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

[Erick Brunzell]

I've been doing some testing related to bug 775124 and the two do
somewhat play into a common problem. Of course hardware limitations make
it impossible to test every given possibility but I try really hard.

Anyway I'd tried using an old blank 3.2GB ATA drive and it was a no go
and I'm thinking that the disc space requirement should be treated the
same as the power source and internet connection options, with the
caveat that only the manual partitioning option should be offered if the
disc space is below a specified number of MB/GB, probably with a strong
warning in bold red font!

So just for fun I tried creating a free space of about 4.6GB and
attempting an installation with the Ubuntu Oneiric Alpha 3 image but I
get no option to use manual partitioning, the auto-install just begins
:^(

That of course creates a new swap partition which gobbles up too much
space, causing the installation to crash because there's not enough room
for /. You see, at the very least one must always be offered the ability
to use manual partitioning regardless of free space.

We do that in a few other scenarios by displaying a secondary screen
showing what's going to happen, explaining that some partitions are
hidden, and you can click to "use the advanced partitioning tool". I
think using that tool needs to always be offered at some point.

Currently unexpected outcomes occur. I've not seen how this can result
in data loss, but it certainly is annoying.

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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:
  New
Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Natty:
  Won't Fix
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Oneiric:
  Confirmed

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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