[Shift2] GUI Installer

By n_K
in Linux

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

n_K

Posted
Posted

So there was a discussion the other night about the GUI installer so I thought heck, let's try php...

So I looked for php-qt, it exists! But it haven't had any development done to it in years and isn't compatible with php 5.4 or 5.3..

So I looked back at php 5.3 and php-gtk that I remember using on windows years ago... Tried the 2.0.1 version and after fixing a few bugs with the build, it compiled. The bad thing is that it was completely broken, things opened but what was meant to change the look of things didn't change anything at all, so I tried the SVN version... It needed php-cairo so I got that and got it build, easy! But alas now trying to get php-gtk SVN to build is proving to be a pain in the arse, it's using PHP 5.4's files in /usr/include, etc. and ignoring that I said to use files in /tmp/BB so I've given up with it temporially, I'll blast out a VM on my server sometime with arch, get the PHP pkgbuild and change it to build PHP 5.3 not 5.4, make it then have a go at making the SVN extension and seeing how useful/working it is.

So if that goes well, we can stick PHP 5.3 on the live cd somewhere and use it to make/run an installer, though we'll need to code it :p.

Anyway I'll do that another time but wanted to update on it here. (Unless anyone else wants to give it a try)

  • Carbon Fiber
  • Like 1
Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1091945-shift2-gui-installer/
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Kami-

Posted
Posted

Nope only the GUI written in PHP, then just use it to make a list of things to run (like pacman) and run them in the background.

That sounds like most installers; GUI which kicks off some code to do other stuff :p (yes, I understand the technical detail, just felt like being an ass)

Grand Master

+Frank B. Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

PHP for an installer? I'm by no means a coding expert, but even I know that's not a good idea.

See, this is why I voted for Debian as a basis. They have a GUI installer already which could have been modified for Shift. Writing a GUI installer from scratch for a distribution like Arch is going to be a nightmare...

Grand Master

+Majesticmerc MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Still though, why use PHP? Seems like the wrong tool for the job to me, and an unnecessary dependency. Why not pick Python or a Mono-based language, something more oriented toward desktops?

  • +jamesyfx, Duffydemon and Aethec
  • Like 3
Grand Master

firey

Posted
Posted

well.. if you wanted.. we could make it C# Based but with your interface. I could do the C# code to your layout/design/control. Basically you would tell me/design how you want it to look/act and I can do the C# to make it do it. I've written pre-installers for apps at work using C#. Installers that install pre-requisites and such.

Grand Master

Noir Angel

Posted
Posted

Using a server side scripting language for a GUI based operating system installation sounds like a questionable choice to me. There are so many good Linux installers already available, why not re-purpose them to fit your needs?

Grand Master

n_K

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Probably be quite a few weeks till it happens...

Waiting for parts for new-server to arrive, then internets getting switched, then gotta move data and parts from old sever to new server, then get the internet routing setup and then finally try out PHP-GTK!

  • 2 weeks later...
Grand Master

firey

Posted
Posted

I've been working on a basc framework/set of files. going to try and make a mono included live CD tonight and see if I can get an automated/graphicall installer made. I have installing files from the official repo done so not a crazy amount of code needed to do it assuming I can get the live CD made. as mono will be required.

Mentor

threesixtyflip

Posted
Posted

I've been working on a basc framework/set of files. going to try and make a mono included live CD tonight and see if I can get an automated/graphicall installer made. I have installing files from the official repo done so not a crazy amount of code needed to do it assuming I can get the live CD made. as mono will be required.

Nice one fiery! Keeps us updated! :)

Grand Master

firey

Posted
Posted

Nice one fiery! Keeps us updated! :)

Will do, I feel once I get the installs of .TAR.GZ files working then a bulk of the hard work is done. Then it's just a matter of doing other things, such as built-in repo editor, etc. For tar.gz files they will be meant for use with the AUR ones.. it will extract the .tar.gz, run a makepkg -s, accept the download of required dependencies, then once the install is built, run pacman -U (file). So pretty straight forward.

