Ubiquity takes user to manual partitioning if no hard disks detected

[Michael DePaulo]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

Normally Ubiquity presents a user with the suggested hard disk configurations, and going to the manual partitioner is only an option.

If no hard disks are detected, Ubuntu instead takes the user to the manual partitioner and does not make it clear that no hard disks were detected. This is a usability issue in a situations such as these:
1. A novice user buys a computer at a flea market. The hard drive is actually defective (or perhaps it is unplugged,) but he has no way of knowing this. He burns an Ubuntu desktop CD and starts the install. He does not know what to do when presented with the empty manual partitioner.
2. A novice user buys a bleeding edge computer with his hard disk hooked up to a brand new storage controller. That storage controller is not supported by Ubuntu. He burns an Ubuntu desktop CD and starts the install. He does not know what to do when presented with the empty manual partitioner.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Nov 2 15:55:21 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
Package: ubiquity 2.0.8
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: ubiquity
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:4109): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:4109): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:4168): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:4191): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed

[Simon Quigley (tsimonq2)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test it on a currently supported Ubuntu version. When you test it and it is still an issue, kindly upload the updated logs by running only once:
apport-collect 471697

and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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