Default installation partitioning should be to shrink existing partitions, not erase the whole disk

Bug #21018 reported by Krzysztof Lichota
16
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
partman-auto (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

I have tried installing Kubuntu Breezy preview (daily build 20050902).
When it comes to partitioning, the default option is to erase the whole disk.

THIS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Beginners are used to just pressing OK for whatever appears on screen.
This setting is the reason why I am scared to give Ubuntu CDs to other people, because they might erase their
data.

It is especially a problem with other languages than English - some part of partitioning text might not be
translated, so person who does not know English will just choose default option, not understanding the
consequences.

Expected behaviour:
Partitioning should be "click-through" - the default option should not destroy any data and offer expected
functionality - making partition for Ubuntu.
The best behaviour would be to offer shrinking Windows partition (or other partition, if Windows is not
present).

Revision history for this message
Krzysztof Lichota (krzysiek-launchpad-ubuntu-com) wrote :

Raising priority - for me this is big problem in wide adoption of Ubuntu. As I said, people are scared to give
installation CDs to others because they might get their disks wiped.

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Automatic shrinking is already the default if the partitioner determines that it
can do it safely.

Revision history for this message
Krzysztof Lichota (krzysiek-launchpad-ubuntu-com) wrote :

(In reply to comment #2)
> Automatic shrinking is already the default if the partitioner determines that it
> can do it safely.

What do you mean by "safely"? I have a few partitions which can be shrunk (Reiserfs), so it should offer to do so.
Here is my fstab:
/dev/md3 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/md0 /boot ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/md1 /boot2 ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/md2 /boot3 ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/md5 /home reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/hda8 /root2 reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/hdd8 /root3 reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/md4 swap swap pri=42 0 0

Revision history for this message
Krzysztof Lichota (krzysiek-launchpad-ubuntu-com) wrote :

Still present in Kubuntu 5.10 Preview.

Revision history for this message
Krzysztof Lichota (krzysiek-launchpad-ubuntu-com) wrote :

Still present in Kubuntu 5.10 official release.

Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in partman:
status: Unconfirmed → Confirmed
Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in partman-auto:
assignee: kamion → nobody
Revision history for this message
Saivann Carignan (oxmosys) wrote :

I can't reproduce this bug with the 7.10 ubuntu release, does somebody can reproduce that behavior? If not, I suggest to close this bug report.

Thanks for your work on this!

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