replacing the Startup Disk Creator

[Nio Wiklund]

Den 2015-09-25 kl. 09:05, skrev Nio Wiklund:
> Den 2015-09-21 kl. 18:03, skrev Nicholas Skaggs:
>> On 09/19/2015 07:29 AM, Marc Deslauriers wrote:
>>> On 2015-09-19 07:04 AM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
> ...
>>>>
>>> That's a very interesting spreadsheet, thanks for doing that. It seems
>>> most
>>> issues are:
>>>
>>> - A known bug in udisks that prevents the erase function from working
>>> reliably
>>> (LP: #1460602)
>>>
>>> - A mismatch between syslinux versions between the host system
>>> creating the usb
>>> key and the version being installed (LP: #1325801)
>>>
>>> - A limitation of the fix for the syslinux issue that prevents amd64
>>> images from
>>> being created on i386 systems (LP: #1446646)
>>>
>>>
>>> I believe a simple way to eliminate every one of these issues at once
>>> in UDC
>>> would be to get rid of the persistence functionality. All of the
>>> currently
>>> supported images can now be written directly to a usb device as-is.
>>>
>>> The syslinux and boot loader mangling that is currently required for
>>> persistence
>>> and used to be required for older end of life releases is a constant
>>> source of
>>> problems each time a new release come out and is difficult to get working
>>> properly on mismatched architectures.
>>>
>>> Removing persistence would also simplify the user interface and would
>>> remove the
>>> need of having the "Erase Disk" button, therefore eliminating the
>>> known udisks
>>> issue as a side effect.
>>>
>>> Advanced users who require generating a usb key with persistence can
>>> simply use
>>> one of the other tools that are available. Perhaps in the future
>>> persistence
>>> could be added back by creating a partition in the free space left
>>> over after
>>> copying over the image.
>>>
>>> Changing UDC to remove persistence and to copy images as-is is a
>>> trivial change,
>>> and I am willing to volunteer to do it.
>>>
>>> Marc.
>>>
>>>
>> Marc, this sounds like a great way to accomplishes two things at once.
>> It both simplifies the application for users,  while making the process
>> more robust. I'm in support.
>>
>> Nicholas
> 
> Hi Nicholas,
> 
> Now that Wily beta 2 is released, maybe we can do something along this
> track again. How can I help now? Where and when can it be decided, that
> Marc Deslauriers converts the SDC to a cloning tool?
> 
> I'm afraid it is too late for Wily, so that we are talking about the
> neXt version to become 16.04 LTS(?)
> 
> Or is it possible to 'save' the SDC in Wily this way, to get something
> that works when 15.10 is released?
> 
> -o-
> 
> Now (in the released Wily beta 2) there is another symptom, than when I
> tested (reported in a spreadsheet a few days ago). I can reproduce Chris
> Hermansen's symptom early at boot. The SDC no longer complains about
> udisks. It finishes and seems successful, but the created pendrive does
> not work:
> -----
> "A black screen white letters at the top:
> 
> SYSLINUX 6.03 EDD 20150813 Copyright (c) 1994-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al
> 
> Boot Error"
> -----
> I tested with 'the easiest case', that Wily tries to create a pendrive
> with Wily of the same architecture (i386 --> i386). Chris tested with
> amd64 (in 15.04), so the bug seems to affect both architectures.
> 
> I don't know if this bug is reported at Launchpad, if it should be
> reported now, or if it is enough that we know about it here and now.
> 
> Best regards
> Nio
> 
Den 2015-09-25 kl. 12:20, skrev Alberto Salvia Novella:
> Nio Wiklund:
>> I don't know if this bug is reported at Launchpad, if it should be
>> reported now, or if it is enough that we know about it here and now.
>
> Please report it and point me to it!
>
> Thank you.
>
>

Hi Alberto,

Now the current (new?) bug is reported at Launchpad as

"Early Syslinux Boot Error in pendrive made with the Ubuntu Startup Disk
Creator",

Bug #1499746

Hi Chris,

Maybe you can confirm the bug for amd64 (and click affects me too).

Best regards
Nio