I have installed all sorts of GNU/Linux distributions on all sorts of machines.
Common for them has been that the bootloader (LILO/GRUB) is always installed last.
This has again and again been annoying when there is trouble with the bootloader, because you would have to wait for a full installation before you can retry the boot loader.
To me it would make more sense to have the guide do:
- Set up file system (default password if any is needed)
- Install a bare minimal but bootable system consisting of:
- boot loader and kernel
- rescue shell
- CLI package manager
- possibly graphical tools for package manager (+ dependencies)
- Boot into the new system if you want to
- Change default password
- Choose language, username, password, network, printer, ...
- Install the rest
The idea being: First we need to get a bootable system. If that works, then the guide will help you do the rest after booting. And if something fails while installing the rest you get a chance to rescue that.
As it is now, a failing installation of LibreOffice will keep the system unbootable (unless you are an advanced user, that can bypass the guide).
Is there a technical reason the distributions wait until the very end to install the boot loader?