Swapping out debian installer for a better more user friendly installer for a college distribution

[arunnats]

Hello,

This is my first time on these forums and working on big linux project in general. The gist of it is that we are trying to fork and modify debian to make our own distro with a very minimal number of packages and adding apps that freshmen in our college doing our course would require. The biggest hurdle so far is figuring out how to replace the installer to make it a lot more user friendly to install.

We are considering taking Ubuntus installer and modifying it or building one from scratch with a nice gui and simple options. I would really appreciate some pointers on how and where to get started. My linux knowledge is very low and i am a beginner at most things linux. This is a 6 person project where we are trying to learn some new things by building this distro based off debian.

I would appreciate any and all help

 

[Brickwizard]

Welcome to the forums
Do you mean package managers for applications? If so, this article may give you some guidance to the common forms.

How to Install Software on Linux - Beginners Guide

Learn the different ways to install software on Linux. The most common way to install software packages is by using the package manager.

linuxopsys.com

 

[arochester]

The biggest hurdle so far is figuring out how to replace the installer to make it a lot more user friendly to install.

What do you consider a more friendly installer?

Debian Live install uses the more friendly Calamares installer,

WattOS is called a Debian derivative, but it totally uses the Debian Repositories. It is more of a "customisation" (It it not EFI and will only make 2 partitions), It has few applications and uses Calamares

Similarly Spiral Linux is a customisation which uses Calamares.

 

[arunnats]

Sorry not the package installer, the installation gui when you try to install the distro at the beginning

 

[camtaf]

Calamares is an easy to use installer, it replaced a less friendly one, however Crowz uses a much simplified, for the user, version of it - & there is also refractainstaller https://www.ibiblio.org/refracta/documents.html

 

[arunnats]

What do you consider a more friendly installer?

Debian Live install uses the more friendly Calamares installer,

WattOS is called a Debian derivative, but it totally uses the Debian Repositories. It is more of a "customisation" (It it not EFI and will only make 2 partitions), It has few applications and uses Calamares

Similarly Spiral Linux is a customisation which uses Calamares.

I mean something like the ubuntu installation setup or the windows one. Very simple to do and takes very minimal knowledge to set up. Calamares is something we' re considering. I'll check out WattOS thank you.
Could you tell me how i could get started about integrating it into debian

 

[arunnats]

Calamares is an easy to use installer, it replaced a less friendly one, however Crowz uses a much simplified, for the user, version of it - & there is also refractainstaller https://www.ibiblio.org/refracta/documents.html

thank you so much. I'll check that out

 

[guiverc]

We are considering taking Ubuntus installer and modifying it or building one from scratch with a nice gui and simple options.

Which Ubuntu installer?

If you're thinking of ubiquity, I'd reconsider, unless you're looking to use it only short term.

Or are you thinking about something subiquity based (which includes ubuntu-desktop-installer which is really just a front-end of subiquity). **

You weren't specific as to which Ubuntu installer, as Ubuntu has had 5 installers in the last couple of years (though Ubuntu no longer uses the debian-installer). Ubuntu 23.04 was released on ISOs with 4 different installers (selected at download time by the ISO).

Lubuntu uses calamares which is a nice visually, though I do find it somewhat fragile.

** Later thought.

I recall at the recent Ubuntu flavor sync meeting mention of Ubuntu Budgie's work on their switch from ubiquity to ubuntu-desktop-installer; it's mentioned in the minutes, so that documentation is fresh! though it'll assume seed files rather than building on your own machine (I don't know; I haven't looked at it).

David Mohammed (@fossfreedom) confirmed he completed the work to get the new desktop installer to work with Ubuntu Budgie. David also worked on documentation to help other flavors, and submitted it for review.

 

[dos2unix]

It seems this is a problem for a lot of distro's. Three or four distro's seem to be currently changing their installer UI.

Anaconda Web UI storage feedback requested! - Fedora Magazine

Linux partitioning is one of the most complex parts of the OS installer. Anaconda Web UI storage feedback requested to help with design!

fedoramagazine.org

Graphical user interface | Reference | openSUSE Leap 15.5

 

[Deleted member 108694]

I like Refracta Installer myself

 

[guiverc]

Don't forget Debian use two installers themselves, they provide ISOs that use the debian installer, and also ISOs that use the calamares installer (Ubuntu isn't the only one with choice)

There maybe less choice depending on architecture; but as I mostly use amd64 its where my knowledge is greatest.