Bug#1043226: debian-installer: Please consider moving root user setup to expert install, or change text
Source: debian-installer
Version: 20230607+deb12u1
Severity: wishlist
Dear Maintainer,
When setting up users and passwords in debian-installer in a default install,
it prompts a user to set up a root password. In d-i, this works very different
than in other installers, which causes quite a bit of confusion for users.
Firstly, the instructions start off with "You need to set a password for
'root'", followed by seemingly uninteresting text about what a good password
should be, which makes it incredibly easy for users to miss the part that sudo
won't be set up for the first user.
So, many users, and especially newcomers to Debian, follow the instructions in the
first line and are then surprised when they can't use sudo from their user from
their newly installed system.
Would it perhaps make more sense to move the root password setup to the expert
install d-i preseed entirely? Since this is likely only something that expert
users would require in the first place? Either that, or move the explanation
of what happens upward so that it's more prominent and not so easy to miss. In
the latter case, it might also be worth while changing the first line that says
"you need to..." so that user won't feel compelled to immediately start typing
a root password and click on next.
Thank you for considering,
-Jonathan
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