Elive Installer fixes

[thanatermesis]

Remaining work:

Critical Tasks

• BUG in the holded packages, packages are not hold after to install (nvidia/ati + the rest of drivers/kernel ones)
• Rewrite entirely all the mount/umount calls, it is still doing that strange "UFS" bug in dmesg by kernel panics, only umount when is really needed (especially the umount-all thingy) Looks like fixed by disabling UFS from os-prober
• BUG: Finish the system of installer-module:
  • Do backup of keys when cleaning system (secured to not delete them)
  • Verify the re-use of previously downloaded installer-modules
• Delete the booting disk (live usb) from the list of devices where to install grub in, for example, we have normal disk sda and usb live sdb, then there's a question about where to install.. of course we want only sda (disk)

Tasks

• postinstall-user: Automatic sizes of fonts for detected resolutions, everybody should want small fonts on small screens
• FIXME lines remaining IN the code of the Installer
• Add the size of the partitions at the left part when listing it
• SWAP partitions are not available for select in the list of partitions to select (to install Elive under)
• Set a "Elive" label for the formatted partitions
• remove LVM (others that annoy by filling up the init process?) features when install if not needed, also mdadm, check if is needed other things to remove
• Selector of things to disable/remove:
  • daemons
  • logs system
  • some cronjobs
  • updatedb: Removed by default now
• Selector of extra things to install (if internet):
  • ntpdate
• remove lilo entirely for macbooks mode (remove packages, remove code, see deliver)
• Prepare the system for a possible future usage of pre-payed installation (imagine a shop that sells computers with Elive pre-installed), brainstorm that and make the installer ready to work on this possibility, also is needed to add an explanation to the website about that
• If user selects an external /home partition, show a message saying that if the user is waiting to re-use the same home partition with 2 systems that it is not possible, the reasons of why this is not good, and possible solutions to do this (see the Thana's way)
• Ask the user for a list of packages they want to install in the new system (in advanced mode and if internet), so that this list will be saved in /etc for future Elive installs, editable at all the times
  • If the installation of these packages fails, see the error and remove the failed package from the list, then try again
• If no internet found, explain the steps about how to use the installer-module without internet
• Macbook: Depends of: mbr, refit (check the list of packages for the special macbook's iso)
• Add a detector of errors in the hard disks (what possible causes ?: ati ? reformat hard-disk entirely ? run a badblocks ?), by: dmesg | grep -i error | grep "I/O" | grep sector
  •  http://pastebin.com/f60f1df30  http://pastebin.com/f650443fe  http://pastebin.com/mff02771 , (xwall)  http://pastebin.com/f21de9492
• Save some configurations:
  • the xpad notes
  • e themes/backgrounds/bar
• Better grub:
  • Important-popup(?): The system needs to be installed (or at least just /boot) in the same disk at the computer you are trying to boot
  • To select the device where to install grub
  • To select in which part of the device to install grub
  • To select the bios order where Elive is installed (hd0,0)
  • To (checkboxes) select which entry's to include and which entry's not include in the installed grub menu
  • This is very tricky, maybe a good way to manage all this is by the user selecting if they want to have grub configured manually or automatically, where in the manually, the user can select WHICH of the operating systems detected to include and which no, also, a selector-list option to select the disk where it is (for example, first option: Elive, in disk 1 (equivalent to hd(0,x)), etc
  • Add the boot from usb entry:  http://bugs.elivecd.org/index.php?do=details&task_id=346
• Automatic resizing of windows partition or to remove it
• badblocks option for formatting partitions (and swap, -c)
• Encrypted home,  http://forum.elivecd.org/read.php?18,1049
• hacer un reconfigure del debconf antes de la instalación masiva de paquetes, recordando el modo seleccionado para debconf y seteandolo a noninteractive y luego volviendolo a poner como antes

BUGS

• The window to select the filesystem is too much long (horiz)
• Automatic partitioning: with 2 disks, if you select the second one, it shows the size of the first one in the security-verification-code-warning step, so it is going to erase the first or the second disk ? (tried in macbook with external 4.1 GB firewire-connected harddisk)
• The cancel button of the installation (copying system) doesn't cancel correctly, it continues working things
• Selector of filesystem for root partition: the message in spanish is too much long (horizontal), not fits in the screen
• BUG: Checker of internet connection available, rewrite it in a better way (using curl and parsing result, instead of ping). NOTE: do it for anything used to check internet in Elive
• BUG: If you use the automatic mode, and you have a OS previously on that disk, the installer asks about if want to migrate/upgrade this system. Also things that there's old partitions in the fstab
  • Pass again the os-lister after the partitioning finishes can solve this bug
  • Pass again the fstab mapper after the partitioning finished
• BUG: Remove all partitions (in fstab and mountpoint directories) of the same device that is used to install
• BUG: See if is possible to save data like e17 themes and other files when upgrade mode (after to update the dir, from the backup)
• BUG: Save some configurations before to do the cleanup of rsync, like xorg.conf, interfaces, etc...
• BUG: When is searching for old-elive systems and the found one was previously erased, the installer fails about the fstab (and others?) because it is backuped to other file (moved?), recover all these files before this step
• BUG: Check which things of /var could be important to not delete when cleaning system
• BUG: Clean system better made, starting first by removing everything except...
• BUG: If an old Elive system is found (old elive check) and user select no, blacklist this system for the next search (other OS search for migration mode)
• BUG: Macbook:
  • Make a gptsync at the start of the installer
• The laptop of fran has a double-entry for windows-xp

