Changes/KDERemoveInitialSetup

Remove initial-setup from KDE Spin & Kinoite

This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

Summary

We currently don't use the initial-setup application in the main KDE Spin and Kinoite installation ISOs as everything gets configured at installation time via Anaconda. We thus want to remove this package from the installation ISOs while keeping it where we currently need it (pre-installed disk images, etc.). Note that an "initial setup" app is still needed to enable OEM-style installations (https://askubuntu.com/questions/1386806/what-is-oem-installation-regarding-linux-distributions) of the KDE Spin/Kinoite (like Fedora Workstation/Silverblue) so we're planning on introducing a more KDE native application as a replacement once it is ready.

Owner

• Timothée Ravier, siosm@fedoraproject.org
• Neal Gompa, ngompa@fedoraproject.org

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora Linux 38
• Last updated: 2022-11-09
• FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

We'll remove the initial-setup (and thus all the anaconda dependencies) from the KDE Spin & Fedora Kinoite. This will fix a bug that is only visible on Kinoite (where the user gets a warning on first boot because / is read only) and will let us work on replacing it by another more KDE native application instead.

OEM installations are installations where only the minimum is configured by the vendor (hardware provider) and everything else is done by the user on first boot. This is the default experience on Fedora Workstation and other major operating systems.

See also the discussion in https://pagure.io/fedora-kde/SIG/issue/243 for potential alternatives.

Feedback

None so far.

Benefit to Fedora

• Smaller image
• One less UX bug on Kinoite
• Work in the direction of OEM installations for the KDE based variants

Scope

• Proposal owners:
  • Remove the packages and test the change. Work on packaging alternatives and potential integration.
  • OpenQA tests to update if we successfully enable the OEM installation mode.
• Other developers: N/A
• Release engineering: N/A
• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
• Alignment with Objectives: N/A

Upgrade/compatibility impact

Only impacts the first boot after installation. Should not impact updates.

How To Test

Once the change has landed in Rawhide, downloading the ISO and performing an installation should behave the same as currently. If we successfully have a replacement then folks will be able to test OEM installations.

User Experience

No change initially. If we successfully have a replacement then we can enable OEM installations.

Dependencies

N/A

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) Revert the change.
• Contingency deadline: Anytime, probably before Beta
• Blocks release? No

Documentation

N/A

Release Notes

N/A. If we add OEM installation support then we can mention that.