OEM-install (manufacturer installation)

English Install/Boot/Login
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Hello,

Seing Ubuntu/Mint has this OEM/Manufacturer installation of their systems, I was wondering if OpenSUSE has this or plans to have it? I think this will make it way better suited to sell laptops/computers with OpenSUSE preinstalled.

I am sorry if this is well known, but I failed to find any information about it. I would love to sell laptops preinstalled with OpenSUSE, but OEM installer is preferred and takes priority as this leaves the end user with the last bit of setup (users, passwords, some simple configs etc).

Thank you!

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This is highly installer and desktop dependent, right now, GNOME is the only desktop that makes this relatively easy to do, with gnome-initial-setup, but the current YaST installer has to be configured to really make an “OEM” install.

About the closest thing that you’ll find in openSUSE is the current MicroOS based Installer, if you choose GNOME for your desktop, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

The new tik installer for Aeon will likely be basically exactly what you’re talking about, when the devs are ready to release it.

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Hi,

I’m not sure how close this comes to the “OEM installation” you have in mind. However, you may want to have a look into AutoYaST:

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I assume the OP wants to be able to bye a system with openSUSE preinstalled in a shop. That requires almost no knowledge or energy to invest in getting going. Your solution requires to have an openSUSE installation to begin with and then the extra knowledge to use AutoYaST.

My interpretation.

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You are correct!

OEM/Manufacurer installation should be similar to when you buy a new computer (with Windows). On first bootup, the new user is asked to set up the new user etc (which includes Admin user).

Ubuntu do this successfully and will make it possible for computer stores to ship with Linux. Just too bad it’s only Ubuntu doing this as far as I can see. If we want more into the desktop-space, I think more distros should do this - and I especially wanted OpenSUSE to have this.

Of course, there is a cowboy-solution of selling a computer setup with a user and they get the PW on a post-it, but yea… Need something real.

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AFAIR, this sort of setup does not allow for changing the partition layout or filesystem right? Just the initial setup of username, password, etc.

You could do this quite easily with a systemd service and a bash script. But as that would scare some people away, maybe use Charm / Bubbletea.

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Again, the OP does not want to do anything (let alone finding out what systemd and bash are for sorts of beasts), but switching the system on.

The question is not how you would create such a system, but if one can buy such a system and where. And when not, why not.

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I would completely agree with you if OP were a normal user.
But OP must learn as they’re a vendor and not a normal user.

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And you volunteer to tell him how to start his business?

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Personally I would not feel comfortable selling something I couldn’t support.

Honestly I (as an individual) would never be comfortable providing distro services knowing how complicated they are, a large corporation like SUSE, RH, or Canonical makes sense as they have everyone from experts in kernel code to web frameworks.

A smaller firm like Zorin also makes sense as they develop/maintain the core part of the OS a user is interacting with.

But a person/business who does not care to know the basics much less support what they’re selling? That would be straight up unethical :frowning_with_open_mouth:

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Yep, that’s why I thought AutoYaST might be helpful. :wink:

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Thanks, AutoYast appears to be the tool of choice for automated OpenSuse deployment.
From the docs it supports a first (actual installation from a medium) and second stage (stuff to be run from a running system) so that should cover all scenarios but a few problems that stand out to me reading the docs for the first time:

  1. The user configuration and password setup appears to be part of stage one. If this can’t be moved to stage two, then the end-user would be expected to sit through an automated install when they first open up the PC.
  2. Normally within an organization, the install medium would not be an issue as they could use PXE boot, but for a remote end-user the installation medium would have to be either on a USB stick or a reserved partition on the primary hard drive.

There probably are solutions for this already and I can already see this being very useful for deploying more than a few machines at once. But it doesn’t look like the tail end of the configuration like changing locale/region, keyboard layout, setting up username/password on first boot are given much importance in its design (at least that’s what I get from quick reading the docs).

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Thank you all, and thanks for keeping it civilized even though I could see some tention was brewing.

AutoYast might be the way, however Ubuntu/Mint way of doing this is just slightly more convenient. I will read through the docs as suggested.

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You may want to look at Kiwi which supports creation of (disk) images with customization. One use case is exactly OEM images.

OEM Expandable Disk Image
  An image representing an expandable system disk. This means after
  deployment the system can resize itself to the new disk geometry.
  The resize operation is configurable as part of the image description
  and an installation image for CD/DVD, USB stick and Network deployment
  can be created in addition. For further details refer to:
  :ref:`expandable_disk`
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