[Bug 1969376] Re: Installer of Ubuntu 22.04 beta crashes - mutiple bugs

[JMB]

Hey,
could you please read the bug report: this is no invalid error report.
I thought that rumors that subiquity was used for desktop are right,
as the installer has changed in a way it could no longer be used as it was used before.
But when the installer is the same, why does it no longer work and has so many
deficiencies?
But even if my pointing to subuquity might be wrong, the problems are real.
And I clearly pointed to the 22.04 LTS beta 18.04.2020 image (AMD64, desktop) - and you
could have just changed the installer name.
For a professional installation one should be able to select a partition (i.e. letting
the partitioning unchanged) and also start the installation without making it booting.
A professional workstation has several OSs and the new system will not be granted to play grub master.
Maybe when using the standard install with changing partitions it could work,
but "manual" disk with selecting a partition was changed with at least misleading info.
Why is the installer crashing with a notice that no info could be given about it?
Why is there an error message saying that the problem is not severe - maybe the boot loader
is the problem for crashing and than the warning should have a different tone - but I could
not find any info.
And how should the ticket be created - it is not a reasonable installed OS but the install image.
I am a Unix professional - using apport would be easiest - but not applicable here.
I thought Canonical would be interested if there flagship product can not be installed.
But such rough edges in 3 releases speak aloud.
If there is nobody caring, bug reports are not necessary.
As the problem occurs with the official boot image Canonical should know what is happening here.
All the given problems was not present till 20.10 - and there after no installation is possible.
Additionally the changed keyboard selection is a catastrophe similar to the beginning of 1990ies,
so one should explain why a wrong layout is displayed instead of typing to ensure the selection
is correct.
And unfortunately when looking for a manual for Ubuntu installation to understand what might
have changed and how to get to a correct installation (i.e. what workarounds may exist to get
to the former behaviour) I only get info for 20.04 LTS - which worked, at least concerning
the installer, like a charm (it was not usable till 20.04.1.
So with this stupid snap used for standard SW it may be high time to change back to Debian,
as Canonical seems to no longer care for the desktop in a reasonable way.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1969376

Title:
  Installer of Ubuntu 22.04 beta crashes - mutiple bugs

Status in subiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  
  * Main error: subiquity crashes without giving any reason or data.    ** BUG1 **
  subiquity is the current desktop installer since 21.04 STS, right?

  What I did:
  I try to install fresh Kubuntu 22.04 and downloaded the fresh installer image dated 18.04.2022
  and put it in an USB stick.
  My system has 2 disks: 2 TB SSD with 9 partitions and 8 TB HDD with 13 partitions.
  My OS partitions have 128 GB size each - so I use manual disk mode to select the partition (sdb5),
  let format with ext4 and  mounted to /, efi and swap seems to be recognized, while efi written
  in partition overview but not mentioned. In former times I could specify sdb2 as /boot/efi -
  but this is no longer possible (or I don't get it) - as I don't want it to be formatted.
  I would like GRUB to be installed, but not configured. But if configured would be still ok.
  May be a reasonable option with the manual partitioning selection. ** FEATURE REQUEST **
  When asked about boot loader I use /dev/sda - should not harm even if wrong - but I think
  one may use efi partition here? Which is no longer selectable from the partition table ...
  When everything is given, the installer crashes - no data.

  All choices I do make when installing (may cause something I am not aware of):
  English as language, German keyboard with layout German (no dead keys),
  normal installation, download updates while installing, install 3rd party SW,
  Disk setup: manual, selecting sdb5 to create ext4 FS and mount as /, was not able
  to mark sdb2 as /boot/grub - but it was recognized as EFI (my system has 2 EFI partitions,
  one on each disk), Boot Loader was left as /dev/sda which creates a warning (but nothing
  about a real problem - only that it may not boot - but I would do it with GRUB master
  manually anyway - so if THIS CAUSES THE CRASH - then the message is misleadingly wrong!).
  So only GRUB configuring may fail - which should in no way cause an installer to crash
  (at least I hope so!), and German time (in former installers this was called Berlin time ...
   little bit strange that this was changed without reason). 
  My HW: Silent Workstation, Ryzen 5 3600 [Zen2], Radeon RX 5700 XT [Navi10/RDNA1], 4k 31.5" BenQ.

  * Other errors/regressions I encountered:

  1) ** BUG2 **
     When selecting keyboard and layout (for me German/no dead keys), one could formerly test it
     by typing. I think that this is important and missing it is a regression.
     But what is really a shame that with no dead keys the given layout is just wrong,
     as the "ALTGR" combinations are missing, e.g. "*/+/~" on one key with "~" just missing ...
     not an unimportant character, is it?
     All 3 versions with subiquity has just a reduced layout for keyboard.
     Does Canonical really want such a regression in the flagship version???

  2) ** BUG3 **
     Using a 4k 31.5" screen I could not see the partition table graphically.
     This worked with the old installer like a charm - now I see only a few partitions,
     not even all sda and of cause nothing of sdb which I have to use.
     I know what I am doing - but still it is a warm feeling to check that I format an
     OLD Ubuntu xv partition no longer in use then just typing in blind!

  3) ** BUG4 **
     When trying to install 21.04 I first had my normal configuration - 4k screen on DP and
     4k TV on HDMI (powered but off - still visible for GNU/Linux) - and I was not presented
     anything.
     After disconnecting HDMI I saw the installer - I hope, this bug has been fixed - not tested
     this again.
     HDMI is a toy and DP is the professional interface ... so I would prefer the same image,
     but if only one port is selected, it should clearly be DP which is to be preferred.

  Background:
  I am an experienced Unix consulant using GNU/Linux since 1994 and Ubuntu right from the start.
  I tried installing Kubuntu 21.04 STS and 21.10 STS - all without success.
  The last success was with 20.10 Groovy - and of cause KDE neon (Focal/20.04 LTS based) before.
  But now the LTS version seems to have this problem, too.
  If I could try something, please send some info and I will come back with my findings.

  Best wishes,
  JMB

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