[Bug 1969822] Re: failed storage configuration at install of ubuntu-22.04-server

[Dan Bungert]

Thanks for attaching the installer files.  Unfortunately the subiquity-
server-debug.log is actually a symlink to the real log file, so all we
got was an empty symlink.

That said, I can reproduce part of what's going on with the probe-data.
Where I'm confused is the initial state - I think maybe the way things started is that the disks themselves were formatted, without a partition table?  Is that correct?

While I'm not yet certain what happened in your case, I've taken a screen recording to show what I would have done at the formatting screen.
https://asciinema.org/a/489119

> I've been able to work around this by selecting Mount -> Other and
ignoring the warning about this being dangerous. Both mounting at / and
/var/lib produced these warnings. Mounting at /srv did not.

So the concern there is that Subiquity knows we need to write files as
part of the install to those partitions, but doesn't know if that is OK
to do so.  Maybe you're mounting an existing ext4 formatted disk at /
and it has stuff - is that going to be ok?  In your case it should be
fine because you just formatted them, but it doesn't really know that.

The workaround in your case when at the "Editing partition n of
/dev/sdX" is to, instead of using "Leave formatted as ext4", to choose
the plain "ext4" option which will cause it to be formatted, which
should then allow you to mount at "/" without having to choose Other and
get a scary-sounding warning.

If you remember, I'm very interested in the initial state of those
disks, as I think that's the key to what happened here.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1969822

Title:
  failed storage configuration at install of ubuntu-22.04-server

Status in subiquity:
  New
Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  when booting a new VM using the ubuntu-22.04-live-server-amd64.iso
  file (VMWare), and following the installer options, I went for a
  "Custom storage layout", because I had 3 disks and wanted to use disk1
  (/dev/sda) as main disk (mounted in /), disk2 (/dev/sdb) mounted under
  /var/lib, and disk3 (/dev/sdc) mounted under /srv.

  After formatting all devices and specifying mount points, the system
  does not allow me to move on, saying "To continue you need to: Select
  a boot disk

  However there is nothing I can do to select one! (the option to "Use
  As Boot Device" is greyed out).

  If I start again fresh and choose the first disk (/dev/sda) and
  instead of "Format" I go for "Use As Boot Device", the system (again)
  does not allow me to move on, saying "To continue you need to: Mount a
  filesystem at /" (now the option "Stop Using As Boot Device" is greyed
  out).

  Hence, in summary, this is very confusing. It is not clear what the
  installer expects (e.g. how to do things right), and there are no
  hints provided.

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