Fwd: Re: Ubiquity Proposal - Add "minimal" setup with kernel parameter

Tue Jul 25 17:07:02 UTC 2017

for information - specifically the end :)

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Re: Ubiquity Proposal - Add "minimal" setup with kernel parameter
Date: 	Tue, 25 Jul 2017 12:46:42 -0400
From: 	Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <mathieu.tl at gmail.com>
To: 	Carl Richell <carl at system76.com>, ubuntu-devel 
<ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com>
CC: 	Ubuntu Desktop Discussion <ubuntu-desktop at lists.ubuntu.com>

On Tue, Jul 11, 2017 at 11:31 AM, Carl Richell <carl at system76.com 
<mailto:carl at system76.com>> wrote:

    System76 would like to use GNOME Initial Setup for user
    configuration. Currently, there is duplication with Ubiquity.

    We propose changing Ubiquity to add a “minimal” mode, triggered by a
    kernel parameter (a flag similar to how OEM install is triggered
    now). This enables flavors to use whichever version makes sense for
    them. System76’s Pop!_OS and the elementary OS team are interested
    in using “minimal”. Minimal might be attractive to Ubuntu w/ GNOME
    as well.

    “Minimal” will contain the least amount necessary to install the OS.
    We also prefer off-line installs with minimal which would remove
    options to download updates or install 3rdparty software during
    install. This requires adding language packs to the iso when using
    minimal.

Why could this not be a variation on the OEM install type instead? 
Installation can proceed as usual, but presumably you don't already know 
the name of the user you're installing for. In all install cases you'll 
need to at least take the steps of picking a language and keyboard 
mapping for the installer (in case you need to also enter other 
information, such as the OEM ID we ask for to differentiate OEM install 
batches, crypto password, network authentication to reach a mirror, 
etc.). The difference is that when you do an OEM install, you do the 
file copying phase, reboot into an "OEM preparation" environment, so 
that you can do any further customization of the actual setup 
(pre-installing some software that wasn't done automatically, checking 
to make sure everything is as it should, etc). Then you can tell the 
system that everything is ready, and reboot into the "real" system 
customization phase that is done by the end user: user name, hostname, 
timezone, and all of that jazz. Doing so via oem-config or GNOME Initial 
Setup could just as well be a decision left to the OEM provider.

    Minimal screens:

    Welcome/Language Select - change: add KB Layout [1]

    Installation Type - change: move hostname here [2]

    If full disk encryption is chosen, Choose Security Key screen.

    --Timezone: we’d like to remove timezone but Ubiquity is crashing
    when we do so. More investigation is necessary.

    [1] KB layout currently comes after “Installation Type”. Users can’t
    set their layout before typing a full-disk encryption password.
    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:

I don't question the need to move the keyboard setup earlier, it just 
never got to the top of my priority list. That said, there's already an 
easy workaround, you can choose exactly what keyboard mapping you want 
before you pick "Try" or "Install" if you booted in BIOS mode (I know, 
that doesn't work in UEFI yet). We'll get to fixing this eventually 
(sorry!).

    [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.

What would setting the hostname earlier actually bring as a benefit? You 
can already set automatic/custom hostnames as an enterprise policy via 
preseeding or via DHCP. For factory systems, it seems to me like there 
is no benefit in setting any hostname at all (or if there is, please let 
me know); it's a user decision what they want to call their machine. In 
an enterprise setting, I would usually not expect people to use an 
OEM-type install (even your 'minimal' proposal), but rather preseed the 
installation parameters and only leave to users the few decisions that 
would make sense -- in an enterprise setting, this often doesn't even 
include the username.

Making users further go through GNOME Initial Setup should already be 
possible by configuring the final system via a preseed (ie. install the 
right package, but the right files in so it starts when you log in).

My concerns with this are mainly that many of the "advantages" listed in 
the design document [1] for Initial Setup are already covered by 
ubiquity as far as I can tell (speed of install, being able to do 
unattended installs, etc.); with the benefit that it's not tied to any 
particular desktop environment: ubiquity (oem-config) should work just 
as well for any desktop environment, without requiring the use of GNOME 
software (some flavours may not want to use some, for various reasons). 
We let the end user make customization decisions as late as possible so 
that we don't block the installation unnecessarily while the user picks 
a hostname or username. In my experience that tends to fit nicely in the 
time it takes to complete the file copy (but otherwise, you're not 
blocking the end of the installation much either).

I'm all for improving ubiquity by removing code duplication, doing a big 
cleanup in that monstrous codebase, and simplifying the installation 
process in general, but right now it seems to me like GNOME Initial 
Setup would only solve this for a fraction of our users.

Could you come up with a code branch that does what you want and knows 
to install GNOME Initial Setup, or with a pre-made image that mocks up 
how you see things, so that we could play with it?

As for the flavours, aside for Kubuntu where shipping Initial Setup 
would be bad (take up more space on their image and look very odd); how 
do you feel about having such an Initial Setup step? How would it look?

[1] https://wiki.gnome.org/Design/OS/InitialSetup

/ Matt

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