DebianInstaller


Installing Debian Using A GUI

The last attempt to make a GUI for DebianInstaller, which was inactive for a long time but is now once again being [http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2005/11/msg01289.html worked on], involves adding a ["GTK"] ["frontend"] to d-i. Demo images have been produced of a working installer using this new frontend.

If you want to give the graphical installer a try, you can download experimental images (comparable with regular daily builds) that boot up using the graphical frontend by default and install Etch:

The PowerPC graphical installer has been tested on Pegasos and on 32bit newworld ?PowerMacs. They should work also on IBM RS6K machines, and on 64bit machines (G5 pmac, IBM POWER), altough this later may expose 64bitness issues. Oldworld powermacs should also work using bootx, but untested. In any case, since the initrd is 19MB, i think a minimum of 64MB if not more of memory is needed.

Plans for beta 2 of DebianInstaller include merging the graphical installer into regular ISO images (see: ?DebianInstallerEtchBeta2Prep).

For an overview of open issues and things we'd like to see done, see ["DebianInstallerGUIToDo"].

If you're interested in building by yourself a debian-installer with GUI please have a look at the ["DebianInstallerGUIBuild"] page.

Reviews

Here is a list of articles/review about the graphical installer which appeared around the web:

Games

It would be nice for g-i to have some games to help kill time during lengthy install sessions.

Candidates for inclusion need to have a limited set of dependencies, preferable only those that are already included in g-i, use directfb for graphics, eventually using SDL, sound should be optional, and not need more input device than already detected by g-i.

This excludes c++ implemented games linked against libstdc++, or other language whose runtime is not-available in g-i, as well as all those that link with the gnome libs or other such. A preliminary list follows, out of them, icebreaker sounds like a very good candidate. It is only depending on libsdl, easy to understand, using only the mouse and not the keyboard, and not controversial in any way.