Re: Easier installer?

[Samuel Thibault <sthibault@debian.org>]

Hello,

Wouter Verhelst, on jeu. 16 nov. 2017 12:53:16 +0100, wrote:
> I can't help but notice that their current installer is extremely easy
> to use; and that, as compared to ours, it seems like a huge step
> forwards:
> 
> - First screen of the installer allows to select a language
> - Second screen has three sections: "Localisation" (which has a button
>   for selecting the keyboard layout, one for language support allowing
>   to select additional languages, and one for time/date settings),
>   "Software" (with a button for the installation source and their
>   equivalent of tasksel), and "System" (which has a button for their
>   partitioner and one for the network configuration)
> - The partitioner defaults to "automatic partitioning", but you have to
>   enter it and confirm it by selecting the proper hard disk (presumably
>   so you can't accidentally overwrite your data)
> - Once you make the correct settings in that screen, you click on "Start
>   installation". The next screen will cause the actual installation to
>   start (i.e., the installer will partition & format hard disks, start
>   downloading packages, and install them). It also has two buttons for
>   user settings (you can enter a root password and/or create a non-root
>   user).
> 
> ... and that's it.

In Debian, using netinst, we have

- language
- country
- keyboard
- hostname
- domain name, which we could arguably make expert-only, I don't
  remember having to use it.
- password
- username
- timezone, for countries which need it
- confirmation for automatic partitioning
- disk selection
- partitioning layout
- confirmation

then the base system gets installed, then

- prompt for additional CD input
- mirror selection, perhaps we could just use deb.debian.org by default,
  I don't know if that works nice enough nowadays.
- http proxy (yes, one just can't skip it in quite a few places)
- package installation poll (we do want to ask the question)
- task selection
- bootloader installation (we really can not avoid this step, it poses
  too many problems).

and that's it.

That's a bit more items, but not by so much.

> e.g., we could write a udeb which asks
> the user as many questions as possible without moving on, and then uses
> preseeding to preset settings for the current udebs.

I don't really see the difference between that proposal and what we
are already doing except for the questions which are asked after base
installation.

> Such an installer wouldn't support *every* use case, but that's fine;

The problem is that some questions really have to be asked, because no
default can really be sanely set, e.g. username.

> since, in essence, we'd just be providing an alternate UI to the same
> installer, people who need some of the more advanced options can ditch
> the hand-holding UI and switch to the advanced UI. We could add a
> button "skip this screen" to make that easier, if needs be.

That actually triggers me another thought: the installers you are
talking about ask basically the same set of questions, not so much
less. The main difference is that they are asked together in a dialog
box. I can understand that this can be less stressing for inexperienced
users: it's easier to leave things as defaults when it's all preset in a
dialog box and you just click "ok" than when one has to answer questions
one after the other, which can be stressing.

I can understand that *that* can make a difference, and that could be
implemented indeed, to preseed the rest of questions. The difficult part
is to make sure that all such questions will be preseeded.

Samuel