Itching to play around with Ubuntu’s new installer on an existing install? With the new Ubuntu Desktop Installer Snap, you can!
Of course, it should be obvious to you that doing a fresh install of Ubuntu using the latest canary build is the only real way to “test” the revamped Flutter-built installer (y’know, to see if it actually installs anything). But not everyone wants to download a 4GB .ISO, create a USB, or go through the hassle of that.
Some folks (hi 👋) just want to get a feel for the “experience” the new installer offers. Y’know, gawp at the visual changes between this subiquity-based creation and the GTK Ubiquity installer most of us are (intimately) familiar with, i.e. click through the steps to see how it compares.
And a nifty new (hidden) Snap app makes it easy to do so.
So what’s the experience like?
Largely similar to Ubiquity, to be honest — that’s not a bad thing by any stretch as these (mixed up, sorry) screenshots of various steps show:
Ubiquity is a simple, straight-forward installer (how I wish Fedora’s installer were as intuitive). The technology we install Ubuntu on may change but the actual process of installing Ubuntu hasn’t, not in years. Keeping the same options in the same is smart and means existing users won’t feel putout of put-off by the new installer.
That said, this Snap is a bit buggy, and a bit laggy. I couldn’t get the installer Snap to launch under Wayland so I had to log out and select an Xorg session. The installer took a while to appear after running it, and a little longer to actually ‘load’ anything within the UI.
That said, I tend to find all Flutter apps I try on Ubuntu are noticeably less responsive than GTK, Qt, and Electron software. I accept that could be a “my GPU” thing, or it could be wider acceleration issue related to Flutter. My hope is that, if Ubuntu is going all-in on Flutter for its own software, the performance improves.
Still, Ubuntu’s new installer — the one demoed in this snap — is not “production ready”, and the latest daily builds of Kinetic Kudu still use Ubiquity. As such mine (and anyone else’s) complaints are static as this is a work in progress, not ready until it’s ready — keep that in mind if trying it.
Oh yes, how do you try it?
You can install Ubuntu’s new installer by opening a terminal window and running:
sudo snap install ubuntu-desktop-installer --classic
Once installed you’ll find a new shortcut named “Install RELEASE” in the app grid. Click on this to open the installer.
As I said earlier, this classic Snap of the installer isn’t an actual installer (update: yes it is, so be careful) when run on a regular desktop session. I certainly couldn’t get it to install anything, nor could the app see any connected drives, etc. Keep those facts in mind while probing and you should come away content.
In all, a promising start for this GUI Flutter front-end for the subiquity installer backend.
h/t @PeterKAL3