use consistent, recognisable disk names

[DFreeze]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

I installed Gutsy AMD64 on my laptop and lost a lot of time identifying the disk I wanted to install it to.

I have partitioned my laptop harddisk into several equally sized partitions, to try different distributions on. In live CD mode, nautilus shows them as something like "10G disk", "10G disk [1]", "10G disk [2]", etc. Then when I mount them, they become "disk", "disk [1]", "disk [2]". In both cases I can't see which is which.

Then when I fire up the installer, the partitioner (manual install) shows them as /media/hda#. So now I still don't know where my previous Ubuntu install is, that I want to overwrite. I even don't know which hda# number corresponds to which disk [#} number in Nautilus.

I had to find the installed OS in /boot/Grub/menu.lst (maybe there's a better way, but this was the only one I could think of), check the used disk space with the Properties dialog, and match that used space with the ones reported by Ubiquity to discover which /media/hda# number was the Ubuntu one.

Can ubiquity at least use the same naming strategy as Nautilus, or show the UUID so I know which is which? I'll file another bug about the naming in Nautilus, to suggest using some identification string on the disks to determine the OS (if any) is installed, and use that in the naming of the disk. Ubiquity might then follow whatever they decide in Nautilus...

[TerryG (tgalati4)]

Triaged to Confirmed. I have to agree with reporter that disk naming scheme is confusing to a new user. However, multiple OS installs is not a beginner topic, so some understanding of disk naming is presumed. When a new user attempts to install several OS's and doesn't understand the different naming schemes--that's trouble. Each disk naming scheme has a history that is too long to present here. Because a Linux installation is the combination of several discrete parts, these naming schemes come together during installation. Installation is not something you have to do often (if you are fortunate) but it does require some level of understanding of disk/device naming. Perhaps ubiquity can present a pop-up: "About disk naming" This would provide a quick summary of how the same disk drive/partition can be addressed in different ways.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

I'm no table to understand this report. The disks are identified as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc. What is inconsistent about that?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for ubiquity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]