Going to look at the mono stuff tonight, and see if I can give a live-cd made with the mono, once I get that.. it's just a matter of writing the code and yea. Definitely going to need some graphics artists and the sort for the interface.. but I definitely think it's doable. It is more or less just running through all the steps of a standard arch install with an interface.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Microsoft Edge, Opera to follow

      By Jaybonaut · Posted

      Neowin shudders at the many, many posts from users that block their ads
    • Hi my name is Olivia and I am from Australia

      By Accuphase · Posted

      I'm from Australia. This posts reeks of a Nigerian scammer.
    • Apple finally brings the slider for Liquid Glass and many other changes

      By WAR-DOG · Posted

      It's funny that iPhone users think they are getting feature, where in fact they are getting cosmetics that just do iteration circles of "improvement" of the said cosmetics. Apple just doesn't know what to do with this product anymore. There is no innovation on this areas anymore.
    • Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Microsoft Edge, Opera to follow

      By olympus1 · Posted

      You can disable the bloat on every browser. That's not the point. I will never use a browser of a shady company. I don't trust them at all. I can still find adblocking solutions than having to rely on a browser from a shady company. Every year they try something shady lol 2016: Brave Ad Replacement https://archive.is/W0k4j#selection-203.7-203.28 2016: pay-to-win Wikipedia clone into the default search engine list https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/issues/5475 2018: Tom Scott and other creators noticed Brave was soliciting donations in their names without their knowledge or consent. https://www.reddit.com/r/brave...aims_that_brave_is_falsely/ 2020: Brave got caught injecting URLs with affiliate codes https://www.theverge.com/2020/...-crypto-privacy-ceo-apology 2021: Brave's TOR window was found leaking DNS queries https://www.zdnet.com/article/...n-addresses-in-dns-traffic/ 2022: Brave floated the idea of further discouraging users from disabling sponsored messages. https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/22066 2023: Brave got caught installing a paid VPN service on users' computers without their consent. https://www.xda-developers.com...owser-installs-vpn-windows/ 2023: Brave got caught scraping and reselling people's data with their custom web crawler, which was designed specifically not to announce itself to website owners. https://stackdiary.com/brave-s...ghted-data-for-ai-training/ 2024: Brave gave up on providing advanced fingerprint protection, citing flawed statistics https://www.bleepingcomputer.c...tion-as-it-breaks-websites/ 2025: Brave staff publish an article endorsing PrivacyTests and say they "work with legitimate testing sites" like them. This article fails to disclose PrivacyTests is run by a Brave Senior Architect! https://brave.com/blog/adblock...esting-websites-harm-users/
    • Alpine Linux 3.24 released with support for COSMIC Desktop and other improvements

      By David Uzondu · Posted

      Alpine Linux 3.24 released with support for COSMIC Desktop and other improvements by David Uzondu Alpine Linux 3.24 has been released with updated system packages, including Linux kernel 6.18 and Rust 1.96. The team also added IPv6 support to the system installer, and they introduced automatic serial console configuration for headless setups. System76's COSMIC desktop environment is now available in the community repo. System76 originally started building this DE because its developers found GNOME to be pretty limited. Plus, it did not help that with virtually every GNOME update, the changes broke System76's custom desktop extensions. As for system packages, the Alpine team moved GTK+ 3.0 from the main repository to the community repository due to its legacy status. py3-setuptools has been upgraded to version 82.0.0, while the old pkg_resources module has been completely dropped. The team also removed outdated packages that still relied on py3-six and GTK+ 2.0. In addition to that, libsoup 2 has been removed because the library was affected by multiple security vulnerabilities. If you're a GRUB user, the Alpine Team said that you must manually run the grub-install command with your specific device or EFI options right after upgrading your system, otherwise, your computer may fail to boot properly with the newly updated GRUB 2.14 bootloader. New installations of Alpine Linux now offer an optional path to a /usr-merged directory layout if you set the BOOTSTRAP_USR_MERGED environment variable to 1 before you execute the setup-disk command. If you already run an older installation, you can migrate manually by installing the merge-usr package and executing its binary as the root user. The team recommends this layout to align Alpine with modern Linux standards, though you should verify your custom scripts before making the switch. Alpine Linux is a pretty tiny (~5MB) Linux distro built around musl libc, BusyBox, and OpenRC. It's been around since 2005, comes with its own package manager called Alpine Package Keeper (APK), and is widely used in modern cloud computing and software deployment.

  • Recent Achievements

    • One Year In
      Primer1st earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Experienced
      JayZJay went up a rank
      Experienced
    • Reacting Well
      Sir_Timbit earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      rubentuben8 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      ARaclen earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      511
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      229
    3. 3
      Edouard
      134
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      87
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      80
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!