Windows-based Ubuntu Installer Development Thread (merged parts 1 and 2)

[tuxcantfly]

Also, Hello1024, mind merging your nice graphical NSIS installer into mine? Just split the installer into dialogs, and have them be each be called by my batch script at http://cutlersoftware.com/ubuntusetup/setup.bat that way, we can automatically build nice GUI installers, rather than my current ugly (but functional) command line interface version

[ago]

Just split the installer into dialogs, and have them be each be called by my batch script

I must say that I have googled a bit, and I could not find anyone else pulling together an NSIS installer via batch scripts. Are we sure this is the right way? In the software world you generally avoid mixing languages/frameworks unless there are quite clear deficiencies in the orginal setup. Is this the case for NSIS? Is it wise to manage job control from a single threaded app?

[tuxcantfly]

unless there are quite clear deficiencies in the orginal setup. Is this the case for NSIS?

Maybe they're not apparent now, but when we get to the portion where we want to start autoconfiguring hardware and importing settings, I'm pretty sure we'll run into something NSIS can't do... might as well transition now and save a lot of work later, and keep the installer-autogeneration functionality

[ehst]

A new version of bat install script... but I don't tested now, only more later I can test this version in Windows XP. I think this script version work great.

Now, the script offers a choice to download or not the Ubuntu CD image. Comming soon a "default value system" to previne user don't enter a value in initial questions. If don't entered, a default value is used.

Sorry if this modification don't work.

@echo off

set /p DRIVAR=Which drive would you like to install Ubuntu to (If in doubt, type in "C:") ? 
set /p BOOTVAR=Which drive would you like to install the bootloader to (If in doubt, type in "C:") ? 
set /p ROOTSIZE=What size, in MB, do you want your root partition to be (If in doubt, type in "4000") ? 
set /p HOMESIZE=What size, in MB, do you want your home partition to be (If in doubt, type in "4000") ? 
set /p SWAPSIZE=What size, in MB, do you want your swap partition to be (If in doubt, type in "1000") ? 

echo Moving files...
mkdir %DRIVAR%\ubuntu
move linux %DRIVAR%\ubuntu
move license.txt %DRIVAR%\ubuntu
move README.txt %DRIVAR%\ubuntu
move preseed.cfg %DRIVAR%\ubuntu
move initrd.gz %DRIVAR%\ubuntu
move menu.lst %DRIVAR%\
move grldr %BOOTVAR%\
move grub %BOOTVAR%\

echo Creating disk images...
qemu-img create -f raw root.img %ROOTSIZE%M
move root.img %DRIVAR%\ubuntu
qemu-img create -f raw home.img %HOMESIZE%M
move home.img %DRIVAR%\ubuntu
qemu-img create -f raw swap.img %SWAPSIZE%M
move swap.img %DRIVAR%\ubuntu

echo Making back-up of boot.ini and setting boot options...
attrib -s -h -r C:\boot.ini
copy C:\boot.ini C:\boot.bak
echo %BOOTVAR%\grldr="Ubuntu" >> C:\boot.ini
attrib +r +h +s C:\boot.ini

echo Press D to begin downloading the Ubuntu 7.04 alternate iso file. If you already have it, just press S to skip this step and place it in %DRIVAR%\ubuntu, then reboot.
echo.
CHOICE /N /C:DS Enter your choice (D or S): %1

IF ERRORLEVEL ==D GOTO DOWNLOAD
IF ERRORLEVEL ==S GOTO COMPLETE

:DOWNLOAD
wget http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/feisty/herd-3/feisty-alternate-i386.iso
echo Download complete, moving Ubuntu image...
move feisty-alternate-i386.iso %DRIVAR%\ubuntu
GOTO COMPLETE

:COMPLETE
echo Congratulations! =)
echo Install complete, please reboot and select "Ubuntu".
GOTO END

:END
pause

[ago]

but when we get to the portion where we want to start autoconfiguring hardware and importing settings, I'm pretty sure we'll run into something NSIS can't do...

Are you sure about that? From what Hello mentioned, it really surprises me that DOS can do things not achievable with NSIS via direct windows API calls, C++ interface and so forth... Also because it looks like you can call DOS from NSIS (http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?postid=2018532 ) ... I do not know how good NSIS really is, but the windows shell certainly does _not_ have a stellar reputation... Moreover NSIS was engineered for doing installations, which is exactly what we need, + it is being used by major projects. It looks to me that you guys are reinventing the wheel, trying to build an installer out of DOS which is something I have not seen done in the past 15 years.

