The developers of the YaST installer, used in openSUSE and SUSE Linux, have released an update for the experimental D-Installer 0.4, which supports installation management through a web interface. At the same time, installation images have been prepared for familiarizing users with D-Installer's capabilities and providing means for installing the continuously updated openSUSE Tumbleweed edition, as well as the Leap 15.4 and Leap Micro 5.2 releases.
D-Installer aims to separate the user interface from the internal components of YaST and provide the possibility to use various frontends. The installation of packages, hardware checks, disk partitioning, and other necessary installation functions continue to utilize YaST libraries, over which a layer is implemented to abstract access to the libraries via a unified D-Bus interface. Among the development goals of D-Installer, the removal of existing limitations in the graphical interface, expanding the functionality of YaST for use in other applications, moving away from reliance on a single programming language (the D-Bus API will allow creating add-ons in different languages), and encouraging alternative settings by community representatives are mentioned.
A frontend has been prepared for user interaction, built using web technologies. The frontend includes a handler that provides access to D-Bus calls via HTTP, as well as the web interface shown to the user. The web interface is written in JavaScript using the React framework and PatternFly components. The service for binding the interface to D-Bus, as well as the built-in HTTP server, are written in Ruby and built using existing modules developed by the Cockpit project, which are also used in Red Hat web configurators.
Installation management is conducted through the consolidated 'Installation Summary' screen, which gathers the preparatory settings made before starting the installation, such as language selection and the product to be installed, disk partitioning, and user management. The main difference of the new interface from YaST is that accessing settings does not require launching separate widgets and is offered immediately.
The new version of D-Installer features a multi-process architecture, allowing the user interface to remain responsive while performing other tasks in the installer, such as reading metadata from the repository and installing packages. Three internal installation stages have been introduced: initiating the installer, setting installation parameters, and installation itself. Support for installing various products has been implemented; in addition to the installation of openSUSE Tumbleweed, it is now also possible to install releases of openSUSE Leap 15.4 and Leap Micro 5.2. For each product, the installer selects different disk partitioning schemes, package sets, and security configurations.
Additionally, work is underway to create a minimalist system image that facilitates the launch of the installer. The main idea is to package the installer components in a container form and to use the special boot initrd environment, Iguana, to launch the container. Currently, YaST modules for configuring time zones, keyboard settings, language, firewall settings, printing systems, DNS, viewing systemd logs, and managing programs, repositories, users, and groups have already been adapted for operation from within the container.
Source: opennet.ru