GUI

• It would also be nice if the installer would be "one screen" with different tabs (I think I saw this in PC-BSD). On Tab (page) one I would have to choose between automatic (beginner) installation or manual (for the experienced user). In the following page all the options I mentioned above would be disabled in automatic installation and enabled for manual installation (to enable all the choices to be made for the experienced user). The disabled options for the automatic installation would have to show which choices the system makes for the beginner (the user could see what the installer is going to do when "Start installation" on the last page is pressed). Every tab would consist the major choices. The user could browse between tabs (like in firefox) an check everything before pressing "Start installation". The next thing that should be done is to check the quality of the burned image (as it does in the installer already!).

Test / Verify

• Mode Advanced doesn't ask for swap if there's no swap partitions ?
• VERIFY: Looks like the without internet mode not works, try it, i think that the problem is the checker of internet-connection
• Since the version 4.4-31 has been removed some umounts for generate grub menu, check if the installer add's correctly all the other OS's in the grub menu
• Do an installation with user and root passwords, using the dollar character, also test it with other characters that possibly affect, all the existing ones like: !"·$%&&/(())=?*^{`+--.,_:;¿ , see if them works when you made a login on the installed system}
  • also test the same thing but for creating a new user from elpanel
• If we have a old /etc/hosts file (with of course at least a own entry), see if these entry's are added when the system is reinstalled in upgrade mode
• from an entirely blank disk (no previously partitions, or dd' it and rebooted), create a partition for swap from gparted (gparted of the installer, so no reboot after to create it), then you are able to select it when there's the select the swap partition step ? if not appears; it is automatically added to the system ? (see fstab)
• Do a full test about the installer-module, see if all the options and ways are correct (so like if you don't put the installer file, if you can select it manually, etc) and also see if happens the correct thing when there's no internet found (it should explain (also) how to use the installer-module). The aim of this test is not really to see if works but to see if is perfectly intuitive and understandable... is not the first time that there's a user lost asking but what happens if i dont have internet ? (i suppose that they doesn't have tried it)
• no more problems in any sense about (re)using old installer-modules; this means: before, everytime you wanted to upgrade your installed system you have needed to redownload again the installer module, this should be fixed by re-using the installer module file everytime, see if this also works for a clean installed instead of a upgrade mode (it should work too since it copies the keys to a temporal dir before to do any install)
• to add more extra partitions like /home and /boot in the install: only appears when the mode selected is advanced
• create a partition of 500 Mb, use it for the extra partition /usr selected (advanced mode only), then see if the popup about no space left appears correctly
• from an actual existing Elive install (no separed /home), create with dd a BIG file in the home of the user, a file of 2 GB (dd if=/dev/zero of=bigfile bs=1k count=2000000) in the home of the user. Then do an install in upgrade mode and see if the progress bar of the installation works correctly (with a 90-95 % of accuracy). There's a bug that the installer has NOT calculated the actual size used on the installed system in order to have a correct progress-bar, so the value of the progress-bar was more than 100% completed and so on, there's no progress-bar at all between on reality the installer was installing
• bug in swap listing for the installation ? boot the computer with a partition that is already a working swap, then in the moment of the installation remove this swap partition and create a different one in a different place, install, then boot the installed system and see if the swap partition of fstab is correct, also see if is using an already swap partition (swapon -s, or -a, not sure)

[thanatermesis]

Remaining work:

Critical Tasks

• Rewrite entirely all the mount/umount calls, it still doing that strange "UFS" bug in dmesg by kernel panics, only umount when is really needed (specially the umount-all thingy)
• BUG: Finish the system of installer-module:
  • Do backup of keys when cleaning system (secured to not delete them)
  • Verify the re-use of previously downloaded installer-modules
• When the checker of the installed-system is running, if is false, popup saying that a problem is found and is needed to run the nurse mode, when nurse-mode is running and the pre-checkers are launched, check if the module-installer is correct and if not, warning about that there's some unstability/inconsistency in the system, that is installed incorrectly and needs to run a new installation, etc

