NETUbuntuInstallationFromWindows

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Summary

Simple and minimum installer that starts a network installation from a windows box, so that BIOS configuration can be avoided, as well as burning any CDROM at all. This way, installing Ubuntu will consist on downloading an ".exe" file from internet and executing it, the same way a windows user would install any other program.

Rationale

Windows users are used to download and install programs from the internet by using very simple installers, where only clicking 'next' is needed. Making Ubuntu installation very similar to that, without configuring the BIOS or burning a CDROM from an iso file, will make it more easy and accessible for them.

So, instead of upgrading to Windows Vista, they could upgrade to Ubuntu.

The idea and implementation is based on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromWindows.

Use cases

  • Anna has a computer with MS Windows XP already installed. She does not know (and does not care) about BIOS configuration or burning CDROM isos. However, she wants to install Linux anyway. She would like to download a small installer from a web page and install Ubuntu as any other application.
  • Nuria has a computer with MS Windows 2000 already installed. She does not know (and does not care) about BIOS configuration or burning CDROM isos. However, she wants to install Linux anyway. She would like to download a small installer from a web page and install Ubuntu as any other application.
  • Dani has a computer with MS Windows 98 already installed. He does not know (and does not care) about BIOS configuration or burning CDROM isos. However, he wants to install Linux anyway. He would like to download a small installer from a web page and install Ubuntu as any other application.

Scope

To start the installation from Windows, we need:

  • kernel
  • initial RAM disk (initrd)
  • GRUB4DOS
  • Loadlin

So, the implementation will be affected by the kernel and the initrd release schedule. However, the implementation of this feature won't affect any other feature already implemented, nor the compilation of the CDROM itself.

Design

The design will be like any other installer on Windows. Moreover, in order to be able to mantain the translations, the "pages" will be as standard as possible. However, some Ubuntu design will be added, like icons and colors.

Here we have an sketch of the "pages" of the installer run on windows.

ubuntuinstaller01.png

When rebooting after running the installer, we will be prompted with different options, one of them will be to install Ubuntu.

ubuntuinstaller02.png

If we choose to install Ubuntu, the debian installer will be started.

Next time Windows is started, the user will be asked to remove the installer.

Implementation

The implementation will be based on the existing opensource project instlux (http://instlux.sourceforge.net).

(*)Instlux already works with Ubuntu 6.06, and it has been downloaded above 10.000 times in the last three months (June-August 2006). Moreover, it already supports 20 languages. Thus, basing our implementation on that seems a good option.

So, it will be implemented using nsis (http://nsis.sourceforge.net).

Code

Hosted in sourceforge, at the instlux project, so the improvementes will be added to the next release of instlux.

Unresolved issues

None.

BoF agenda and discussion

section in progress...


CategorySpec

NETUbuntuInstallationFromWindows (last edited 2008-08-06 16:15:36 by localhost)