replacing the Startup Disk Creator

[Nio Wiklund]

Den 2015-09-18 kl. 13:34, skrev Marc Deslauriers:
> On 2015-09-17 06:23 PM, Alberto Salvia Novella wrote:
>> Nio Wiklund:
>>> Disks (gnome-disks) is also very simple and reliable.
>>
>> It isn't. I use it frequently, and usually it loses its ability to format disks
>> in certain file systems.
>>
>>
>> Nio Wiklund:
>>> I think the price of replacing it for the moment far outweighs the
>>> cost of fixing the few bugs it has to make it work well for everyone.
>>> It happens to be an LTS, and it would be great to be able to
>>> offer such an improvement in our next LTS release :-)
>>
>> I feel this is right. Unetbooting has always been more resilient and versatile
>> than Startup Disk Creator.
>>
> 
> I disagree. The incredibly long list of Unetbootin bugs leads me to believe it's
> in a worse state than Startup Disk Creator:
> 
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/unetbootin/+bugs?orderby=-id&start=0
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unetbootin/+bugs?field.searchtext=&orderby=-id&start=0
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=unetbootin
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=775689
> 
> I have no objection to replacing Startup Disk Creator with something better, but
> the replacement would need to at least adhere to the following criteria:
> 
> 1- Support UEFI
> 2- Be easy to use (including user testing)
> 3- Use a modern secure design (backend service that does the minimum privileged
> operations, frontend that supports multiple toolkits, communication over dbus
> and policykit integration)
> 4- Support udisks for proper hardware integration
> 5- Be reliable
> 6- Be written in a language that is maintainable
> 7- Be of quality enough to pass a MIR (Main inclusion request)
> 8- Have developers who are willing to commit to supporting it in the Ubuntu
> archive, and for the duration of the LTS releases
> 
> Looking at the list of alternatives that are listed in the forum thread, I see
> no viable alternative that would be a good enough replacement for the moment.
> 
> Marc.

Hi again,

I hope that you will not repeat the Nokia mistake ;-)

You must realize that several qualified users consider the Startup Disk
Creator buggy beyond repair, not only at the Ubuntu Forums but also
among the Lubuntu users. And LXLE has already replaced it with MultibootUSB.

If you can accept no alternative, and cannot fix the bugs very soon,
things are really going downhill. The SDC has already been severely
buggy for four years. It is time for "thinking outside the box".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot

But on the other hand, if our attempt to replace it will make you really
fix the bugs, that is also a good result, and well worth the effort :-)

-o-

Right now I am testing different cases and will try to send a report
about my results within a day or two. I know now, that wiping the first
mibibyte and after that creating a fresh MSDOS partition table and a
partition with FAT32 will make a pendrive, that the SDC can use. It
works at least in Lubuntu 14.04.2 32-bit.

Would you consider my solution to the 'Erase Disk' problem, to wipe the
first mibibyte, good or 'crude and ugly'?

The SDC does not work at all in yesterday's Lubuntu Wily daily 32-bit
iso file.

Best regards
Nio