Windows based installation of Fedora Linux?

[King InuYasha]

Well, stability of Windows notwithstanding, Windows does have a good model
of a firstboot interface when you buy a new computer. It lets you configure
all the user-applicable settings afterward, which is something that I think
should be implemented throughout the whole thing. Stuff like timezone could
be set up in firstboot. But things like root password need to be set up in
the Windows installer. For a non-anaconda-based Win32 installer, I might be
able to help with that using NSIS (http://nsis.sf.net), since I have been
working on NSIS installers for Windows-based apps I package up.

On 9/2/07, Douglas McClendon <dmc.fedora at filteredperception.org> wrote:
>
> King InuYasha wrote:
> > I'm talking about using a fully Win32-based installer to install Fedora
> into
> > a disk image file and then run firstboot onward from the Linux side. I
> guess
> > that would mean extending anaconda yet again to include more
> > functionality...
>
> Whether you put the logic in a (non-anaconda) fully win-32 based
> installer, or anaconda, or firstboot, it has to go somewhere.
>
> I think that the ideal answer would be the ability to modularize things
> like timezone selection, so that they could be easily moved between
> anaconda and firstboot (as has been mentioned in other recent threads).
>
> Basically the configuration has to happen somewhere.  You can either ask
> the user
>
> a) in windows, during install
> b) in firstboot
> c) in anaconda running on the installed system
> d) assume and install a default configuration (i.e. like what people see
> on the livecd currently), and make sure the user knows the
> system-config-* tool to change the default.
>
>
> I'm not really partial to any of them.  I say hack together a proof of
> concept asap, and then work on whatever seems to be the lowest hanging
> fruit for improving the user experience.
>
> -dmc
>
>
>
> >
> > On 9/2/07, Douglas McClendon <dmc.fedora at filteredperception.org> wrote:
> >> King InuYasha wrote:
> >>> I dunno about booting a RW version of the livecd ext3 image and then
> >> finish
> >>> installation that way, it might be simpler just to go ahead and do
> >> normal
> >>> installation but instead to a file on the Windows partition within
> >> Windows.
> >>> Simply to not have the redundancy..... It could invoke firstboot
> >> though....
> >>
> >>
> >> My theory, was that it would be less work to get ananconda to handle
> >> that*, than it would be to port anaconda to windows.
> >>
> >> Again, this is only from the perspective of allowing the user to
> >> download an installer in windows, and then reboot straight to their
> >> installed linux, without the intermediary step of burning a bootable
> >> install cd, and booting from it.
> >>
> >> From the perspective that I think you are talking about, of just doing
> >> a 'normal installation' (e.g. download bootable installable iso, then
> >> boot from it), it is indeed much simpler, and perhaps just a matter of
> >> ressurrecting functionality that existed many years ago.
> >>
> >> -dmc
> >>
> >> * (especially if for personal rebootless reasons I was going to do most
> >> of the foundation work anyway)
> >>
> >>
> >>> On 9/2/07, Douglas McClendon <dmc.fedora at filteredperception.org>
> wrote:
> >>>> Jonathan Steffan wrote:
> >>>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >>>>> Hash: SHA1
> >>>>>
> >>>>> King InuYasha wrote:
> >>>>>> Hello,
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I recently discovered a very interesting project called Wubi (
> >>>>>> http://wubi-installer.org/) which permits installation of
> >>>>>> Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu to a disk image file on a Windows drive and
> >>>> makes the
> >>>>>> appropriate boot entry changes to allow booting to Linux from the
> >> disk
> >>>> image
> >>>>>> file in the Windows partition. Ubuntu Gutsy plans to add it to the
> >>>> official
> >>>>>> methods of installation, and I was wondering what you guys think
> >> about
> >>>>>> having something similar in Fedora?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>> This would be neat and I've looked into it before. From the Virtual
> >>>>> FUDCon, I've taken that a user needing a windows installer is not in
> >> our
> >>>>> target audience (at least not right now.) With regards to making it
> an
> >>>>> "unofficial" installer to prove it's viability, I'm all for it.
> Fedora
> >>>>> sponsored/official live images were sparked by community initiative,
> a
> >>>>> 'from windows' installer might be an example in the future. I don't
> >>>>> particularly like the way Wubi gets things done, but give the
> concept
> >>>>> merit. I'd look at helping to do something similar, but using
> anaconda
> >>>>> to do the install among other changes.
> >>>> I think this is merely a matter of ressurrecting a long-dead feature.
> >>>> Wasn't anaconda historically able to install to a file on a vfat
> >>>> partition?
> >>>>
> >>>> Naturally during those dark ages when a RW ntfs driver was
> unavailable,
> >>>> and the vast majority of windows users used ntfs rather than vfat,
> this
> >>>> was not possible.
> >>>>
> >>>> The instant that an rw-ntfs driver was in fedora, I was drooling in
> >>>> anticipation of this feature returning.
> >>>>
> >>>> Of course, having a native win32 installer would be pretty cool too,
> >> for
> >>>> all the reasons wubi is doing it.  Interestingly, I can see a simple
> >>>> win32 installer that just installs the livecd ext3 image as is, and
> >> then
> >>>> lets you run anaconda from an RW version of the livecd image once
> >>>> rebooted into linux.  In fact, the changes to get that incarnation of
> >>>> anaconda to do the right thing, are nearly identical to the changes I
> >>>> have been kicking around to support rebootless installation.  (i.e.
> the
> >>>> stuff anaconda tweaks neads to be the stuff from /, and not
> >>>> /mnt/sysimage).
> >>>>
> >>>> bwa ha ha....
> >>>>
> >>>> -dmc
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> fedora-devel-list mailing list
> >>>> fedora-devel-list at redhat.com
> >>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
> >>>>
> >> --
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> >> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
> >>
> >
>
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