first run wizard missing after install

[Evertjan Garretsen]

I've taken a look at the"installer design specification" and i think one major thing is missing. A post-installation wizard / first run wizard. This could be used to postpone actions wich the user does not want to do directly on installing or are not possible to do directly on installing.

Some possible scenarios where this would be useful:

Scenario 1:
User wants to Install from sync, but password is stored in a password manager he or she cannot access just yet. Or the user forgot the password and can use the normal way of retreiving the password after install and provide it to the first run wizard.

Scenario 2:
User just wants to install quickly and postpones some installer options. The "post installation wizard" will notice this an will provide a way to do this at a later time when Ubuntu is already installed.

Scenario 3:
After installation in the future options could be provided to sync programm settings like: e-mailsettings, social-media settings, chat settings, .... Without having to alter the installation process

Scenario 4:
Detecting all kinds of network attached devices like printers, scanners, NAS'es

Scenario 5:
Provide a way to introduce user to services like Ubuntu one if user is not already on it and help with signing up, same for software center account

Scenario 6:
We thank you for installing Ubuntu and we would like to ask you to contribute to the community by testing your system (this will also benefit the user itself for bugs will be reported to friendly.ubuntu.com) and if the user wants to do this run system-testing. Also a option could be provided in system-testing to report non working parts of the computer (for example i have a button on my Asus N56vm which is a quick-launcher in windows, this does not work in ubuntu, but it is nice for friendly.ubuntu.com to know an possibly create a bug-report automatically in launchpad.

Scenario 7:
More info about the way the community works and emphasize that everyone can contribute. Explain the ways the users can contribute like translating, reporting bugs, write code, spreading the word, etc.

I think some of these things are not suitable in the installer, but are useful in a "Post installation wizard" which the user can run at the time he or she chooses. It could for example contain the options "Remind me later" and "skip this wizard".

Some difficult choices during installation can be postponed

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-10.10-generic 3.5.1
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-10-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu12
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: 263373e9342a36a14e3a0e16dabf7203
CheckboxSystem: 4c773cd91921f9618cc2f1893bc1a87a
Date: Thu Aug 16 13:34:58 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash --
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Evertjan Garretsen (egarretsen)]

Scenario 8:

Also for suggesting restricted drivers, additional drivers. It would be nice if friendly.ubuntu.com would contain a list of all computers known to ubuntu and wether some functionality requires additional packages. If an admin confirms that a certain type of notebook / configuration requires extra drivers this could be communicated to the wizard and these packages could be installed automatically with one click by user in "post install wizard".

[Evertjan Garretsen (egarretsen)]

Also see the wishlist / Ubuntu brainstorm. Someone already suggested this in 2009 and it seems like there are a lot of positve responses to this idea.

Idea #17386: Create an after installation wizard for optional extras and settings

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17386/

[Evertjan Garretsen (egarretsen)]

added my solution as described in this "bug" to ubuntu brainstorm.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Scenario 1: User wants to Install from sync, but password is stored in a password manager he or she cannot access just yet. Or the user forgot the password and can use the normal way of retreiving the password after install and provide it to the first run wizard.

Scenario 2: use oem-config mode which does exactly that

Scenario 3: we have ubuntu one icon in the launcher that offers to login & start sync of bunch of stuff

Scenario 4: done on ad-hoc basis, when you first try to use it

Scenario 5: maybe, but everyone finds those welcome bubbles annoying in windows xp.

Scenario 6 & 7: we do most of this during the slideshow, maybe it can be added to the slideshow ?!

Scenario 8: is done during installation or via hardware-drivers detected when booted into the full system

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Opening a massive bug report with many things is not productive. Cause some things can be valid & others not so much. It is easier to work with smaller units.

You can create blueprints and cross-reference them.
Or open multiple bugs and tag them with a single bug to keep track of them together.
I will be marking this bug report as Opinion, since it needs to be split up & agreed upon to actually implement anything.