Initial Setup
Initial Setup is an application that can run during the first start of a newly installed computer and makes it possible to configure the computer according to the needs of the user.
As most of the configuration options are already present during the OS installation in Anaconda, Initial Setup mainly hosts options that need to be presented during the first start, such as displaying the EULA on RHEL. Initial Setup is also often used to create a user account, as many systems are often automatically installed with kickstart and the user is only expected to create their own user account once the newly installed machine is started for the first time.
Still, while Initial Setup normally does not have many options
available, if the firstboot --reconfig kickstart command is provided
in the installation kickstart, Initial Setup will show all configuration
options available. This is usually used for OEM OS installations,
where an OEM installs the computer, which is then shipped to the end user
which uses Initial Setup for the final configuration of the operating system.
History
Initial Setup replaces the deprecated Firstboot tool in Fedora and in RHEL. In Fedora Initial Setup fully replaces Firstboot since Fedora 18, in RHEL7 Initial Setup and Firstboot are both used due to legacy Firstboot plugins.
Architecture
Initial Setup is basically just a thin wrapper for running spokes from Anaconda. Still, it has its own Hub, one spoke (the EULA spoke) and a translation domain ("initial-setup").
As with Anaconda, Initial Setup has both a GUI and TUI version and the package is split into a core and GUI & TUI sub packages.
As Initial Setup needs to run during the early boot, it is started by a systemd unit configured to start before the normal login screen. On RHEL7 Initial Setup is by default followed by the legacy Firstboot utility, which hosts the Subscription Manager plugin. If the given OS instance uses the Gnome 3 desktop environment, Firstboot is followed by the Gnome Initial Setup, which enables the user to customize their computer even more. On Fedora Initial Setup is followed directly by GIS, provided Gnome 3 is installed.
- Firstboot -> RHEL7: IS -> [GIS]
- Fedora: IS -> [GIS]
Add-ons
Like Anaconda, also Initial Setup can be used to host third-party add-ons - flexible yet powerful modules that can configure the system based on data in kickstart while presenting a nice UI to the user. Add-ons can have a GUI, TUI or can be headless, working only with data in their kickstart section or from other sources.
For a comprehensive documentation about Anaconda/Initial Setup see the "Anaconda Addon Development Guide" by Vratislav Podzimek.
Contributing
- Initial Setup is released under GPLv2+
- the upstream source code repository is on GitHub
- you can submit a pull request on GitHub or send patches to the Anaconda Patches mailing list
- Please note that you need to be subscribed to the list to send patches, due to previous issues with SPAM on the list