Tasks

• '57 FIXME' lines remaining IN the code of the Installer
• Add the size of the partitions at the left part when listing it
• SWAP partitions not are available for select in the list of partitions to select (to install elive under)
• Set a "Elive" label for the formatted partitions
• SWAP selection: Apart of partitions, add a option to use a file for swap (then asks for its size)
• New mode: Recovery: (near to Automatic, easy, etc): A special recovery mode for problems like system not booting (update kernel, initramfs...), blank boot, etc (more things?), also to show a message saying that if the user want to upgrade his installation needs to use the normal way to install (and do backups)
• remove LVM (others that annoy by filling up the init process?) features when install if not needed
• Selector of things to disable/remove:
  • daemons
  • logs system
  • some cronjobs
  • updatedb
• Selector of extra things to install (if internet):
  • ntpdate
• remove lilo entirely for macbooks mode (remove packages, remove code, see deliver)
• Prepare the system for a possible future usage of pre-payed installation (imagine a shop that sell computers with Elive preinstalled), brainstorm that and made the installer ready to work on this possible way, also is needed to add an explanation to the website about that
• If user select an external /home partition, show a message saying that if the user are waiting to re-user a same home partition with 2 systems that is not possible, the reasons of why this is not good, and possible solutions to do this (see the Thana's way)
• Ask the user for a list of packages that want to install in the new system (in advanced mode and if internet), so that this list will be saved in /etc for future Elive installs, editable at all the times
  • If the install of these packages fails, see the error and remove the failed package from the list, then try again
• If no internet found, explain the steps about how to use the installer-module without internet
• Macbook: Depends of: mbr, refit (check the list of packages for the special macbook's iso)
• Add a detector of errors in the hard disks (what possible causes ?: ati ? reformat hard-disk entirely ? run a badblocks ?), by: dmesg | grep -i error | grep "I/O" | grep sector
• Save some configurations:
  • the xpad notes
  • xchat conf (or username only?)
• Detector of badblocks in the hard disk:  http://pastebin.com/f60f1df30  http://pastebin.com/f650443fe  http://pastebin.com/mff02771 , (xwall)  http://pastebin.com/f21de9492
• Better grub:
  • Important-popup(?): The system needs to be installed (or at least just /boot) in the same disk at the computer are trying to boot
  • To select the device where to install grub
  • To select in which part of the device to install grub
  • To select the bios order where Elive is installed (hd0,0)
  • To (checkboxes) select which entry's to include and which entry's not include in the installed grub menu
  • This is very tricky, maybe a good way to manage all this is by that the user select if want to have grub configured manually or automatically, where in the manually, the user can select WHICH of the operating systems detected to include and which no, also, a selector-list option to select the disk where it is (for example, first option: elive, in disk 1 (equivalent to hd(0,x)), etc
  • Add the boot from usb entry:  http://bugs.elivecd.org/index.php?do=details&task_id=346
  • No medium mode, just easy and advanced:
    • Automatic resizing of windows partition or to remove it

BUGS

• The window to select the filesystem is too much long (horiz)
• Automatic partitioning: with 2 disks, if you select the second one, it shows the size of the first one in the security-verification-code-warning step, so it is going to erase the first or the second disk ? (tried in macbook with external 4.1 GB firewire-connected harddisk)
• The cancel button of the installation (copying system) not works good at all, doesnt' cancel correctly, it continue working things
• Selector of filesystem for root partition: the message in spanish is too much long (horizontal), not fits in the screen
• BUG: Checker of internet connection available, rewrite it in a better way (using curl and parsing result, instead of ping). NOTE: do it for anything used to check internet in Elive
• BUG: If you use the automatic mode, and you have a OS previously on that disk, the installer asks about if want to migrate/upgrade this system. Also things that there's old partitions in the fstab
  • Pass again the os-lister after the partitioning finishes can solve this bug
  • Pass ag}ain the fstab mapper after the partitioning finished
• BUG: Remove all partitions (in fstab and mountpoint directories) of the same device that is used to install
• BUG: See if is possible to save datas like e17 themes and other files when upgrade mode (after to update the dir, from the backup)
• BUG: Save some configurations before to do the cleanup of rsync, like xorg.conf, interfaces, etc...
• BUG: When is searching for old-elive systems and the found one was previously erased, the installer fails about the fstab (and others?) because it is backuped to other file (moved?), recover all these files before this step
• BUG: Check which things of /var could be important to not delete when cleaning system
• BUG: Clean system better made, starting first by removing everything except...
• BUG: If is found an old Elive system (old elive check) and user select no, blacklist this system for the next search (other OS search for migration mode)
• BUG: Macbook:
  • Made a gptsync at the start of the installer
• The laptop of fran has a double-entry for windows-xp

GUI

• It would also be nice if the installer would be "one screen" with different tabs (I think I saw this in PC-BSD). On Tab (page) one I would have to choose between automatic (beginner) installation or manual (for the experienced user). In the following page all the options I mentioned above would be disabled in automatic installation and enabled for manual installation (to enable all the choices to be made for the experieced user). The disabled options for the automatic installation would have to show which choises the system makes for the beginner (the user could see what the installer is going to do when "Start installation" on the last page is pressed). Every tab would consist the major choices. The user could browse between tabs (like in firefox) an check everything before pressing "Start installation". The next thing what should be done is the check of the quality of the burned image (as it does in the installer already!).

Test / Verify

• Mode Advanced doesn't ask for swap if there's no swap partitions ?
• VERIFY: Looks like the without internet mode not works, try it, i think that the problem is the checker of internet-connection
• Since the version 4.4-31 has been removed some umounts for generate grub menu, check if the installer add's correctly all the other OS's in the grub menu

[thanatermesis]

test

[thanatermesis]

Any test done ?

[thanatermesis]

fixed a lot of lines, also there's only 20 "fixme" TODO's now in the source code instead of 57