Installation category

When installing Ubuntu, when on the page where you are asked to enter your city, instead of having all the cities in a huge list split into continents then put into alphabetical order why not have 2 drop down boxes. The first being a list of continents and then when this is answered the second one with all the applicable cities for that selected continent or something of the sort.

I admit that it is not earth shattering but it is just a little thing that will make the installation quicker and more friendly to use.

After doing a clean install I immediately had issues when the security update failed installing the latest kernel. Apparently 25MB is too small for a /boot partition. The partitioner could have caught this. The same goes for other partitions.

Ubuntu needs an easy way to select the default booting O.S.
Fedora already did this with their "Boot Configuration" feature in the System -> Administration -> Bootloader option.

Check it:
- http://docs.fedoraproject.org/fedora-install-guide-en/fc5/figs/upgradebootloade r.png
- http://laserjock.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/bootmanager.png

Sounds like it could be easily integrated into Ubuntu.

By the way: When Ubuntu installs extra kernel, the default selection remains. Right now, if you select one O.S. in the /boot/grub/menu.lst and a new kernel is installed, you must edit the file again....

LiveUSB is my favourite new feature in Ubuntu 8.10... it's absolutely great to take Ubuntu always with you and use it in any computer.

The point is that it can be even more useful if persistence file (space to install upgrades, new software, games or to save files as docs, pics, films...) takes profit of full pendrive space.

Nowadays 8Gb, 16Gb or even 64Gb USB drives are very affordable, but seems that in practice persistence file just use 4Gb (at least that's my experience with the USB startup application).

This idea just hit me because I'm having this issue at the very moment. :D

In the Add/Remove Applications 'program', to the left is the name of each subdirectory, but if you do a general search in all of those categories, it doesn't show you which category they will be installed to, and I'm having problems finding python (I'm a bit of a noob I know) it would be helpful if at some point (for example at the bottom of the description/detail box) which subdirectory the program will install to.

IMHO the installer, compared to that of something like SuSE, is really lacking in the areas of partitioning and bootloader.

The bootloader configuration was very unusable. it did not seem to recognize my existing bootloader (at least if it did it gave no indication of such),and so I told it not to install grub (since I was concerned about loosing access to my other distro). I hoped that by choosing "do not
install" it would simply add some lines to the existing grub. Unfortunately that was not the case and I still needed to boot up SuSE and manually edit grub. I couldn't find any examples of grub code for 8.10 on the Internet, so I had to make it up. I got somewhat inferior, yet functional results.

Ubuntu should have more GUI for setting things, like for example ading a bluetooth modem from a phone, because there are many people that use bluetooth and a mobile phone for connecting to the internet (e.g. me)have you ever tried addind a bluetooth phone modem to ubuntu.....and not only this: after a instalation of ubuntu half of the configurable things i have to do them from a terminal :( and another example : formating a usb thumb drive or a partition (average joe doesn`t use a terminal, lets make joe happy)! it can not be done with a right click on it! At course, linux is not windows and it will never be..its better, and different!!! After all, ubuntu is for human beings, lets keep it that way!!!
And sorry about my bad english, i am from Romania.

Would be nice if we had an Alternate ISO from either a upcoming Daily Build or the next Alpha(3) with Grub2 as the default bootloader.

Theres no relatively new info or How-to's on the Bootloader. The only info that seems to be around is related to older versions of Grub2 and for older versions of the Distro. Therefore it makes it very risky for testers to test it out as we have no idea whats been fixed and what hasn't, whats still necessary and what isn't.

I know including Grub2 as default was discussed at UDS. I think the easiest way for us to test it and see whats its behaviour is due to lack of reasonably new info, is to do it from a fresh install where it is default.

Im sure many or most people currently testing Jaunty and those that jump on around Alpha 3/4 would download this ISO to give it a try and i think that would be the best way to get it tested on a broader range of systems than it currently is being tested on.

During the installation of Ubuntu, there are quite a lot of applications automatically installed. I, and probably many others, will not use many of these applications.

So what I would want, is the ability to de/select which programs that should be or not be installed.

Here is a list of the programs that I don't use that are autoinstalled:

Tomboy Notes
All games
The OpenOffice Suite (I use Google Docs)
XSane Image Scanner (I don't even have a scanner)
Ekiega Softphone
Evolution (I use Thunderbird)
Pidgin (I use Emesene)
Transmission (I use deluge)
Rhythmbox (I use songbird)
Orca Screen Magnifier

All these applications I have to uninstall.(And evolution isn't even uninstallable without ruining some dependencies to some META-Packages.)
Many of these applications also leave irritating hidden directories left in my home folder.

So please Ubuntu. Give me more freedom to choose which applications I want to use.

I know the philosophy of Ubuntu is that it is simple, elegant and for human beings, but I propose that the option for advanced feature customization be provided for installation.

