BaseSystemConfiguration

Differences between revisions 2 and 3
⇤ ← Revision 2 as of 2005-11-02 18:45:17 →
Size: 2747
Editor: 209
Comment: dump BOF notes
← Revision 3 as of 2005-11-02 20:19:08 → ⇥
Size: 2841
Editor: 209
Comment: some drafting
Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
Line 14: Line 14:
Possible things this component has to do: The base system configuration component(s) of UbuntuExpress needs to perform the following tasks (in cooperation with user interface code for each of GNOME and KDE):
Line 16: Line 16:
 0. Create User/Password.
 0. Possibly get language/i18n/timezone out of debconf (see UbuntuExpress/CopyFileSystem)		  * select language
 * select country
 * select timezone
 * select keymap
 * select username/password
 * select hostname
 * configure apt
Line 27: Line 32:

In the GNOME user interface (see UbuntuExpress/GnomeUserInterface), we can borrow a city map widget from Evolution to choose a city for the timezone. This implies the country, and gives us a good guess for the language, in conjunction with the bootloader language.

For keymap configuration, we will factor out the "select keymap based on pressing keys" widget from our existing installer (it is already quite cleanly separated) and add appropriate user interface code to it. We will select the keymap default based on that configured in the live CD.
Line 39: Line 48:
 * country (inferred from timezone?)
 * timezone
 * language
 * keymap
 * user's real name, username, and password
 * hostname
 * apt configuration

GNOME user interface will probably display a city map so that you can choose the timezone based on that; this implies country and gives us a good guess for language.
Line 57: Line 56:
keymap configuration:
 - factor out magic keymapper widget from existing installer (spread over cdebconf, kbd-chooser, console-data, keymapper), use in GNOME/KDE user interfaces if possible
 - definitely select keymap default from what's configured in the live CD (see other BOFs)

Summary

The Ubuntu Express Installer needs to configure the base system, to create a user and set a password. The Ubuntu installer already contains code to configure the base system, which we can reuse under the oem-config framework.

Rationale

The base system configuration component(s) of UbuntuExpress needs to perform the following tasks (in cooperation with user interface code for each of GNOME and KDE):

  • select language
  • select country
  • select timezone
  • select keymap
  • select username/password
  • select hostname
  • configure apt

Use cases

  1. Users want to have their own username and password.
  2. Users want the system in their language.

Scope

Design

In the GNOME user interface (see UbuntuExpress/GnomeUserInterface), we can borrow a city map widget from Evolution to choose a city for the timezone. This implies the country, and gives us a good guess for the language, in conjunction with the bootloader language.

For keymap configuration, we will factor out the "select keymap based on pressing keys" widget from our existing installer (it is already quite cleanly separated) and add appropriate user interface code to it. We will select the keymap default based on that configured in the live CD.

Implementation

Code

Data preservation and migration

Outstanding issues

BoF agenda and discussion

Guadalinex implementation already has username/password/hostname, just need some polish; some user interface debate about whether the hostname ought to be asked at all in a desktop install.

apt configuration:
 - need to regenerate by default so that we get local CC.archive.ubuntu.com mirrors
 - must honour customisations and not overwrite
  - ... including customisations made to the live CD filesystem before the user boots
 - nevertheless, may be useful for casper to use the new apt-setup udebs to generate a sample apt configuration as the live CD starts up, provided that the customiser doesn't forbid it from doing so (using some yet-to-be-invented mechanism)

how to get pieces only available as udebs? (unpack udebs somehow, or generate debs from each relevant source package)
 - in this case, the only things we care about are (I think) apt-setup and the keyboard configuration bits; apt-setup wants to generate a deb eventually anyway, and I can cope with building some for keymapper etc.

UbuntuExpress/BaseSystemConfiguration (last edited 2008-08-06 16:36:22 by localhost)