The release of Fedora Workstation 42, scheduled for spring next year, is proposed to default to the Anaconda installer variant, which uses a web interface instead of one based on the GTK library. The issue of involving a fundamentally different interface for partitioning disk drives in the new installer is also under discussion. The proposals have not yet been approved by the FESCo (Fedora Engineering Steering Committee), which is responsible for the technical part of the Fedora distribution development (initially, the transition to the new installer was suggested for Fedora 39, but since then the migration has been postponed several times).
The new web interface is built using the JavaScript framework React, PatternFly design elements, and components from the Cockpit project, which is already used in Red Hat products for configuration and management.. Cockpit was chosen as a well-established solution for which there is a backend to interact with the installer (Anaconda DBus). The use of Cockpit has also allowed for consistency and unification of various system management components. Since the main part of Anaconda was previously divided into modules interacting through the DBus API, the new interface uses the existing ready-made API to access the installer's functions.
The advantages of the new installer include simplifying the installation process, eliminating complications, a more user-friendly setup for beginners, an easy reinstallation process, and simplifying maintenance and development of add-ons. The web interface also allows interaction through a web browser, significantly enhancing the convenience of remote installation management compared to using the VNC protocol. Instead of the main screen with a list of actions, the new interface organizes work in the form of a wizard, involving sequential execution of specific steps without returning to the main screen.
The project also proposes a radical change in how disk partitions are organized. It is noted that the current disk partitioning interface, written in GTK, is overly complicated and has limited functionality for advanced users. The proposed changes will provide a simpler interface for beginners, expand capabilities for experienced users, and simplify maintaining the codebase. The essence of the modernization is a shift to the paradigm of 'what do I want to do,' instead of 'how do I need to do it.' To implement expanded functionality, the use of external partition management tools will be enabled.
As the default, an automated (guided) disk partitioning mode is proposed, where the installer itself selects the parameters for creating or modifying partitions based on user-selected settings. Three basic modes have been implemented: a complete reinstallation with repartitioning of the selected disks from scratch, installation in free disk space, and use of existing disk partitions. For advanced partition management, it is proposed to integrate the ability to invoke the Cockpit Storage tool, developed by the Cockpit project and built on the same web technologies. In the old installer, disk management is limited to fully automated mode, manual partitioning mode, and the built-in Blivet-gui partition editor.
Among the changes proposed in Fedora 42, there is also an intention to add the FEX emulator to the distribution, allowing executable files compiled for x86 and x86-64 architectures to run in an ARM64 (AArch64) environment. Components based on FEX for running x86 programs are proposed to be integrated into the Fedora Linux builds for the AArch64 architecture, supplied with the KDE desktop environment.
Source: opennet.ru
