Add an option to disable downloading langpacks

[Anonymous Coward]

this ruins the usefulness of xubuntu

[Sergio Barjola (sbarjola)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug.
Can you add the file /var/log/installer/syslog ? Thanks in advance.

[Vishal Rao (vishalrao)]

Can this bug be converted into a wishlist?

i.e. the installer should not go online if it detects a network connection without first prompting/asking (or user selecting a checkbox during configuration)... yes, the installer can mention its for important security updates but still leave the choice to the user.

There are users in countries with slow Internet access or pay-per-MB pricing who'd like to avoid using the connection during installation.

[Manish Sinha (मनीष सिन्हा) (manishsinha)]

I agree with Vishal,
Many of us still have to pay for bandwidth usage per MB. I currently live in India where I have 1 GB monthly cap. It might seem funny, but its reality in developing countries. If I exceed my usage then I am charged Rs. 0.90/MB where conversion rate is 1USD= 46INR

The user should be asked whether they want to install the updates and even told that the installer will connect to the internet to download the updates. Many of us can install updates later after installation using AptOnCD, this way we can save our already expensive bandwidth.

[Evan (ev)]

Ubiquity is not downloading security updates, it is downloading language packs to give you full internationalization support for the language you have selected as part of the install. As the CD is not large enough to hold these, they must be downloaded separately.

Still, I see the utility in being able to explicitly disable this, provided a very large warning is attached that says you will not have a localized install.

[Evan (ev)]

It's probably worth modifying the introductory text to mention that the installer may use your internet connection, as part of the general update to that text that we already have planned.

[Manish Sinha (मनीष सिन्हा) (manishsinha)]

Evan,
I too agree with you. The installer should tell explicitly that its going to use the internet connection and tell what is wants to do with the connection. What packages it want to download.
It should not proceed without confirming from the user whether he wants to download them or not.

[dotancohen (dotancohen)]

The languages that are not on the CD should be marked (asterisk, maybe) and a note given that the installation of these languages will require internet access. This is important for these reasons:
1) The installer hangs at 82% when it cannot connect to a slow server, which is often the case when a new *buntu version is release and the entire world is installing at once.
2) An alternative, included language may suffice for the installation.
3) Bandwidth is expensive in some areas.
4) Unauthorized internet access is often a symptom of malicious software on some operating systems, and users may be very wary of the practice.
5) Some users may wish to protect their anonymity and any unexpected network activity may compromise that anonymity.

[Vishal Rao (vishalrao)]

Unless I'm imagining things, I thought this was addressed during the alphas, but while installing both Kubuntu and Ubuntu 9.04 beta with selecting English it still wants to go online "scanning the mirrors" at 82%. This takes about 5 minutes which is annoying since the entire install itself takes 5-10 minutes (excluding the scanning mirror part). I then did the usual step before reinstalling of unplugging the ethernet cable and the install seemed to finish fine and fast without the need to scan the mirrors...

Can we still have this this as an option with a checkbox before the release, or.... woooo... is it too late even though this bug/wish was opened nearly 5 months ago?

[Manish Sinha (मनीष सिन्हा) (manishsinha)]

I too tried installing Jaunty Beta on VirtualBox with Network enabled. The installation took so long, that I had to click Cancel and force shut down the VM. Next time before booting, I disabled the network.

The question is that when I chose english, then why is it trying to get the language packs?

[Vishal Rao (vishalrao)]

Can this now be made a "paper cut" ? :-)

[Manish Sinha (मनीष सिन्हा) (manishsinha)]

Vishal,
I second that. Are you hopeful that it might be solved in Karmic?

Two milestones have already been set
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts/+milestone/round-1
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts/+milestone/round-2

[Vishal Rao (vishalrao)]

Well let's hope they do it this time :-)

--

Please pardon my brevity - Sent from my iPod.

On 20-Jun-2009, at 5:25 PM, Manish Sinha <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Vishal,
> I second that. Are you hopeful that it might be solved in Karmic?
>
> Two milestones have already been set
> https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts/+milestone/round-1
> https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts/+milestone/round-2
>
> --
> Add an option to disable downloading langpacks
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/294523
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.

[Vishal Rao (vishalrao)]

thanks for adding the usability tag, i hope the User/DX (desktop experience) team considers this as a regular wishlist bug for karmic, since its clearly not a papercut. forum thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195557

[Hello Peach (loligoth0)]

The thing is, when I chose English during the isntallation, it still hangs at scanning the mirror for half an hour, so what is it downloading then?

[Vishal Rao (vishalrao)]

ah there looks to be more hope in this similar/related bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubiquity/+bug/172879

[Vish (vish)]

From Bug #172879 , this seems like a non-trivial fix.
Colin Watson seems to have put considerable effort into fixing this issue.

Marking it incomplete for now , I'd leave it to Colin to decide whether this is a papercut or not

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

The bugs are related, but it's not obvious to me that this is a duplicate.

[Vish (vish)]

This bug , I believe , was started because the delay at 82% was caused by the installer downloading language packs and not being able to cancel the downloads.,
This will be fixed by Bug #172879 , So marking this bug as a dup.

If anyone feels they need a separate option in the installer , they can remove the duplicate status.
[IMO , adding an option to not download language packs will confuse new users.]

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

mac_v, I know the source code here and when I say that this is not obviously a duplicate I do actually know what I'm talking about. I am therefore reverting the incorrect marking of this bug as a duplicate. Please *leave it alone*.

[AlexGenaud (alexgenaud)]

In addition to asking whether the user wants to connect to the internet, it would be nice to offer language pack CD/ISOs. The ISO's would quickly make their rounds in their respective regions.

I've copied the /var/cache/apt/archives from another post-installation. Similarly, I'd like to reuse language packages.

In the case where I use American English and a USA keyboard configuration, I don't expect the installer to download anything just because I set my timezone to Greenland.

[Vish (vish)]

Thank you for bringing this bug to our attention. However, a paper cut should be a small usability issue, in the default Ubuntu install, that affects many people and is quick and easy to fix. So this bug can't be addressed as part of this project.

- Closing papercuts task. This isnt a simple problem to fix nor is the cause known .
For further information about papercuts criteria, please read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PaperCut.

Don't worry though, this bug has been marked as "Invalid" only in the papercuts project.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

I believe that if one expand the progress dialog at the bottom the "skip" button is active to cancel lang-pack download.

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for ubiquity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]