[Bug 766265] Re: Ubiquity proceeds to use free space without warning

[Erick Brunzell]

A new slant to this which may require either renaming this bug or filing
a new one. This was from a Oneiric Alpha 3 iso-tesing image
(20110803-i386).

I began with a one drive setup with Win XP on sda1 and Lubuntu Oneiric
on sda3 with sda2 as SWAP, all primary partitions so I can easily test
free space options and also delete any logical/extended partitions
created during testing and replace them with another primary partition
so I can perform the "Wubi if 4 primaries exist" option.

This is what parted showed before beginning:

Model: ATA WDC WD1600AAJB-0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system     Flags
 1      32.3kB  43.1GB  43.1GB  primary  ntfs            boot
 3      136GB   158GB   22.0GB  primary  ext4
 2      158GB   160GB   2338MB  primary  linux-swap(v1)

But when I tried to install there was no option whatsoever to install to
the existing free space, please see the attached screenshot.

I personally think renaming this bug makes more sense than creating a
new one because it all amounts to how we should offer the use of
existing free space.

** Attachment added: "Screenshot at 2011-08-03 18_20_43.png"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/766265/+attachment/2252518/+files/Screenshot%20at%202011-08-03%2018_20_43.png

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/766265

Title:
  Ubiquity proceeds to use free space without warning

Status in Release Notes for Ubuntu:
  New
Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Natty:
  Won't Fix
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Oneiric:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Release note:

  If there is at least 5.2 GB of unpartitioned space available on a
  disk, the installer will elect to create an Ubuntu partition in that
  space for the "Install Ubuntu alongside ..." option.  While the normal
  "Install Ubuntu alongside ..." option has a second page for resizing a
  partition, this variant does not.  Pressing "Install Now" will
  immediately start the installation.

  Original bug report follows:

  Binary package hint: ubiquity

  This is really a continuation of bug 652852. Please just begin reading
  about post #35, and apologies in advance if I'm just being impatient.

  We've progressed greatly with this and I know it's not been easy for
  the ubuntu-installer team, particularly Colin and Evan, but I'm still
  concerned about the option to "use largest continuous free space"
  being lumped into "install alongside".

  I have read the spec provided by Evan:

  https://docs.google.com/View?id=dfkkjjcj_101gnkrpg5v#4_5_1_Automatic_partitioning_o_8475526086986065

  Maybe I'm misunderstanding what this means, [maps to resize_use_free
  or use_biggest_free] ????????????

  But ATM the fact is that "install alongside" will use as little as
  10GB, which IMHO is good, but having chosen "alongside" and having no
  opportunity to verify what the installer is going to do certainly
  freaked me out the first time. Quite factually if adequate unallocated
  space exists and you choose "install alongside" the installation just
  begins - period!

  Several questions come to mind. I've not tried it yet but what if I
  had adequate free space on each of two drives? How about adequate free
  space on a USB flash drive?

  It just seems scary to have the installation begin with no idea what
  it's doing. Does that make sense?

  I'm just trying to avoid any nightmare scenarios for noobs.

  OT but I have tried the 'live-upgrade' and 'wubi-if-4-primaries-exist' options and they appear to work great, of course it's impossible to recreate every potential scenario.
  ---
  Architecture: i386
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110422)
  LiveMediaBuild_: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110422)
  Package: ubiquity 2.6.9
  PackageArchitecture: i386
  ProcEnviron:
   LANGUAGE=en_US:en
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
  ProcVersionSignature_: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
  Tags:  natty natty
  Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic i686
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  UserGroups:

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