Gutsy: Import user didn't succeed - data loss occured

[Runar Ingebrigtsen]

Running the installer from the Gutsy BETA live CD, I selected the first user on this computer to import documents and settings from. I also chose to use the whole disk, guided. Then I got to the regular user form, and filled in the details of a different user than the one I wanted to import.

Now, booting the installed system, the old user has disappeared. There's just one user on the system, the new one - created by the regular user form in the Ubuntu installer. As such, all data is lost.

There was no separate home partition even before the fresh install.

[Evan (ev)]

The bug here is that migration-assistant failed to properly remove all of the partitions, as you selected "use the entire disk", from the list of available partitions to import from. I apologize for the data loss that occurred.

[Runar Ingebrigtsen (ringe)]

Thank you for your concern, and the explanation. I had already migrated all my data to a new computer. I just figured I had to test this feature before I let my sister get the old computer. So the data loss didn't really hurt that much this time.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

ubiquity (1.6.4) gutsy; urgency=low

  [ Evan Dandrea ]
  * Only set migration-assistant data in user-setup if updating an existing
    user (LP: #135149).
  * Properly filter out partitions marked for deletion in
    migrationassistant.py (LP: #146222).
  * Fixed a bug where the migration-assistant page would not be updated to
    reflect changes, such as if the user went back and partitioned
    differently, if the page had already been shown.

  [ Mario Limonciello ]
  * Copy over detected xserver-xorg changes to ensure BulletProofX
    is functional after installation. This behavior is temporary
    for gutsy and will be removed after the BulletProofX spec is
    reworked.

  [ Colin Watson ]
  * Automatic update of included source packages: migration-assistant 0.5.3.

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:11:38 +0100

[Evan (ev)]

Runar,

If you have a free moment, can you please test that choosing to use the whole disk in the partitioner leaves you with no users to import from on the migration-assistant page using the latest daily desktop CD (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/)? Let me know if it is, or is not, in fact fixed for you.

Thanks!

[Runar Ingebrigtsen (ringe)]

Evan,

Choosing the whole disk gave no option of importing user. Likewise using the manual partitioner to define formatting of the whole partition.

Then I chose resize, which never went on after successfully reduzing the size of the existing partition. I closed the installer, then started it again. There was a new option to use existing free space. I chose to use free space and got the import user choice. I chose to import the old user (nora) to a new user (per). I clicked "next" and created a new user (nora), that also gave the name to the computer (nora-laptop).

I will leave a new comment and attachments with the results.

[Runar Ingebrigtsen (ringe)]

This means the problem won't appear as originally described in this bug report, though.

[Evan (ev)]

Runar,
On a side note, if you are ever able to reproduce the installer presumably hanging after a successful resize, could you please file a new bug with the logs from that system?

Thanks!

[Runar Ingebrigtsen (ringe)]

Evan, I'll do that.

This time, the import user worked like it should. This bug is fixed. I'll attach the installer logs for this install attempt.