Xubuntu partitioning can fail because ubiquity does not prevent thunar from automounting new partitions

Bug #107259 reported by Colin Watson
32
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
High
Colin Watson

Bug Description

Binary package hint: ubiquity

ubiquity integrates with gnome-volume-manager, but not with thunar-volman as used in Xubuntu. This leads to problems such as https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/99908/comments/13 in which attempts to partition result in error messages such as "The ext3 file system creation in partition #1 of IDE1 slave (hdb) failed."

A workaround for users of Xubuntu 7.04 with existing partitions on their drives is as follows:

  Boot the desktop CD.
  Go to Applications -> Settings -> Settings Manager.
  Select "File Manager".
  Switch to the "Advanced" tab.
  Click on the "Configure" link ("Configure the management of removable drives and media ...").
  Uncheck "Mount removable drives when hot-plugged" and "Mount removable media when inserted".
  Close all the windows just opened, and start the installer.

I apologise that this was not fixed in time for Xubuntu 7.04; it was only discovered and isolated from other problems a short time before release.

Related branches

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

Milestoning for post-Feisty, though I have no clear idea of how to fix this yet; I need advice from people who know thunar-volman internals.

Changed in ubiquity:
assignee: nobody → kamion
importance: Undecided → High
status: Unconfirmed → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Fixed in my bzr branch, though needs testing.

Changed in ubiquity:
status: Confirmed → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

I could reproduce the situation if a test fix was available to me. Cheers, Jerry

Revision history for this message
Simon Anders (sanders) wrote :

Hi,

I've just spent nearly an hour yesterday finding a work-around for this bug, when I installed Xubuntu Feisty on my mother's old PC.

As we first tried around with Ubuntu Feisty, the harddisk contained two partition, an ext3 partition with half an Ubuntu installation and a swap partition. Asking Ubiquity to delete the two partitions and re-create them resulted in the described error, as did keeping the partitions and just asking for formatting. 1

From my experience with Ubuntu Dapper on my laptop, I had boasted that installing (X)Ubuntu is a matter of a quarter of an hour, and this was quite a disappointment, and an inexperienced user will probably not manage to install Xubuntu at all.

Hence, do you guys intend to modify the Xubuntu 7.04 ISO image to include the fix? If not, or not very soon, a remark with link to the work-around given above might be necessary. After all, the bug affects all installation involving repartitioning or reformatting, which is nearly always the case.

Cheers
   Simon

Revision history for this message
jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

I've had good luck with GPartED (Gnome Partition Editor) from
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
which is a stand alone iso, burn to a separate CD. I've also used Gnome Partition Editor from System, Administration on a booted system. It may or may not be on the CD Live System, Administration depending on the Ubuntu level and the space they had on the 700 mb iso. However it is on Applications, Add/Remove, Search, Gparted and I presume but haven't tried to install the package on CD Live.

Frankly I prefer standalone GParted to any of the built in partitioning methods in Install; I only ran the partitioning in Xubuntu install to test it, and it failed. The stand alone version is independent from anything that is installed on the hard drive(s) so it doesn't get confused in what's mounted or not mounted or in use or not or for that matter functioning or not. I've successfully (with great care) done both resize and move as well as create and delete partitions.

The Gparted package in System, Administratin is a handy menu driven way to format the USB pen drive for the "persistent" feature of Dapper and Edgy ("persistent" doesn't work on Feisty yet) requiring the command line only for e2label /dev/sd?1 casper-rw. where ? varies depending on configuration.

Cheers, Jerry

Revision history for this message
QUASAR FREAK (quasarfreak) wrote :

thanks for the workaround i spent half hour trying install xubuntu because this bug =/

Revision history for this message
Upa (gdpark) wrote :

I am using GPartEd to partition. In the window, I do a right click to make a new partition. I cannot left click on "new". I read the instructions above, but I cannot access Applications -> Settings -> Setting Manager. What can I do for a workaround? Or should I be doing something else to make the new partitions.

I partitioned the hard drive when I installed Windows XP SP2. I was not expecting to need more partitions.

Revision history for this message
jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

You do need hard disk space to put a partition, say 4 gb for a minimal experimental partition, to 8 gb for a fairly useful one, to 20 gb for a full workhorse. If you don't have any space on the hard drive you either have to add a hard drive or squeeze XP down with resize.

What I did on my XP system which only had 20 gb hard drive was go into XP, defrag to make space at the top, then in settings, control panel, system, virtual memory cut out all the page space to zero. That's to get rid of a big page file at the top of memory. Then I defragged again, looked at details, and very carefully estimated how much free space there was at the top. Then directly get out of XP hopefully without causing any more files to be allocated.

