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Revision 33 as of 2007-01-19 00:57:35

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Please insert comments concerning [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/install.exe install.exe] here.

  • Launchpad entry: https://features.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/windows-installer

  • Created: 12/15/06 by GezaKovacs

  • Prototype: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/install.exe/Prototype

  • Use debian-installer with preseed + official images as opposed to custom images, that would address a lot of current issues and make the installer more robust and more appealing as an official delivery tool. I should be able to contribute some code soon. --AgostinoRusso

  • Make grub autodetect the root using the command find --setroot, you also need to modify the initrd in order to dynamically discover the windows device, I will send you the script soon. Add other nice grub improvements like fallbacks and savedefault. --AgostinoRusso

  • If d-i is used you can ask for the password during installation and there is no need to save it on a file. It will use the text-based dialog, but security is more important than eyecandy. --AgostinoRusso

  • Run a battery of tests before installing anything, particularly check disk space, user rights, and blacklisted hardware (with special attention to networking). Inform the user about possible issues beforehand. Shaping expectations as early as possible is very important. --AgostinoRusso

  • Make sure that boot.ini is writeable, some users reported that it was not modified. --AgostinoRusso

  • In the nsis wizard, instead of asking several questions, have a single window saying: I am going to install Ubuntu with these settings (which are autodetected). Install, Cancel. There should be 2 tabs: general settings, advanced settings. The settings are links that display an appropriate wizard so that you can easily change them (have some cool hoover effect, like transforming a label into a button). Advanced Settings will contain things like installation location, root.img size, whether to use a new/existing home.img, download method (http/ftp/torrent), mirror selection, what documents to import, what Ubuntu version to use... Use icons whenever possible, so show a keyboard next to keyboard layout and a clock next to timezone. The dialog is shown after the user approves an appropriate EULA. This will make it a true 1 click installation. --AgostinoRusso

Ubuntu Installer

General Settings

Advanced Settings

* Keyboard = US

* Timezone = NY

* Username = XXX

* Graphical Interface = Default

Install

Cancel

  • Bootloader: installing (a modified) grub on MBR sounds already a little invasive. I suggest leaving Windows' bootloader in place, which is also pretty easy to configure in order to chainload for instance grldr (grub for Windows). --TormodVolden

  • Using bittorrent might not be a good idea. A lot of users at home are behind a router which will severely degrade download speeds if not specifically configured for bittorrent. Also at many colleges and on a few ISPs bittorrent traffic is blocked all together making it impossible to use altogether.

    • Yes, we'll hopefully have it also available for download via http once we find a good mirror. I just made a sourceforge page for this project, and it is pending approval. Once it is approved, we will hopefully be able to host the files on sourceforge. --GezaKovacs

  • Please make sure that the installer makes it clear that Canonical cannot support the result of using this installer. (We've had installer bugs in the past that required workarounds in the distribution, so this is a serious concern.) Creating /var/log/installer/version with the name and version of this installer (as Ubiquity does) would be appropriate. --ColinWatson

  • Some issues: First, the password selected is saved unencrypted along with the username in C:\ubuntu\config.ini. Given the fact that users tend to reuse credentials, this is a security problem. Second, I propose that the path should be changeable to allow the installation on other drives than C:. Third, now that Ubuntu is already on a windows partition, I wondered whether it is possible to bring qemu to the party, thus allowing to use Ubuntu both from booting directly and in a virtual box. --MarkusZywitza

    • Not a good idea, in my opinion. QEMU uses completely different virtual hardware from the real host machine, so we'd need to change the hardware configuration every reboot. That would lead to major hardware issues.--GezaKovacs

  • I'm going to second the nomination for an other-than-C installation root. Corporations partition drives into two slices, the OS slice on C and the data slice on D. I'd prefer to keep the Ubuntu install on the data slice, as that is less likely to be affected by corporate updates to the Windows install, etc. Remember, one of your use cases is corporate, and bringing an unsupported OS into some places is a very big deal. You want to make this very flexible to increase adoption and avoid obstacles of your own making. --ChristopherWanko

* Tried installing in Windows Vista. It installed okay, but apparently Vista doesn't use boot.ini anymore for its booting. It uses a new program called bootmgr.exe. Here's some info about it: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/85cd5efe-c349-427c-b035-c2719d4af7781033.mspx?mfr=true It helped me understand it a bit. Also, Wikipedia helped: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista_Startup_Process I tried adding the boot info to it myself (to do so, you have to use a command line program called bcdedit.exe and it requires you to run from cmd.exe as an administrator). I couldn't get the boot working, though. Also, apparently if you want multiple OS's installed on a machine running Vista, you have to install the old OS that uses boot.ini first, then Vista...and even then, it still uses Vista's boot manager. --ChrisBossardet

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