My only real critique to NSIS is that it is not portable (yet), but DOS has no advantage when it comes to portability. I think that on the front-end the most important separation should be:

1) info fetching,
2) bootloader modifier,
3) GUI + download manager

I have put the download manager within the GUI because it needs to exchange events with it (progress/cancel signals...). 1 and 2 are clearly platform specific, 3 can be made platform independent.

By the way NSIS can be complied on POSIX from what I have read. There is no need for wine.

[ago]

By the way NSIS can be complied on POSIX from what I have read. There is no need for wine.

I have just noticed that there is an nsis package in Ubuntu, I have not tried it though.

[ehst]

Sorry all, my modification works on WIndows 9X but on a XP don't. The command "If" and "goto" don't work too and I don't know for what...

I go now for the college and later when arriving I try to discover some solution.

Before they answer me a thing: project using BAT goes substituted for the installer in NSIS?

If yes, I can learn more about NSIS and help the team...

[tuxcantfly]

Before they answer me a thing: project using BAT goes substituted for the installer in NSIS?

If yes, I can learn more about NSIS and help the team...

Hello1024's installer was originally created in NSIS, only I created the BAT version to allow for autobuilding installers during the testing period, as Hello1024's version seemed to take too much work to update, and we're frequently updating

I guess Ago and Hello1024 are right, batch files are only a temporary hack, might as well try to get the NSIS version to work with my installer autobuilder; just keep the NSIS installer uncompressed, keep the initrd and other files out of it, and that way it'll autobuild with my script; so then 7-zip autoextracts the installer in ~ 10 sec, then the NSIS installer launches and proceeds undelayed, if we need to do any stuff in the commmand line in the background, we can just do the NSIS direct call dos command function; there's probably some way to keep the command pompt hidden in the background

By the way, Ago, what of that Bazaar repository? I want to start working on scripts to autocheckout from bazaar, autogenerate the backend, and autogenerate the frontend - that would be way more efficient than what we have now

[tuxcantfly]

Ok, new idea then, this should solve the issue of keeping the NSIS installer up to date:

let's isolate the files themselves from the NSIS installer (initrd, kernel, grldr, grub, menu.lst) and simply have the NSIS installer extract them from the backend, in other words, we simply have the installer check the current directory for the ubutu-installer-backend.tgz and if it can't find it there, add a dialog:

Do you have the ubuntu-installer backend? If not, you can download it:

== Browse Files == == Download Backend ==

If he selects browse files, he can just select the ubuntu-installer-backend.tgz file and continue without downloading from the internet

Then, for the feisty iso download prompt, we do the same thing, check for feisty-i386-alternate.iso in the directory, and if it can't find it:

Do you have the Ubuntu 7.04 ISO? If not, you can download it:

== Browse Files == == Download ISO ==

This way, we eliminate the need for both an offline and online installer; if you want to install offline, just bring the feisty-i386-alternate.iso and ubuntu-installer-backend.tgz along with yourself and place it in the same directory, and it will all automatically work. Also, it eliminates the need to build a new installer for every new version; just use the old installer and download the new backend, we'll only need changes to the installer if there are changes in the locations of the files in the backend, or if we want to add new features to the installer itself.

Also, Ago, mind removing the diskimages.tgz file from the backend? Since we're autogenerating the disk images using qemu-img (at least in my autogenerated batchfile based installer, not the NSIS installer just yet), there's no point of having them; it'll just make the file size larger and increase extraction time. As for non-windows users, just add into the readme:

cd ubuntu
dd if=/dev/zero of=root.img bs=1000 count=0 seek=$[1000*1000*4]
dd if=/dev/zero of=home.img bs=1000 count=0 seek=$[1000*1000*4]
dd if=/dev/zero of=swap.img bs=1000 count=0 seek=$[1000*1000*1]

Shouldn't be too hard to do, and will be way faster than extracting them, and will allow for better flexibility in determining disk image sizes.

So? Any ideas on my proposal to split the backend from the installer and use it separately to prevent having to recreate the installer and have 1 unified offline/online version?

[tuxcantfly]

Just tried installing on FAT32 using the new version, but it still doesn't work:

FAT: codepage cp437 not found
mount: invalid argument

Are you sure you have the vfat module correctly set up Ago?