Installer sometimes appears frozen during firstboot install steps; improve UX so user understands it's not frozen

[ghost]

The problem you're addressing (if any)

Install 4.1; after the first reboot, during the first boot install steps - more specifically while installing the fedora-34 template (the only one I had chosen) - the gui's progress bar initially swinged from left to right but then stopped moving for quite a while (IIRC more than 5 minutes - probably less on much more modern hw than my T450s but potentially much longer on older hw).
Switching virtual consoles (ctrl-alt-[0-9]) only showed blank screens so I was left wondering if the installation was struck/frozen. I was able to move/minimize/... the progress window so knew it wasn't a hard freeze but without the HD activity LED that most laptops lack nowadays it was impossible to know if the installer was stuck. If it wasn't for hearing the laptop's fan turning on at some point I would have interrupted the process to retry the whole installation; after allowing the installation process to continue for quite a bit of time it eventually completed.

The solution you'd like

• easiest to implement: display a message that the whole thing will take some time and that the progress bar might freeze but that's normal.
• a bit less easy to implement (and only "power user" friendly): display whatever is being done in another vconsole.
• probably more difficult to implement but more user friendly: display what's being done like in anaconda (eg. installating templates packages, creating sys-* based on template X, and whatnot).

The value to a user, and who that user might be

value: don't give up installing/trying qubes os.

users: anyone

[andrewdavidwong]

FYI @ninavizz

[ninavizz]

Oof. I'd love a screenshot of what the GUI screen the user above described—is it a Fedora screen, or a Qubes OS created screen? The T450 is indeed quite old, but it's also tried/true with Qubes OS. Some line of text on the updater to manage expectations, seems like probably the best thing—or to add descriptions of what the different polling points are for the updater bar. Would love to know who to chat with to tackle this, ty for filing @taradiddles!

[ghost]

Oof. I'd love a screenshot of what the GUI screen the user above described—is it a Fedora screen, or a Qubes OS created screen?

It'll be difficult to take a picture - the T450s is my daily driver and I don't have a spare ssd around; I'll see what I can do (btw this shouldn't be specific to the T450). Meanwhile here's a text description (from memory): the screen is what you see after your reboot for the first time after the initial anaconda/fedora installation ends (so it's similar to the "first boot" steps on a standard fedora install); that means that part of the installation is specific to Qubes OS.

IIRC the content of the screen with the settings was:

• select templates to install (by default Fedora, Whonix and Debian 11 were checked ; I chose only Fedora).
• choose whether to create sys-usb, and/or combine it with sys-net, have sys-net and sys-net as dispVMs, ...
• + maybe some other settings (I think the list of settings / radio boxes was a bit longer than just the choices above).

I don't remember what happened exactly after I hit next/OK but at some point a small window appeared with a "feedback" bar (oscillating between left and right) with the title (again IIRC) "installing fedora-34". This window had the default XFCE theme decorations and it was possible to minimize/move/... it. At some point the oscillating feedback bar stopped moving (the issue I've described) but the window could still be moved around, minimized, etc.
Hope this helps !

[ninavizz]

A crappy phone-cam picture is totally ok!! It's how Marta and I collaborate, as we're both too lazy to try doing proper screenshots with Qubes in odd modes...

It's the visuals and text nearby the visuals, and exactly what language is used, that I want to be able to see. Often small things are either misleading or could be added, that will make all the difference.

@deeplow Might you know which screen taradiddles is referencing, and could you perhaps find it in the QA screens—or do the Templates not get that same QA auto-screengrab process?

[Talmanaze]

I am having the exact same issue, so I'm happy to know it will work if I let it run. I also initially thought some process had frozen when the progress bar stopped.
Here's a picture of the window that froze for me.

[andrewdavidwong]

As a provisional quick fix, perhaps we could simply add some text like, "Warning: Please do not unplug or shut down your computer. This process may take a long time and may appear to be frozen even though it is still working in the background. We appreciate your patience."