minstall problem and a Question

[rs55]

The new installer very likely won't complete without that information.

However, if you do a "personal" snapshoy.that information should be preserved. The installer should skip user creation in that case. Or at least it used to.

Thanks Dolphin. I do always make "personal" snapshots. The installer still asks for a username etc at the last page of the install process. As you say, it would make sense to skip this page (ie. not have minstall ask for this info) if its a personal snapshot.

[rs55]

The new installer very likely won't complete without that information.

However, if you do a "personal" snapshoy.that information should be preserved. The installer should skip user creation in that case. Or at least it used to.

Thanks Dolphin. I do always make "personal" snapshots. The installer still asks for a username etc at the last page of the install process. As you say, it would make sense to skip this page (ie. not have minstall ask for this info) if its a personal snapshot.

Its interesting a lot of the issues I have had ( mostly resolved thanks to your great team!) appear to be because it appears not many people use snapshot/LUM the way I do. I mean if people mainly use snapshot/LUM to create tweaked versions of the OS to share with friends - thats a different use case that the way I use it.
I do highly recommend my way though! Its a great way to keep all your machines synchronized, and it removes all fear of getting virus infections, bad updates etc - because it takes 5 minutes to reinstall my entire system ( configurations,apps, data and everything) from bare metal.

[rs55]

The new installer very likely won't complete without that information.

However, if you do a "personal" snapshoy.that information should be preserved. The installer should skip user creation in that case. Or at least it used to.

Thanks Dolphin. I do always make "personal" snapshots. The installer still asks for a username etc at the last page of the install process. As you say, it would make sense to skip this page (ie. not have minstall ask for this info) if its a personal snapshot.

The latest iteration of the installer ( which I had to remove) not only presents that username/password screen, but does not allow you to end the process without completing that screen ! I dont know what I would enter on that page - since it wont accept the normal username/password. I suppose one would have to create a temporary username- then go back into the installed system and delete the temporary user and put in the normal user. Convoluted.

[AK-47]

Hi rs55,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing these issues with the installer.

There's been a few bug fixes and some other changes in the installer since MX 18.3: https://github.com/MX-Linux/gazelle-ins ... _amd64.deb

You can use this by opening with gdebi while in the live environment. Please let us know if the issue still continues.

[dolphin_oracle]

I want to say here that I've been working with several snapshots and personal snapshots today, and so far the latest version of the installer is working as intended. the user creation screen has not been offerred on personal snapshot installations, from either iso files or from live-USBs, on several different machines.

so maybe the bug rs55 encountered has been fixed.

[rs55]

I want to say here that I've been working with several snapshots and personal snapshots today, and so far the latest version of the installer is working as intended. the user creation screen has not been offerred on personal snapshot installations, from either iso files or from live-USBs, on several different machines.

so maybe the bug rs55 encountered has been fixed.

Well, I upgraded everything just now, after seeing your comment. minstall upgraded from 19.4 to 19.5.2

Unfortunately the problem is still there. At the last page of the installation it says something like "waiting for user input" ( this is a new "feature"). Then it goes on to the username page - and exiting out at this stage - aborts the whole thing and the system cannot boot - no grub etc. ( this is new "feature" as well).
In the old version ( 19.4) , I could simply exit at that last page - and everything worked.

[rs55]

I want to say here that I've been working with several snapshots and personal snapshots today, and so far the latest version of the installer is working as intended. the user creation screen has not been offerred on personal snapshot installations, from either iso files or from live-USBs, on several different machines.

so maybe the bug rs55 encountered has been fixed.

dolphin - could you check what version of minstall you have? Thanks a lot.

[AK-47]

Can you please post the output of the following commands while in the live snapshot:

Code: Select all

ls -als /home
grep -E '^UID_MIN|^UID_MAX' /etc/login.defs
getent passwd {1000..60000}

Also if you can provide the contents of /var/log/minstall.log that may help us diagnose the problem you're having.

[rs55]

Can you please post the output of the following commands while in the live snapshot:

Code: Select all

ls -als /home
grep -E '^UID_MIN|^UID_MAX' /etc/login.defs
getent passwd {1000..60000}

Also if you can provide the contents of /var/log/minstall.log that may help us diagnose the problem you're having.

I upgraded minstall to 19.6.4 . Same problem. Is this not a design choice? Looks like it. I see things have changed since 19.4. There is now a new message box that pops up towards the end when it is 95% done. "user input required". Then it clearly insists on having the username filled out - or it will self-destruct !
Anyway - I have attched minstall.log - hope that is helpful. In the meantime I will continue to keep MX and Antix off my repo list to avoid updates. minstall 19.4 was working perfectly well, as was the rest of the system. And I still get the updates from Debian.

[rs55]

MX has a huge opportunity in front of it. Windows 10 is diabolically bad ( unlikely to improve because the entire concept of the OS as a "service" requires these constant updates and a wide open backdoor - not good), Ubuntu appears to be making some poor choices in direction and starting to turn people off. Debian is great - but requires quite a bit of work to get working right for your average desktop user. Arch /Manjaro - is too bleeding edge and not rock solid stable. Then there are tons of smaller distros that come and go - not confidence inducing for a home user who wants stability and long term support with updates etc.
No - MX is starting to look like the king of the hill. Has the right stuff.

It is important to define your audience as you make changes to key components of the system - like the installer. After all if the installer is finicky - new users will just move on and miss out on the great MX experience.
I realize the users who are most vocal and populate these blogs etc are OS /Linux enthusiasts. many have ideas on adding , tweaking the base MX distro and making their own respin etc. Great, more power to them.
But - if you make design choices that makes life a teeny bit easier for them while breaking important functionality for the average home user - you will be missing out on a huge potential audience.
When it comes to tradeoffs, I would suggest making it foolproof and consistent for the home user. The enthusiast crowd is in any event more sophisticated and probably dont need handholding.