Ubuntu
ubiquity package

Multi thread/parallel install screens

Asked by Massa

Ubuntu gyus,

i was wondering how faster the install process wuold get if some time-consuming pages like "timezone" and "disk partitions" were loaded in parallel while the user is filling the basic information (name, login and password). Its a time that the computer is basically idle.

Also would be great to make the installer to download repository info and additional packages WHILE the files are getting copied to to HD. Because copying the files from the CD/DVD to hd is much slower (and limited by the cd speed and not by the hd) the whole downloading process, the user would even notice this step at all.

best regards,

massa

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Suggest this on:

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com

Most stuff is done on the background in Maverick but suggestions are for the link above

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Colin Watson (cjwatson) said : 		#2

Sounds like you're asking about 10.04 or earlier. What you're asking for is pretty much done in Ubuntu 10.10.

(We don't load multiple different question pages in parallel because that would get very confusing, and disk partitioning happens before we start doing things in parallel, but aside from that it does help quite a lot.)

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Massa (brmassa) said : 		#3

@Andrew

sorry man. ubuntu ecossystem is too spread and i didnt know the right place to place this suggestion. i will look at brainstorm.

@Colin,

in fact i use Kubuntu but i believe that core of ubiquity is the same (only changing the ui kit). K/Ubuntu 10.10 is fast but i was wondering to make it even faster loading some data in the background while the user is occupied on other tasks, like filling forms. Also, i imagine that is possible to make the "downloading new packages" task behind the "copying files" task.

regards,

massa

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Colin Watson (cjwatson) said : 		#4

Possibly. Feel free to raise wishlist bug report(s).

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Colin Watson (cjwatson) said : 		#5

That said, we probably won't put significant effort into splitting out bits of installation steps that take time in order to try to do them in parallel - I think we're reaching the point of diminishing returns there. It might be possible to do some apt-get operations a bit earlier, with care to avoid colliding with the target filesystem that's being built.

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