What I suggest is that there are two modes of installation: the normal mode which is already provided, and an advanced / power user mode for better customization and fine control.

In the advanced installer, the user at any point would have the ability to accept defaults until the end (which would render the installation in 'advanced mode' the same as the normal mode up until the point the user is at) such as a 'I'm over my head!'. The user could also jump back to the simple install at any time OR the user could pick the particular default option for that section.

Why I would like this mode, is because every fresh Ubuntu install I perform essentially the same things. I disable some modules (pcspkr, firewire, bluetooth), remove extra terminals, disable some services that I don't need or do not apply, set networks settings by hand, setup some additional groups, add some extra users, configure SSH, etc etc. Even asking for some additional package installations would be nice.

Some of these features are copied from the Live CD environment, but I believe it would be more intuitive and clear from an installation point of view to be done through the 'wizard'.

Perhaps instead of directly implementing the changes, it merely creates a script that is run *after* the user verifies what it does after a default installation.


I believe this could help in post-installation configuration by allowing the installer to setup their environment better and could even lead to advancing the knowledge of the Ubuntu community by providing options to sections of Linux (and additions) that they may not have knowledge about.

Ideas? Comments? :)

I sit in #ubuntu and help when I can. The main point of sitting in there is that one ends up learning a great deal just from watching others get help with their problems.

One of the complaints I've seen is that newbies don't know what's in the repos, or even how to enable multiverse/universe, so they end up looking at 3rd party apps to satisfy their needs when the app they want is probably sitting in the repos. Then they end up in #ubuntu when the 3rd party app doesn't work as expected when all they had to do was "sudo apt-get install foo" to get the app installed.

I've been using Ubuntu for years and haven't had to install anything outside the repos because the repos are huge - kudos to the package maintainers.

My idea is this:
The first time the administrator boots a freshly installed system, there should be some type of notice, be it included in the default firefox homepage or an addition to synaptic or maybe a readme file on the desktop, that gives a full list of apps in the repos. This list will likely not change over the life of the release because we don't usually see new apps added to the repos after release anyway.

Yes, I know there is a list in the Add/Remove app but the fact that newbies "didn't know an app was in the repos" is a testament that the Add/Remove list isn't seen as often as we might think. Many times I've seen a new user search synaptic for an app and couldn't find it not knowing that they may have found it had they enabled multiverse/universe. And having the "The program 'foo' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install foo" message in the terminal was an excellent idea but newbies don't often want to delve into command line when there are gui apps (synaptic) available to do the same thing.

I just feel that there should be some other way to bring it to the attention of new Ubuntu users that the app they want may be just a few clicks (synpatic) away.

Create a setup wizard similar to that found in Fedora Core 10: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Tours/Fedora10/Screenshots (scroll down :))

Things that I imagine could be included are for example adding additional users, selecting an avatar, some info about where to find solutions and get support, selecting power saving settings (currently, default is set to never resting the computer). And probably some more things that I am forgetting too.

I am a resident of Nigeria and a lot of us do not have access to fast internet connection. in order for us to stay at the cutting edge of technology as far as Ubuntu is concerned, we mostly order cds from ship it or download the iso image usually from cafes.
my idea is that there should be an option in the Ubuntu live cd that would ensure that the older version of Ubuntu installed on the system already be upgraded instead of having to do a clean installation every 6 months. this is because most people take a lot of time to tweak their system to the way they like it to be and would not want to do that repeatedly every six moths or there about. i know that there is an option of upgrading using the update manager but this would take a frustratingly long amount of time. i also realize that some softwares (especially the ones we download ourselves) might not work with the newer version but that would just be a simple matter of upgrading those softwares to the compatible version using synaptics which would result in a much reduced download size.

It's a strange title I know...
-----------------------------
Main idea:
In Ubiquity (Ubuntu live installer) if you choose "I'll set partitioning myself" there should be an predefined option with home on different partition. And other options.
After choosing one of this options you set the partitions size which have recommended size for partition depending on size of your disk, or at least minimum recommended size.
there should also be an option to choose file system for all partitions simultaneously.

Background of this idea:
I just re-installed Kubuntu (if you want to know why ask in comments). And I decided to make a special partition for Home and one for root.
I was sure this will be easy, I mean I did the same thing in Arch how much harder can it be in (K)Ubuntu?
Well I was wrong I guess that GUI isn't everything.
Arch has a much more user friendly way of setting up partitions, even though the whole thing is done in CLI.
It gives you recommended amounts and if you decide that you want to have a bigger or smaller /home it accounts this change to other partitions.
The Ubuntu (Ubiquity) partition manager is just very messy I don't even know if I set it the right way.
Anyway I want it to be more "simple" like in Arch.

