Installer presents confusing/misleading partition information

[Simon Morgan]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

I have downloaded the Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix Release Candidate and am attempting to install it on my Samsung NC10 netbook. The current partition layout is:

Partition 1: ~6GB Samsung recovery partition (Blue)
Partition 2: ~70GB Windows XP Home partition (Green)
~70GB of free space (Silver)

When I get to the stage entitled "Prepare disk space", the information presented does not make any sense even to a person who understands at least the basics of drives and partitions.

When the default option of "Install them side by side, ..." is selected, the green bar representing the Windows partition overlaps the proposed Ubuntu partition. The Ubuntu partition is initially not visible, but when I slide the slider to the left, the brown Ubuntu partition can be seen "behind" the Windows partition.

When I select "Use the entire disk" the entire bar turns brown as expected.

When I select "Use the largest continuous free space" the entire also turns brown, which gives the impression that all data on my drive will be lost if I select this option.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
MediaBuild: Ubuntu-Netbook-Remix 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" - Release Candidate i386 (20090415)
Package: ubiquity 1.12.9
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic i686

[Evan (ev)]

The "Use the largest continuous free space" issue is fixed in trunk and will be present on a to-be-released daily live CD.

Regarding the "Install them side by side" option, could you please take a few screenshots (the partition overlapping, Ubuntu being behind the Windows partition) of this so I have a better idea of the problem?

Thanks!

[Paul Larson (pwlars)]

Removed ubuntu-unr tag since this does not seem to be specific to UNR

[Evan (ev)]

This is fixed via a complete redesign of the partitioning experience in the installer in Ubuntu 10.10, with significant refinements in 11.04. Please see the installer design specification for the details:
https://docs.google.com/View?id=dfkkjjcj_101gnkrpg5v#4_5_1_Automatic_partitioning_o_8475526086986065