Boot up Ubuntu CD Live, run Gparted, then on the XP partition, I resized it down a little less than the free space I thought I had estimated. If you resize down too much XP will get ill. If you resize down just free space, XP will run O.K. usually. Then with XP resized down, with the space freed up, you can make a partition for swap, say a little larger than your memory 256 mb min, maybe 512 mb, then the rest for Ubuntu. Has to be at least 2 gb, 4 gb to do any useful work. Good luck, Jerry

Revision history for this message
Upa (gdpark) wrote : Re: [Bug 107259] Re: Xubuntu partitioning can fail because ubiquity does not prevent thunar from automounting new partitions

Jerry - I have 120GB that I just installed in my Inspiron 8100. I also doubled the RAM to 512K. I partitioned the hard drive with 80GB for Windows XP SP2. I had hoped to use the 40GB for Linux. Deframmenter was used before installing the CD for GpartEd.

  When I go into GPartEd, I have 3 lines for partitions. The first partition reads about 73GB Unused. The second partition has a triangle that makes the third line disappear. It lists the filesystem as "extended". The third line shows 33GB Unused. The first and third lines are listed as "ntfs" under Filesystem.

  When I put the arrow at any of the three listed partitions, and do a right click, I get a window. The first entry in the window is "new". If I can do a left click on the "new", I am home free. I know what I have to do to partition as I want. However, "new" is not highlighted so that it can be activated.

  I need to make at least two more partitions. How do I do it?

  I know that I can resize the third partition, but how do I get new partitions?

  Thanks

jerrylamos <email address hidden> wrote:
  You do need hard disk space to put a partition, say 4 gb for a minimal
experimental partition, to 8 gb for a fairly useful one, to 20 gb for a
full workhorse. If you don't have any space on the hard drive you
either have to add a hard drive or squeeze XP down with resize.

What I did on my XP system which only had 20 gb hard drive was go into
XP, defrag to make space at the top, then in settings, control panel,
system, virtual memory cut out all the page space to zero. That's to
get rid of a big page file at the top of memory. Then I defragged
again, looked at details, and very carefully estimated how much free
space there was at the top. Then directly get out of XP hopefully
without causing any more files to be allocated.

Boot up Ubuntu CD Live, run Gparted, then on the XP partition, I resized
it down a little less than the free space I thought I had estimated. If
you resize down too much XP will get ill. If you resize down just free
space, XP will run O.K. usually. Then with XP resized down, with the
space freed up, you can make a partition for swap, say a little larger
than your memory 256 mb min, maybe 512 mb, then the rest for Ubuntu.
Has to be at least 2 gb, 4 gb to do any useful work. Good luck, Jerry

--
Xubuntu partitioning can fail because ubiquity does not prevent thunar from automounting new partitions
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/107259
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Revision history for this message
Upa (gdpark) wrote :

I was able to delete the second partition in Disk Management. When I finished my edits in GPartEd, the screen looked as I expected. I took a screen dump in case I need it later.

In Disk Management, C: shows up as NTFS, and D: as FAT32. For the two new partitions, it did not recognize ext3. The capacity values came out as I wanted. 78, 10, 1, 22 GB for Windows, Linux, Linux-Swap, and FAT32 share.

I appreciate your efforts, I appologize for not being clearer.

Now if only I can figure out why the screen goes dead when I try to install Ubuntu. I think it is confused about my video card. It did play a little music. I noticed an error during the process, FWH not detected. I may need to use a different Linux. I had to pull the battery to shutdown the computer, and reboot to the hard drive. Not good on the computer.

Revision history for this message
jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

When things hang on boot, this computer has a reset button which I use when I'm sure everything that's going to happen has. My IBM computers don't have a reset, so I just have to hold the power off button for maybe 30 seconds. When I do gparted, delete a partition, and make a new one I thought it gave me the option of which format to use; I don't have gparted up at the moment.

If you "search" thru the forums (I like to select New Posts which catches about 10 pages of recent stuff) you may find other people with blank screens. Sometimes Ctrl-Alt-F1 will get a command line so you can try things like:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserv-xorg
Other times, when you boot CD Live you can get choice of boot options with F6. A couple to try are noapic acpi=off like so:
......quiet splash noapic acpi=off
Now on an installed system you don't get a chance to do F6 but you can boot CD Live and do a Appkications, Accessories, Terminal sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst (where l is lower case L) and add the options there to the kernel line. You sometimes can get a useful message by not doing quiet.
Perhaps this discussion should be continued on forums instead of launchpad. Jerry

Revision history for this message
Upa (gdpark) wrote :

I downloaded Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. It seems to be functioning okay. Must be a bug in Ubuntu 7.04 since it was not recognizing FWH. Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Upa (gdpark) wrote :
Download full text (3.4 KiB)

I have 4 partitions

/dev/hda1 ntsf for windows in C:drive
/dev/hda4 ext3 for Linux
/dev/hda5 linux-swap
/dev/hda6 fat32 for share in D:drive

/dev/hda2 is extended

I am trying to mount these. The first two sites provide commands that I have accomplished. The third site provides information how to mount the rest of the partitions, but I am not certain what the commands should look like. And does the extended need to be mounted as well.

In Ubunta 4 of 7, I get an error message when I try to go forward on the Linux partition. It says it is not formated. In the partion list, the Linux partition has a solid square under format; whereas, the rest of the partitions have grey squares.

Error message: "You need to specify a partition for the root files system (mount point "/" with a minimum size of 2GB, and a swap partition of at least 246MB. You may also set up other partitions if you wish."