The idea is that when your installing Ubuntu, or when you're in Ubuntu there should be an option to save any OS present on your computer in ISO that could be made in Live CD / DVD.
Yes I know about Remastersys. I want this for any other OS on the system, so that you don't "throw away all of the money that you payed for sour Vista / OSX.
Many of us have original OEM Windows on our computers, and it is (at least for me) waste of money to just format the disk and "throw the other OS away".
This could be also an back-up tool. To back up your Ubuntu.
I know there is an problem of how to save an 160GB of Windows in to an single CD/DVD ISO?
I think it shouldn't be the "clone" of the OS, there should be an option how much of the OS you need.
Example:
Do you need documents..
Do you need the customization...
And so on...
As rogue568 proposed in comments:
If the backup is bigger than one CD / DVD one disk should be for system only (without drivers and all, so that can be used on other systems) and the other disks with programs documents and other.

Why this should be done for nay present OS?
So that you can use the Windows you payed for, even if not yourself, you can give (sell) to someone that uses pirated version...
Or "god-forbid" if you find out that you don't like Ubuntu and want your Windows back as an single OS or as in double-boot it's useful to have something like this...

I'm taking from my experience, when I formatted my Windows, but I after one year I realized that I do need the for some things that can't be done on Linux, I felt I have to "use" Windows XP to end if I payed for them.
But now I'm again thinking that maybe I don't need it, and it would be good if I would be able to give it to someone that has illegal OS on their computer.
I think that this would be also a good marketing for Ubuntu.
I know what you''l say why the hell should Ubuntu care about original Windows, and why don't give Ubuntu instead of Windows to those that have illegal version of Windows.

[....]

Admins usually have the interest to install a system fast bu scripts. So if there would be a synaptic3 to install addons, codecs, headers, etc., install of those would be faster.

Make it possible to save the configuration and then install everything by
apt-get --file backup.

The idea is to provide a specific option for full Ubuntu install for removable media (pendrive or portable hard drives).

- The difference from the current "USB Startup Disk" is that it should be a full install with full set of features (kernel upgrades, multiple user accounts, private folder, GDM customization...). No persistence file will be needed for this kind of install, so full space of this drives can be used.

- The difference from the current "Full install" in a drive partition is that it should provide a hardware checking on every boot process (as it's done today in LiveCD or LiveUSB) to ensure the system can work in different hardware configurations (after all, it's a removable media!).

The focus of this new install option is having a full featured & hardware agnostic Ubuntu system in a pendrive instead of a LiveUSB that in practice is more oriented to a later full install on internal Hard Drives.

As big size removable drives are getting more popular and more affordable this can be very useful for everybody to keep a full system in their pocket...

Goal: uncheck by default after installation of Xubunutu(and other ubuntu) checkbox "Save session for future logins" in Quit dialog.

There is checkbox "Save session for future logins" in Quit dialog that is checked by default after installation, newbies (my frineds, me, and some other people from forum) did not noticed this checkbox and forget to uncheck, as result they have few applications that starts each time and annoy - because they did not wanted them deliberately.
Forum: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6419195

Workaround:
0. Install, close all application.
1. Applications -> Quit
2. In Quit dialog uncheck "Save session for future logins"

One problem with new ubuntu releases is that whilst the mirrors of the software might survive the pounding of downloads, often the main ubuntu.com page dies so ordinary people (who don't google) can't access the mirror links to start downloading.

I propose that users can subscribe to the link for their ubuntu download using email, so that they do not even need to go to ubuntu.com to download. The links are emailed to them on release.

How this would work:
1)Have a link on ubuntu.com to submit email and country to be emailed best links as soon as new release is available.
2) When new release is launched, email subscribed user with list of download links.
3) Using HTML emails, recommendations of best mirror to use could be provided in realtime next to each mirror (have an image for each mirror that shows "Very slow", "fast", "average", "offline", "Current best choice" .

Then each user has an easy means of knowing their best link to use, are notified of new releases, and don't have to browse through an overburdened Ubuntu.com website simply to begin the download. Everyone wins!

And at the same time, the torrent could be hosted on any server (which could be recommended as its more secure and protects against corruption. Even if ubuntu.com and all the mirrors were offline, the torrent would be accessible in one click in the email then.

I don't know if "transition wizard (helper" is the real name of this "wizard". For sake of conversing let's say that it is called transition wizard.
Since I tried Ubuntu 7.10 there was an transition wizard in Ubiquity that migrated your documents from Windows to Ubuntu.
After a month or less I decided that Kubuntu was more for me, so I thought that Kubuntu will also have this transition wizard, but this was not the case.
Since then I did reinstalled my Kubuntu few times (for various reasons) and always expected that this wizard will be included in newest version.
But it's still isn't.
So please include this wizard in Kubutu to, as it useful when your installing over Windows.
Any comments are, as always welcomed.
(Is this a dupe? Is this already included and this is more of an bug report?)