MAAS installer doesn't prompt for superuser password and email

[Graham Binns]

At the moment, adding a superuser to MAAS when installing for the first time requires you to run `maas createsuperuser` at the command-line after installation has completed.

The MAAS installer debconf could just prompt for the email address and password to be used for "root" (where "root" is the de facto MAAS superuser account for all new installations).

[Julian Edwards (julian-edwards)]

Packaging bug so re-targeting.

[Dustin Kirkland  (kirkland)]

I'm confirming this bug.

The work flow here is a little silly, in my opinion. The MAAS superuser name could and should easily be hardcoded to a common username. This would be particularly handy in documentation.

The initial password should be randomly generated, and easily reset-able by the local system root user. An email address should be obtained, and used to let the superuser change their initial, randomly generated password.

We can do a LOT better here, and telling the user to create the super user ;-)

[Ryan Beisner (1chb1n)]

See also related bug 1302286.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/maas/+bug/1302286

[Dave Walker (davewalker)]

This was a specific design decision from a workflow direction:
 - Get MAAS up and running and out of DI ASAP, asking minimal (or no) questions. Withthe webui guiding next steps.
 - Force side auth via ssh/local rather than allow initial setting via webui, to avoid initial install being hijacked
 - Begin to expose users to MAAS command line interface.

I am really not convinced this is a bug, has there been any user feedback to suggest the current workflow is undesirable?

[Julian Edwards (julian-edwards)]

I must admit, Dustin's feedback is the first I ever heard about this being undesirable.

One thing that we want to do in upstream MAAS is to have a guided installation that will set up not only things like admin passwords, but also take the user through their network set up.

That would make this issue entirely moot.