----- Original Message -----
Here is an updated list of proposed changes, based on our discussion
in
the WG meeting today. These changes are proposed for the Workstation
installer only and not other products' installers, so we assume that
Anaconda will allow this level of per-product configurability. Changes
are targeted for F24, not F23, and subject to further discussion with
Anaconda developers.
* Remove the timezone selection spoke from either anaconda or gnome
-initial-setup. These spokes are redundant and one or the other needs
to go. The reason to potentially retain it in Anaconda would be to get
the timestamps of installed files correct, if we care about that.
As mentioned by Rui, this wouldn't be necessary. This could also be used
to remove the uninvited GeoIP check in anaconda itself. Setting the timezone
would be done after asking the user whether the system can use geolocation.
* Remove root password configuration. It's confusing how this is
different from the user's admin account password. Advanced users can
set a root password after installation if desired.
Agreed.
* Remove user account creation. This is redundant with gnome-initial
-setup.
Ditto.
* Remove or simplify the network configuration spoke. In the live
installer, this spoke allows setting only the system hostname, but it
follows different rules for setting the hostname than GNOME/systemd.
The spoke should either follow hostnamed's rules for pretty hostnames
(i.e. allows capital letters, spaces, etc. without any complaint), or
the spoke should be removed. If we keep it, it should allow the user to
set a "computer name" (avoiding technical terminology like
"hostname")
and should not include the phrase "network configuration."
It would be better for this to be done after the creation of the first user
in gnome-initial-setup, so that we can have a useful default name for the
computer:
"Rupert Monkey's laptop"
or
"Bastien's desktop"
(and the rough i18n that goes with it)
Changes to gnome-initial-setup: Skip language and keyboard layout
selection in user creation mode. These panels cannot reasonably be
removed from Anaconda, so we should use them only in existing user mode
(when a new user account is created after installation). They're
redundant in user creation mode. Also, completely remove timezone
selection if it remains in anaconda.
There are 3 things to note here:
- the anaconda setting changes the system configuration, thus the default
layouts used in gdm.
- we are in a live environment, where the user can change the current configuration
through the Settings panel already. This should be exported to the installed
system's configuration
- anaconda's layout selection doesn't support IBus, which means it's
inadequate
as a user layout selection tool.
I would:
- make anaconda migrate the current settings to the installed system
- make it possible to set IBus engines in the installed gdm's configuration
Optional: Remove hub and spokes: simply go straight to keyboard
layout
selection after language selection,
Only language selection should really be necessary in Anaconda, the keyboard
layout can be inherited from the live environment. We could make sure to always
show the language selector even if there's only one default language in the
live environment (that's probably a one-liner in gnome-shell).
then from there to disk layout,
optionally from there to the hostname panel, and then to the
installation progress panel. This last panel will need a bit of a
redesign, since it will be pretty empty otherwise. Many WG members feel
this would make the installer easier to use, but we do not have
consensus on this. It is unrelated to the goal of reducing redundancy
between anaconda and g-i-s.
We also note that there have been many requests to simplify the
installation destination spoke, but we do not have any design for this.
I'd even go a bit further, in that we should have less moving parts in the disk
selection. I personally find it easier to make room on the disk using Disks
(available in the Live environment) and passing that to Anaconda, or having
Anaconda use the old Linux installation, or having it use the whole disk.
Cheers