Hi all I wanted to follow up on this, since Aaron and I have been in contact off the mailing list, and we both agree that it's worth summarising the conversation here, too.
Firstly, off the back of this request, Aaron asserted that it would be helpful if there was a concrete definition of what makes a flavour. Such a document is in the (very) early phases of being drafted with the Community Team, who will be reaching out shortly to socialise that document and collaborate on it with the flavour leads. I noted, however, that the document would likely state that flavours must use the Ubuntu Installer. Aaron emailed me regarding both Lubuntu and Kubuntu - with the former representing a slightly easier case. Migrating to the new installer wouldn't have been Lubuntu's choice. Some functionality will be lost, but it's less clear that there is any "hard dependency" on that functionality. With Kubuntu, things are a little more complicated because KFocus uses more of Calamares' features, including the ability to provide it a configuration for a preset partition map. In particular they stipulate a btrfs filesystem with specifically named subvolumes which are required for their rollback mechanism to function. I have subsequently spoken with Dan Bungert (subiquity lead) who believes it will be possible to satisfy that use case with subiquity before 26.04. He'll be doing some spec work in the 25.10 cycle, with a view to getting code landed in the 26.04 cycle. He'll also be working on the manual partitioning story for the Ubuntu Installer. My proposal is that Kubuntu ship the Ubuntu Installer *by default* from now on, but up to and including 26.04, Kubuntu can also ship an alternate edition/ISO that still uses Calamares. This will ensure that KFocus, and users of the existing stack will still see some continuity in the case that the subiquity features are not landed in time for 26.04. My understanding is that again this is not preferred, but is technically feasible. I still haven't heard from Ubuntu Budgie - but I'm hoping to get some comms with them soon to understand how we can support the transition. Regards, Jon On Fri, 2 May 2025 at 11:23, Jon Seager <jon.sea...@canonical.com> wrote: > Hello there! > > As you already know, we've been working on a new and improved Ubuntu > Desktop installer [1], consisting of subiquity on the backend, and a new > Flutter based frontend. We rolled this out incrementally as we tested the > installer, but it is now considered stable. > > In addition to serving Canonical's own needs for Ubuntu Desktop, we wanted > to make sure that the installer was going to be adaptable to different > flavours, and as such the installer allows for custom artwork and accent > colours, and can include a different set of slides according to its > configuration. Much of that detail can be found in the GitHub repository. > > During the release of Ubuntu 25.04, we experienced a number of issues with > Calamares, mostly relating to a new feature that has ultimately not landed > in the last release. While this is not systemic to the choice of > Calamares, it did give me pause for thought about the installer experience > across Ubuntu. > > After some discussion internally, and a discussion with sabdfl, I intend > to ask all of the flavours to transition to the new Ubuntu Desktop > installer by 26.04 LTS. Now that it's stable for Ubuntu Desktop, and we > have evidence from the flavours who've already adopted it, I'm confident > that this goal is achievable within the timeframe. > > Many of the flavours have already migrated to the new installer, including > Ubuntu Mate [2] and Xubuntu [3]. In fact, the only flavours yet to > transition are Kubuntu, Lubuntu and Ubuntu Unity. Coincidentally, I > received some communication from Rick Timmis (Kubuntu) this week, > indicating that he'd like Kubuntu (and other flavours) to make the move. > > The principal reason for this request is consistency: consistency in > experience for our collective userbase, but also consistency in image > preparation and release. Our community has an expectation that our > flavours, while uniquely tailored, are still very much Ubuntu at their > core. The "Ubuntu experience" includes a robust and consistent installation > process. We have a dedicated team at Canonical who are actively working on > features and fixes for subiquity and the desktop installer, so we'll be > much better placed to support them once they've made the transition. > > There are a couple of features that I know are not yet available in the > new installer. My ask will be that the flavours make the transition, and > then we collaborate on adding those features to a single codebase that all > Ubuntu flavours can benefit from. > > I've spoken with the lead of subiquity (Dan), and the lead for the Desktop > Installer (Dennis), both of whom are content to be named points of contact > for the flavours to assist the transition. > > I'm raising this to the TB on recommendation from the Community Team, and > want to ensure that there is no strong objection to this before carefully > communicating with the flavours. > > Thanks, > > Jon > VP Engineering, Ubuntu > > [1] https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-desktop-provision > [2] > https://github.com/ubuntu-mate/ubuntu-mate-settings/tree/master/usr/share/desktop-provision > [3] > https://github.com/Xubuntu/xubuntu-default-settings/tree/master/debian/live/desktop-provision >
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