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

[Colin Watson]

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 12:47:31AM -0000, Erick Brunzell wrote:
> Why would we treat free-space with less regard than an actual disc?
> 
> I very seriously think the best "fix" to this is to present another
> "page" just as we do with a resize or use entire.

The problem is basically that the backend code would have to be
completely refactored to make this possible, because we're piggybacking
off existing code that only presents a single way to use free space -
changing that is a large job and I'm afraid we aren't going to have time
to do that for precise (we're low on installer development time for this
cycle and only have time for targeted fixes, not substantial feature
work).

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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:
  Fix Released
Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Committed
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Natty:
  Won't Fix
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Oneiric:
  Won't Fix
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Precise:
  Fix Committed

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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