Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS Will Default To The New Installer

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS Will Default To The New Installer

Last year Canonical announced work on a new text-based server installer for Ubuntu. It's come a long way over the past year and will be the default server installer with 18.04 LTS...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Server-18.04-New-Install

[eydee]

The desktop version could use a revamp too. It's slow, and it asks for mount points before asking for the keyboard layout, as if everyone was American. It's unbelievable how such an oversight could survive for so many years.

[Ray54]

I install the latest LTS Ubuntu server every 2 years on my Home Server, but I don't really notice the installer. I guess the textual installer has changed over the years, and is different from the Red Hat installers and Unix installers that I used to use, but they all sort of work in the same familiar way with the same tab and shift-tab to move between options. I think what I want is a Linux server installer that is always basically the same as before, I don't need anything new!

The only problem I can think of is when I need to use the partition manager, when it could possibly be a little clearer with a re-design.

[andre30correia]

The desktop version could use a revamp too. It's slow, and it asks for mount points before asking for the keyboard layout, as if everyone was American. It's unbelievable how such an oversight could survive for so many years.

Slow? I notice no difference from Fedora or Manjaro, same time and if you choose your lauguage the new keyboard layot works, or simply startup the live cd. It not assumes if you use a VM. Ubuntu installer is simple and clean and always work, changing is bad when things work well and are simple

[bulletxt]

Does this installer support mdadm raid?

[Otus]

It's been years since I installed server edition. Usually you just clone a VM/container image.

[theghost]

Slow? I notice no difference from Fedora or Manjaro, same time and if you choose your lauguage the new keyboard layot works, or simply startup the live cd. It not assumes if you use a VM. Ubuntu installer is simple and clean and always work, changing is bad when things work well and are simple

Exactly. Ubuntu atleast has a working and user-friendly installer for years.
To my experience you a good use-case to test distribution installers is an encrypted installation.
A lot of installers handle keyboard layout of your language wrong and/or leave you with up to 3 password requests (grub, plymouth and desktop manager), if you use the partitioning layout which is recommended by installer. It's no wonder that Linux see no adoption on the desktop, if the installer are that bad.
There are only three good exceptions, Ubiquity, Anaconda and Cnchi.
So better don't reinvent the wheel for reinvention.

[iyxwsoekthsv]

It's unbelievable how such an oversight could survive for so many years.

It's not that bad. I'm not American nor have I ever been and it never bothered me. I'd be hard pressed to imagine anyone being truly offended or annoyed by it. Technically, you're right, keyboard layout should be the first question.

But, honestly... to call it unbelievable and an oversight... I find that marginally unbelievable.

[nodnoif]

It's not that bad. I'm not American nor have I ever been and it never bothered me. I'd be hard pressed to imagine anyone being truly offended or annoyed by it. Technically, you're right, keyboard layout should be the first question.

But, honestly... to call it unbelievable and an oversight... I find that marginally unbelievable.

Imagine you have a french keyboard, and you want to create a partition for /tmp. Many of the keys are different to the American layout, so when you press those keys a different letter or symbol appears. How are you going to know that you have to type "!t,p" in order to get "/tmp"?

[Zgembo]

Utter BS. Why the hell they want to re-invent the wheel again and again and again? Keyboard layouts, mdraid/lvm/disk-encryption, netboot install, all just works super fine with debian text installer, which uses the same interface & unattended config params for years, and is well supported from the likes of cobbler, MAAS, Ironic... Servers totally don't need this crap and yet their LTS defaults to it. What a stupid decision.