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Idea #14064: Include Upgrade-From-CD Functionality to Standard CD

bug This idea was marked as being not considered for implementation the 6 October 08.
Written by chipbennett the 4 Oct 08 at 14:02. Related project: Wubi Windows installer. Status: Won't implement
Rationale
Note to Mods: This Idea is NOT a Duplicate of Idea #14003, which has been marked as "Already Implemented" (see below). The already implemented functionality is only available on the Alternate CD. This idea is to add the functionality to the Standard CD.

According to Ubuntu's Upgrade Notes, the Alternate CD includes functionality to allow for upgrading from the CD, rather than from the repositories.

This functionality should be included in the Standard (i.e. "Live") CD.

This idea is in response to Idea #14003 being marked as "Already Implemented". Idea #14003 requested dist-upgrade-from-CD functionality be included, to which the developer response was "It has been possible since day 1. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes."

According to the linked Upgrade Notes, dist-upgrade-from-CD is available, but only from the Alternate CD.

Either the contributor for Idea #14003 was not clear enough, or - more likely - the developer who commented didn't consider that the vast majority of people do not know/think about/use the Alternate CD.

More importantly, while the Alternate CD is a logical place to have edge-case installation functionality, I think that one could make a strong argument that dist-upgrade-from-CD is not an "edge case".

Therefore, dist-upgrade-from-CD functionality that is available on the Alternate CD should be included also on the standard LiveCD.


Developer comments
You may be missing one piece of crucial information, and that is how the live cd works. The live CD contains a compressed 'image' of a running system, which - if you choose to install - gets copied bit-for-bit (more or less) to the hard disk. There is not a repository of packages on the live cd. (technically there is a very very small one but not one that contains all the packages in the live environment - there isn't room).

The alternate CD has an installer and a repository (much like the online archive repositories. So upgrading from an alternate CD is possible because you can point your package manager at that CD based repo and do the upgrade of packages contained therein.

You can't do a package-based upgrade from the live CD because it isn't structured in such a way that you can.

I'd say it's better to _educate_ people about the difference between the alternate and the live cd rather than change them. Clearly there is a knowledge gap if people _think_ that they can upgrade from the live cd when quite clearly they cannot.

59
votes
closed
Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #14064
Written by chipbennett the 4 Oct 08 at 14:02.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #14064 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Comments
chipbennett wrote on the 4 Oct 08 at 14:05
"Include... On LiveCD", not "Include... To LiveCD"

D'oh!

Auzy wrote on the 4 Oct 08 at 15:34
Totally agree.. All install CD's should have the same installer capabilities.

biomega wrote on the 4 Oct 08 at 16:31
As long as it keep being a Live CD and not a Live DVD I agree

meoblast001 wrote on the 4 Oct 08 at 21:40
My computer doesn't even support DVD so yes, keep it CD, and add upgrade options. All the packages are included on the disc so I think it's as simple as adding a script right?

cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 4 Oct 08 at 23:51
Since the purpose of the LiveCD is to introduce Ubuntu to *New* users, any additional function must not be confusing to them. Ideally, they shouldn't even know it's there until they need it.

Umang wrote on the 5 Oct 08 at 09:08
I'm skeptical about how possible this is, but +1 since I've always wanted this as well.

vincenzo_ml wrote on the 5 Jun 09 at 23:27
Perhaps I am missing something obvious here but on the live system there should be all the information needed to theoretically rebuild the packages (as dpkg-repack would do). So if dpkg could also install packages _from_ a directory which is the root of an installed system, then the installer could remount / as /chroot/packages (whatever the chroot for the system on the disk is) and use packages from there, without the need of repacking and unpacking them, by just copying files.

Hence implementing the installation of packages from another root directory is the way to solve this.

Can somebody (developers?) comment on this?




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