[Bug 1383948] Re: Ubiquity Installer doesn't recognize existing btrfs partitions

[Damiön la Bagh]

>>if you ever add a second disk and want to expand
>>btrfs to span or raid across them both.

BTRFS is really easy to add or subtract a disk. Grub2 has no problem with it and I can still boot after the disk has been added and balanced.
https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Using_Btrfs_with_Multiple_Devices
it's as easy as
btrfs device add /dev/sdc /mnt
btrfs filesystem balance /mnt

As for other operating systems. This is a moot point, the scenario is using Ubuntu+Btrfs with physical SSD's. If the disks need to be converted back to legacy partition table format it's as simple as writing a few 00's to the first 64kib with dd.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX count=64

For UEFI, I've already complained to the UEFI bord that they are holding
back technology by insisting on using a 1980's file system to hold UEFI.
It's the most ridiculous 'invention' in computers in the last 10 years.
I understand the want and need to kill the BIOS but there are much more
graceful solutions then defaulting to 30+ year old legacy tech.

As for /boot it's part of my normal file system and the 1st 64Kib points to /boot on boot for the rest of the boot information.
ubuntu at ubuntu:~$ sudo btrfs device scan
Scanning for Btrfs filesystems
ubuntu at ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt
ubuntu at ubuntu:~$ ls /mnt/@/boot
abi-3.13.0-24-generic         initrd.img-3.13.0-39-generic
abi-3.13.0-35-generic         memtest86+.bin
...
initrd.img-3.13.0-36-generic  vmlinuz-3.13.0-39-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-37-generic
(truncated for brevity)

Parted is broken when it comes to btrfs, it doesn't handle it gracefully at all.
See the screenshot:
The top left corner shows that parted just defaults to MSDOS even though you can clearly see in the top right that there is no partition table written.
The bottom terminal is the Ubuntu 14.10 Live USB stick for comparison.
Commands used were
sudo parted -l

and

sudo fdisk /dev/sdX
x
d

where X represents ' a '  and ' c ' respectively.

Should I bring this up with the parted developers as well?


** Attachment added: "Top_left_parted_top_right_btrfs_bottom_msdos+fat.png"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1383948/+attachment/4248578/+files/Top_left_parted_top_right_btrfs_bottom_msdos%2Bfat.png

** Also affects: parted (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1383948

Title:
  Ubiquity Installer doesn't recognize existing btrfs partitions

Status in “parted” package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  Steps to reproduce the bug:
  On a machine with an existing raw btrfs partition (no partition table, just raw btrfs to disk as btrfs is intended to be used)
  (created with sudo mkfs.btrfs /dev/sdc)
  From the 14.04.1 LTS live USB
  open a terminal
  scan for btrfs partitions using:
    sudo btrfs device scan
  then view the partition and data usage with
    sudo btrfs filesystem show
  The device is shown
  Label: none  uuid: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  	Total devices 1 FS bytes used 37.71GiB
  	devid    2 size 223.57GiB used 40.03GiB path /dev/sdc
  Start the Ubuntu Ubiquity Installer by clicking on the icon in the launcher
  Choose Download Updates and install Fluendo then
  Next
  Then choose Do Something Else, Choose partitions manually
  Scroll down to /dev/sdc
  The Ubiquity Partition manager doesn't recognize the btrfs disk/volume and just says free-space (see screenshot with proof)

  What should happen:
  At the partition screen it should recgonize my existing btrfs volume and let me reinstall without formating the btrfs volume

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