Towards a graphical installer?

[Mathieu Othacehe]

Hello,

A way to move forward with the installer could be to propose an ISO
image starting a desktop-environment by default. The attached patch
modifies the installation image so that it starts a GNOME session. The
installer is then automatically started, inside a gnome-terminal.

The resulting ISO image is bigger: 3.9G without compression and 1.7G
with compression.

Now, I'm not sure this is something we want to merge as-is. Maybe, it's
time to port the installer to a GTK3 application, or a Web
application. As we already have something working, porting (gnu
installer) to a new graphical backend, could be not so hard.

I don't think I'll have the bandwidth to do this anytime soon, but is
someone is interested, I'm willing to help/review :).

Thanks,

Mathieu

installer.png
Description: PNG image

>From 3ec7528c0a7bcc318e380f41f7cbd91df9927b8a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Mathieu Othacehe <address@hidden>
Date: Mon, 11 May 2020 15:25:08 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] installer: Use GNOME3 desktop-environment.

---
 gnu/installer.scm      | 33 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 gnu/system/install.scm | 55 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------
 2 files changed, 71 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

diff --git a/gnu/installer.scm b/gnu/installer.scm
index 79113cb0ef..adaec0db83 100644
--- a/gnu/installer.scm
+++ b/gnu/installer.scm
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
   #:use-module (gnu packages cryptsetup)
   #:use-module (gnu packages disk)
   #:use-module (gnu packages file-systems)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages gnome)
   #:use-module (gnu packages guile)
   #:use-module (gnu packages guile-xyz)
   #:autoload   (gnu packages gnupg) (guile-gcrypt)
@@ -45,10 +46,13 @@
   #:use-module (gnu packages ncurses)
   #:use-module (gnu packages package-management)
   #:use-module (gnu packages xorg)
+  #:use-module (gnu services)
+  #:use-module (gnu services shepherd)
   #:use-module (gnu system locale)
   #:use-module (ice-9 match)
   #:use-module (srfi srfi-1)
-  #:export (installer-program))
+  #:export (installer-program
+            installer-skel))
 
 (define module-to-import?
   ;; Return true for modules that should be imported.  For (gnu system …) and
@@ -442,3 +446,30 @@ selected keymap."
        (setenv "LANG" "en_US.UTF-8")
        (execl #$(program-file "installer-real" installer-builder)
               "installer-real"))))
+
+(define (desktop-installer)
+  (program-file
+   "desktop-installer"
+   #~(begin
+       (let ((program
+              (string-append "sleep 3 ; " #$(installer-program))))
+         (execl "/run/setuid-programs/sudo"
+                "sudo"
+                #$(file-append gnome-terminal "/bin/gnome-terminal")
+                "--maximize"
+                "--"
+                "/bin/sh" "-c"
+                program)))))
+
+(define (installer-skel)
+  `((".config"
+     ,(file-union
+       "installer-skel"
+       `(("autostart/installer.desktop"
+          ,(mixed-text-file "installer.desktop" "[Desktop Entry]
+Version=1.0
+Terminal=False
+Type=Application
+Name=Guix System Installer
+Exec=" (desktop-installer) "
+")))))))
diff --git a/gnu/system/install.scm b/gnu/system/install.scm
index fe49ffdb94..37816e5839 100644
--- a/gnu/system/install.scm
+++ b/gnu/system/install.scm
@@ -32,10 +32,13 @@
   #:use-module ((guix packages) #:select (package-version))
   #:use-module ((guix store) #:select (%store-prefix))
   #:use-module (gnu installer)
+  #:use-module (gnu services avahi)
+  #:use-module (gnu services desktop)
   #:use-module (gnu services dbus)
   #:use-module (gnu services networking)
   #:use-module (gnu services shepherd)
   #:use-module (gnu services ssh)
+  #:use-module (gnu services xorg)
   #:use-module (gnu packages admin)
   #:use-module (gnu packages bash)
   #:use-module (gnu packages bootloaders)
@@ -341,10 +344,7 @@ Access documentation at any time by pressing Alt-F2.\x1b[0m
 
     (list (service virtual-terminal-service-type)
 
-          (service kmscon-service-type
-                   (kmscon-configuration
-                    (virtual-terminal "tty1")
-                    (login-program (installer-program))))
+          (normal-tty "tty1")
 
           (login-service (login-configuration
                           (motd motd)))
@@ -448,7 +448,28 @@ Access documentation at any time by pressing Alt-F2.\x1b[0m
           ;; current AMD GPUs, SiS GPUs, ...) need uvesafb to show the GUI
           ;; installer.  Some may also need a kernel parameter like nomodeset
           ;; or vga=793, but we leave that for the user to specify in GRUB.
-          (service uvesafb-service-type))))
+          (service uvesafb-service-type)
+
+          ;; GNOME related services.
+          (service slim-service-type
+                   (slim-configuration
+                    (auto-login? #t)
+                    (default-user "guest")))
+
+          polkit-wheel-service
+          x11-socket-directory-service
+
+          (service avahi-service-type)
+          (udisks-service)
+          (service upower-service-type)
+          (accountsservice-service)
+          (service colord-service-type)
+          (geoclue-service)
+          (service polkit-service-type)
+          (elogind-service)
+          (service ntp-service-type)
+
+          (service gnome-desktop-service-type))))
 
 (define %issue
   ;; Greeting.
@@ -465,7 +486,7 @@ Access documentation at any time by pressing Alt-F2.\x1b[0m
     (timezone "Europe/Paris")
     (locale "en_US.utf8")
     (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
-                 (bootloader grub-bootloader)
+                 (bootloader grub-efi-bootloader)
                  (target "/dev/sda")))
     (label (string-append "GNU Guix installation "
                           (package-version guix)))
@@ -490,25 +511,27 @@ Access documentation at any time by pressing 
Alt-F2.\x1b[0m
               (type "tmpfs")
               (check? #f))
 
-            ;; XXX: This should be %BASE-FILE-SYSTEMS but we don't need
-            ;; elogind's cgroup file systems.
-            (list %pseudo-terminal-file-system
-                  %shared-memory-file-system
-                  %immutable-store)))
+            %base-file-systems))
+
+    ;; Our /etc/sudoers file.  Since 'guest' initially has an empty password,
+    ;; allow for password-less sudo.
+    (sudoers-file (plain-file "sudoers" "\
+root ALL=(ALL) ALL
+%wheel ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL\n"))
 
-    (users (list (user-account
+    (users (cons (user-account
                   (name "guest")
                   (group "users")
                   (supplementary-groups '("wheel")) ; allow use of sudo
                   (password "")
-                  (comment "Guest of GNU"))))
+                  (comment "Guest of GNU"))
+                 %base-user-accounts))
 
     (issue %issue)
     (services %installation-services)
 
-    ;; We don't need setuid programs, except for 'passwd', which can be handy
-    ;; if one is to allow remote SSH login to the machine being installed.
-    (setuid-programs (list (file-append shadow "/bin/passwd")))
+    (skeletons (append (installer-skel)
+                       (default-skeletons)))
 
     (pam-services
      ;; Explicitly allow for empty passwords.
-- 
2.26.2