Ubuntu
ubiquity package

Are there any plans on ever dropping netinstall mini.iso's?

Asked by the-unconventional

As a long-time Debian user, I have always preferred doing expert installs and pulling in the desired packages afterwards, to make a system that completely fits my or my customers' needs. However, with Canonical dropping the alternate cd's, the only way left to do so is by using the netinst mini.iso image from the cdimage.ubuntu.com server. Doing so works perfectly, but now the alternate cd's are gone, I'm starting to have growing concerns on whether the mini.iso will suffer the same fate sometime soon, basically leaving me no choice other than to go back to using Debian exclusively. As much as I like Ubuntu and its derivatives for desktop use, I do think that they're all too bloated, so doing minimal installs has always been an ideal solution for me, and most likely many others with me.

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Colin Watson
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

I doubt it personally. I've not heard anything to say it will be going anytime soon

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Best Colin Watson (cjwatson) said : 		#2

There are no such plans. I'll maintain them on my own time if I need to (but I don't think that'll be necessary).

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the-unconventional (the-unconventional-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#3

Thanks Colin Watson, that solved my question.

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the-unconventional (the-unconventional-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#4

Now that I've been thinking about it; would it perhaps be an idea to implement such an option in future versions of Ubiquity? It doesn't really have to be anything special; all that has to happen is that the installer -only- installs the ubuntu-minimal and ubuntu-standard metapackages, just like a minimal expert install would do. In that case the same image could be used for testing a live environment and for installing a minimal operating system.

Perhaps something like a dropdown list showing "Options for advanced users" in the first step (when selecting to either try or install Ubuntu or a derivative)?

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Colin Watson (cjwatson) said : 		#5

For the most part, we'd rather keep ubiquity focused on its primary goal of being an excellent desktop installer, with only the minimum options necessary. (Besides, it would be technically fiddly to do as you say and keep it minimal; ubiquity copies the squashfs of the live environment it's running on, rather than constructing the basic system by installing packages.)

That said, it's possible that the (currently infrequently maintained) text frontend of ubiquity may end up being adapted to do something a little like what you suggest for server images in the nearish future. But I don't think it will really meet the needs of people currently using netboot images, so I would be very hesitant to suggest that it could replace those.