a howto on the process you want tested
> > i could probably test in the windows lab at school.
> 
> I actually have done this process manually. I've just created a wiki
> page at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallUbuntuWithoutRemoveableMedia to
> describe the procedure. Let me know how it goes for you.


It worked pretty well. I think it has a lot of potential, especially
when the ubuntu installer is a little easier to use, does 
partitioning/resizing
for you and graphical would be a plus.

A few comments/corrections for you:
By default windows doesn't know what to do with tar.gz file
so I had to download 7-zip (probably not a big issue, especially
if the first part was done by an installer)

the menu.lst file goes in c:\boot\grub (you can update the wiki)

The is a problem with how the menu.lst file shows up on the
wiki, it looks like it is all on one line and there is a file:////{{{ 
in there that might be confusing if you don't know how to setup
grub.

And the rest of my issues are with the installer itself, which
hopefully will be taken care of with breezy.
(for example my country, the us, wasn't in the list of mirrors)

I think this has a lot of potential and should be done as a 
simple windows installer as you mentioned, (including the
post install)

Also, if we could leverage the customizable installer
to let the user decide how to do partitioning, how much
space to use etc. (give defaults of letting the ubuntu installer
do the work, but if they have a partition set aside or are more
comfortably doing things their way let them)

I would like to see this roll out with breezy as an alternate
way to install, i can see your point that people don't know
what to do with a live or install cd, but if they think they are
installing ubuntu like an application, they might feel more
comfortable, (windows users are more used to the overhead
of rebooting a lot post installs etc.)

Have you found any interest from anyone that is willing
to create the windows side of the installer?

Regards,
Todd


Michael
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