6.2. Components Introduction
| Chapter 6. Using the Ubuntu Installer |

## 6.2. Components Introduction

Here is a list of installer components with a brief description of each component's purpose. Details you might need to know about using a particular component are in Section 6.3, “Using Individual Components”.

main-menu

  Shows the list of components to the user during installer operation, and starts a component when it is selected. Main-menu's questions are set to priority medium, so if your priority is set to high or critical (high is the default), you will not see the menu. On the other hand, if there is an error which requires your intervention, the question priority may be downgraded temporarily to allow you to resolve the problem, and in that case the menu may appear.

  You can get to the main menu by selecting the Go Back button repeatedly to back all the way out of the currently running component. .

localechooser

  Allows the user to select localization options for the installation and the installed system: language, country and locales. The installer will display messages in the selected language, unless the translation for that language is not complete in which case some messages may be shown in English.

console-setup

  Shows a list of keyboards, from which the user chooses the model which matches his own.

hw-detect

  Automatically detects most of the system's hardware, including network cards, PCMCIA and disk drives.

cdrom-detect

  Looks for and mounts an Ubuntu installation CD.

netcfg

  Configures the computer's network connections so it can communicate over the internet.

iso-scan

  Searches for ISO images (`.iso` files) on hard drives.

choose-mirror

  Presents a list of Ubuntu archive mirrors. The user may choose the source of his installation packages.

cdrom-checker

  Checks integrity of a CD-ROM. This way, the user may assure him/herself that the installation CD-ROM was not corrupted.

lowmem

  Lowmem tries to detect systems with low memory and then does various tricks to remove unnecessary parts of `debian-installer` from the memory (at the cost of some features).

anna

  Anna's Not Nearly APT. Installs packages which have been retrieved from the chosen mirror or CD.

user-setup

  Sets up the root password, and adds a non-root user.

clock-setup

  Updates the system clock and determines whether the clock is set to UTC or not.

tzsetup

  Selects the time zone, based on the location selected earlier.

partman

  Allows the user to partition disks attached to the system, create file systems on the selected partitions, and attach them to the mountpoints. Included are also interesting features like a fully automatic mode or LVM support. This is the preferred partitioning tool in Ubuntu.

lvmcfg

  Helps the user with the configuration of the LVM (Logical Volume Manager).

mdcfg

  Allows the user to set up Software RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks). This Software RAID is usually superior to the cheap IDE (pseudo hardware) RAID controllers found on newer motherboards.

base-installer

  Installs the most basic set of packages which would allow the computer to operate under Ubuntu when rebooted.

apt-setup

  Configures apt, mostly automatically, based on what media the installer is running from.

pkgsel

  Uses `tasksel` to select and install additional software.

os-prober

  Detects currently installed operating systems on the computer and passes this information to the bootloader-installer, which may offer you an ability to add discovered operating systems to the bootloader's start menu. This way the user could easily choose at the boot time which operating system to start.

bootloader-installer

  The various bootloader installers each install a boot loader program on the hard disk, which is necessary for the computer to start up using Linux without requiring further (removable) media, like floppy or CD-ROM. Many boot loaders allow the user to choose an alternate operating system each time the computer boots.

shell

  Allows the user to execute a shell from the menu, or in the second console.

save-logs

  Provides a way for the user to record information on a hard disk, floppy disk, network, or other (removable) media when trouble is encountered, in order to accurately report installer software problems to Ubuntu developers later.

6.1. How the Installer Works |  | 6.3. Using Individual Components