Pmbootstrap: Graphical Installer

[ollieparanoid]

(Far future, just documenting this here.)

I was asked in IRC about providing binary system images for Android files.
The problem with that is, that we would have default passwords, and a default encryption key for the whole system image, which renders the full disk encryption useless.

This is my "vision":

• GNU/Linux live CD (actually, better an usb stick image) based on Alpine, that you can boot on any PC or in a VM and pass your USB devices to
• It has a fancy version of pmbootstrap with a pyQT? GUI This shouldn't be that hard actually, because everything is abstracted well (writing to logs, asking for user input, ...). Maybe a bit more like a wizard, and maybe with photos of how to enter the flashing mode etc. properly.
• It contains pre-compiled packages.
• You could choose the phone interface, that you want to install

[jsprada]

I think that idea of a bootable live distribution - for the purpose of managing pmOS is an excellent idea. It can connect to this repository, update itself, a link and/or local documentation.

[dzervas]

Note that full disk encryption might not be of interest for some of target users.

-----Original Message-----
From: Oliver Smith [e-mail]
To: postmarketOS/pmbootstrap [e-mail]
Cc: Subscribed [e-mail]
Sent: Mon, 05 Jun 2017 4:23 AM
Subject: [postmarketOS/pmbootstrap] Graphical Installer (#63)

(Far future, just documenting this here.)

I was asked in IRC about providing binary system images for Android files.
The problem with that is, that we would have default passwords, and a default encryption key for the whole system image, which renders the full disk encryption useless.

This is my "vision":

• GNU/Linux live CD (actually, better an usb stick image) based on Alpine, that you can boot on any PC or in a VM and pass your USB devices to
• It has a fancy version of pmbootstrap with a pyQT? GUI This shouldn't be that hard actually, because everything is abstracted well (writing to logs, asking for user input, ...). Maybe a bit more like a wizard, and maybe with photos of how to enter the flashing mode etc. properly.
• It contains pre-compiled packages.
• You could choose the phone interface, that you want to install

--
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/postmarketOS/pmbootstrap/issues/63

[MartijnBraam]

I think the end users should have a seperate flashing application that detects the phone(s) connected and uses a binary repository to quickly generate the images with minimal tooling. Some neat graphical application that does:

• listing the connected phones
• allow the user to set the encryption key and account info
• allow to select on of the base packages with a DE
• flash with neat progress bar

[ata2001]

Would a recovery zip installer be impossible? You can run binaries from there with root access.
An example gui, part of an android ROM installer: https://github.com/amarullz/AROMA-Installer/blob/master/src/main/aroma_ui.c

[ollieparanoid]

I think it would be possible, but it would be very specific to Android and a lot of effort to get it right (think about full disk encryption). I would prefer to have a generic installer, that works for all devices (e.g. the N900 that @MartijnBraam has recently ported). Nevertheless, feel free to work on such an installer, if you think it is useful!

[PabloCastellano]

I just made a first draft using Pencil. What do you think? :smile:

If you want to make a second version, the source for Pencil is here:
postmarketos-gui.zip

[ata2001]

@PabloCastellano I'd prefer a wizard, that explains every step, and guides the user trough everything, even bootloader unlock.

[MartijnBraam]

I guess both a wizard mode and an advanced mode would be good, the wizard for first-time users and advanced mode if you need to flash this to a whole stack of devices.

[MartijnBraam]

I've built a test graphical wizard using python3+gtk3 at https://github.com/MartijnBraam/pmbootstrap-gtk

(This is with the Linux Mint GTK theme and the headerbars enabled)

On arch with adwaita and dark theme enabled:

And without headerbars: