16300 - [FEATURE] Need a Unix install wizard

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Installer, defect, P2)

Description

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

placeholder bug for whoever gets motivated enough to create the Unix install
wizard.

Comment 1

[Cathleen]

this is a "help wanted" bug! :-)

Comment 2

[Sean Su]

Pavlov has volunteered to take on this.  I'm reassigning this bug to him.
Here is the url for the current spec of the windows installer:

http://grok/install/windows/ngSetup/install_spec_50.html

Comment 3

[Peter Trudelle]

mass-moving all m12 bugs to m13

Comment 4

[Cathleen]

Samir has already done quite a bit of work on the backend for unix installers.
I'm reassigning this to Samir, and setting milestone to M16, because new Unix
installer is not a beta 1 requiement (it's a nice to have).

pavlov, you're still welcome to pitch in!  :-)

Comment 5

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

Could you post the spec referenced earlier in this bug to the appropriate spot
on mozilla.org (and make that the authoritative home for that doc)?  Otherwise
it will be hard for anyone to pitch in and help.

http://www.public.asu.edu/~arturner/greed/www.public.asu.edu/~arturner/greed/
contains an extremely tiny standalone downloading library which is GPLed.
Perhaps the maintainer could be convinced to dual-license it with the MPL, and
we could leverage off of that.

Comment 6

[Cathleen]

*** Bug 22268 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[MattFlower]

I know that this bug doesn't seem very important, but I have to put in my two
cents from a usability standpoint.  I am only starting to be anywhere near a
saavy user of Linux.  I really need to be able to put an icon on my desktop to
be able to start this beast.  This doesn't seem to be possible, I am guessing
because the libraries are in the package directory instead of some organized
library location, or perhaps because I need to put it in the library path.

Unless I can eventually crack the nut as to why I can't start the thing from an
icon in KDE, I doubt that you will ever see a person like me use M14 frequently
enough to give you the help you need to find bugs.  I would do the installer
myself if I thought I could get it done in ample time, but I fear that I am far
too much of a novice still.  (Heck, I haven't even been able to solve the
problem yet.)

If someone needs to use a web browser, it seems significantly more likely that
they will press on the cozy, pre-existing icon as opposed to going out to a
console, changing to the package directory, and typing in "./mozilla".  It isn't
a matter of obstinence, it is a matter of convenience.

It seems to me that the installer should fix a lot of this.  While I know that
there are a lot of other bugs that need priority, I don't think this one should
be overlooked until a later date.

Comment 8

[Samir Gehani]

Matt,
Thanks for the input.  The Linux Install Wizard is close to completion.  
However, I'm afraid that since it is not on our beta1 criteria list it will not 
make it until after we ship beta1. 

Addressing the icon issue, the underlying XPInstall engine that performs the 
actual installation does not support shortcut/icon creation for the numerous 
flavors of desktop environments available for Linux, and more generally for 
Unix.  So, even if we did get the Linux Install Wizard approved for beta1 it 
would not resolve your problem in its current form.  However, your point 
regarding this is well taken and should be discussed on 
netscape.public.mozilla.xpinstall.  Alternatively, feel free to file a bug 
against the "Installer: XPInstall Engine" component regarding the same.

Comment 9

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

adding sol.  he's interested in files sizes of the mail and spellchecker .xpi
files on linux.

once this bug is fixed, we'll know that information.

Comment 10

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Whoa there, we don't need this bug fixed to create the .xpi files! The zippy 
install files are useful for upgrading even apart from a native install wizard 
that will download and launch them -- once you have an older version of mozilla 
you have everything you need to upgrade yourself using new .xpis.  

See for example the "update.html" that's in the windows commercial build 
directory. We should be producing the .xpi files for Unix anyway. We have the 
package lists (which grow stale if not tested), we have the scripts to build 
them, they just need to be turned on.  Bug 28568 is the closest I can find to 
this. What happened to the more generic "need Linux xpis" bug?

Comment 11

[Samir Gehani]

The first cut is complete and will land on the trunk once it reopens for 
mainstream development.

Comment 12

[Samir Gehani]

This bug will also track the generation of unix .xpis since this part of 
the installer.

Comment 13

[Cathleen]

cc'ing some build team friends!  :-)

We'll eventually need build automation to generate Unix xpi's for Linux Install 
Wizard.  The Wizard work is close to be done.

Comment 14

[Samir Gehani]

I've checked in the build automation too.  I'll mail granrose more details and 
we have discussed using the build automation already.  He plans to begin 
delivering the installer soon.  This includes the automation to generate unix 
.xpis.

The wizard has been turned on for Linux since that is apparently all we are 
delivering for now.  May work on porting to Solaris if there is time after M16.  
I'll make preliminary deliveries to Grace to iron out any issues I have missed 
using my unix account.  

Comment 15

[Grace Bush]

using installer wizard week of 4/10