Minimal and Typical installation

[1]

(a) File system manifest

    - File: <your cubic project>custom-disk/casper/filesystem.manifest

    - This lists all of the packages you have installed in Cubic's
        virtual environment.
    - It is equivalent to doing `dpkg -l` on the Terminal page.
    - This is the list of packages displayed on Cubic's Packages page.
    - All of these packages are *installed* in the Live Environment when
        you boot the custom ISO.

(b) Manifest of files to remove for a Typical install

    - File: <your cubic project>custom-disk/casper/filesystem.manifest-remove

    - This lists all of the packages you have check-marked on Cubic's
        Packages page in the "Typical" column.
    - All of these packages will be removed from your OS when you select
        "Typical Install" in Ubiquity while installing your custom ISO.

(c) Manifest of files to remove for a Minimal install

    - File: <your cubic project>custom-disk/casper/filesystem.manifest-minimal-remove

    - This lists all of the packages you have check-marked on Cubic's
        Packages page in the "Minimal" column.
    - All of these packages will be removed from your OS when you select
        "Minimal Install" in Ubiquity while installing your custom ISO.
    - ADDITIONALLY the packages you selected to remove for a Typical
        install will ALSO be removed from your OS when you select
        "Minimal Install" in Ubiquity while installing your custom ISO.

[2]

Selecting a Typical or Minimal install is done by Ubiquity. (In the older version of Ubiquity, this feature was not available).

If you are using another installer, I don't think it will even read the *.manifest files; in that case, all of the packages available in the Live Environment will be copied onto the target computer during installation.

I am not sure if the selection of Typical or Minimal install can be done via preseed.

However, I looked at the Ubiquity code and saw the parameter "ubiquity/minimal_install" which can be set to 'true' or 'false'. Perhaps this is what you need in the preseed file?

If you try it, please let me know if it works?

[Note]

Be careful what you select (check-mark) on the Packages page. Dependent packages will also be removed by apt, but these dependent packages will not be automatically selected (check-marked) on the Packages page!

[References]

Here are some Preseeding references:

    https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed
    https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/installation-guide/s390x/apbs02.html

Section B.4.11. "Package selection":

    https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/installation-guide/s390x/apbs04.html

Section B.5.2. "Using preseeding to change default values":

    https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/installation-guide/s390x/apbs05.html

Thank you very much for this accurate information.

I tested the ubiquity ubiquity/minimal_install boolean true in my preseed file : IT WORKS ! I have a minimal desktop. (No Thunderbird, Rhythmbox etc..)

This is my only entry with ubiquity, the rest is in d-i.

A last precision on the automatic preselection of the packages to be uninstalled.Before the manual selection, the packages preselected for deletion are defined by Cubic team ? Said differently, who decide to preselect some package to be removed in Cubic package remove package menulist ?

thank you
Best regard

Johnny,

Cubic uses these files from the original ISO...

    1. filesystem.manifest-remove
    2. filesystem.manifest-minimal-remove

So the 1st time you customize an ISO, Cubic uses Canonical's/Ubuntu's initial list of packages to remove.

(If file #1 or #2 is not on present the original ISO, then noting will be selected for removal, for Typical or Minimal, respectively).

When you customize your project, Cubic will update these files based on your actual installed packages and the packages you select/de-select for "Typical" or "Minimal" installs.

(Please remember to mark this question as "Solved" so other's can benefit).

Hi,

Thank you for all these informations !

Best regards