Somewhere else, I got a similar message: "No root file system is defined. Please correct from partitioning menu."

This evening, I upgraded my BIOS on my Inspiron 8100 from A08 to A14.

I was hoping for help with mounting and formating. I am a little gun shy since I thought I lost my computer last night.

http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-manual-en_Mounting_an_NTFS_partition_with_full_Read-Write_support

Full Read-Write support
If you really need a complete NTFS Write support, you will have to use Ntfs-3g. It's very easy to use:
ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
In this example, we suppose the device name of the NTFS partition is /dev/sda1 and the mount point is /mnt/windows. If you don't know the device name, you should list partitions with cat /proc/partitions or use GParted.

http://www.matthewjmiller.net/howtos/dual-boot-linux-and-windows/
Using QTParted again, make the Windows partition active (instead of the Linux partition). Reboot and make sure that Windows now loads correctly. This solves the problem of having the computer rendered completely useless, but does not help with finishing the Linux install. So, reboot with the Linux System Rescue CD again.
Now, we're going to use the Linux System Rescue CD to dual boot using Window's bootloader. Start by making a mount point for the OS Share partition:
mkdir /mnt/osshare
Then, mount the partition:
mount -t msdos /dev/hda6 /mnt/osshare
If you're not sure which device (e.g., /dev/hda6) your OS Share partition is, you can use QTParted to see the device number. Finally, we'll create a file that Windows can use to boot Linux:
dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/mnt/osshare/ubuntu.bin bs=512 count=1
Where /dev/hda2 is the device for your Linux partition (again, use QTParted to find the device number if you're unsure).
http://www.sysresccd.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=407&highlight=mount+root

I will tell you how to get to your hard drive

after you get to prompt I type

mkdir /false
If you can remember your partitions you might do this
mkdir/false/boot
mkdir/false/usr

etc

until you have created directories for all your partitions except swap under a "false" root called false.

now you mount your partitions to each fstab, change reiserfs to ext2 or ext3 etc

mount - t reiserfs /dev/hda1 /fals...

Read more...

Revision history for this message
jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

Not sure where you are in the process. Anyway,
In install, select Manual Partitioning. I absolutely never do any of the other choices, not even for testing.
Highlight your hda4
Edit the partition. (If any partition changes are needed, do those with CD Live Gparted, not! in install.)
In particular, to be safe, do not delete or new or create with the install built in partitioner. I will, for testing.
It needs to be ext3 format
Its mount point needs to be
/
which is the name of the root partition. In Ubuntu, that's the only partition for files you need.
It needs to be selected for format.
You need a swap partition. It will be automatically formatted. That's O.K. Even if you have multiple Linux's on one system, triple or quad booted, only one swap is needed. It should be at least as large as your memory, up to maybe twice as large.
After the partitioning menu, you will get another menu showing all the partitions.
As I remember, the / partition will have a slightly darker square on format. I don't care for the ambiguous marking on this menu myself. Grey on grey hardly evokes confidence.
Select "Next"
You should get a menu which will say that it is going to format hda4, and the swap.
It will stop there and wait for you to review what the actions are. No formatting has been done yet.
If you don't like what the menu says, select back which will take you back to partitioning, or cancel install even.
If it looks O.K., select next and it will tell you it's formatting hda4 and the swap.
Install should then proceed.
Now all this is from memory having done it a few dozen times. The menus change slightly from one Ubuntu to the next, but that's what I remember.
Yes this whole business is frustrating, and yes they are trying to invent some ways around it, but it is technically complex. Some of us (me) will prefer to do the "dirty work" ourselves. For wider use of Linux, a method like Wubi may be easier. I haven't seen any postings that people have had trouble with their XP systems after Wubi. Sometimes Wubi doesn't seem to install because Wubi format doesn't complete; I wonder if those users had defragged XP first.
http://lifehacker.com/software/featured-windows-download/take-ubuntu-for-a-non+invasive-test-drive-with-wubi-258936.php
Cheers, Jerry

Revision history for this message
Upa (gdpark) wrote :

I admit that I am frustrated. When I still lived in Montreal, I had a 3700 Inspiron with Linux Red Hat installed. The computer was setup so that I could toggle between Linux and Windows. That arrangement was awesome because the commands were similar to Unix that I was using at the time. The computer was stolen about 5 years ago.

I have done the commands that you mentioned a dozen times or more. Where you Select "Next", I must Select "Forward". I then get the Error message: "You need to specify a partition for the root files system (mount point "/" with a minimum size of 2GB, and a swap partition of at least 246MB. You may also set up other partitions if you wish."

The following are the partitions as shown in Ubuntu:

/dev/sda

  /dev/sda1 ntsf /media/sda1 73320MB 5500MB

  /dev/sda4 ext3 / 10569MB 323MB

  /dev/sda5 swap 1077MB 0MB

  /dev/sda6 fat32 /media/sda6 35064MB 33MB

When I run GPartEd, I do not get a column for "Mount Point". Does this mean the program is not running correctly, or what? I get the column for "Mount Point" when I run Linux System Rescue CD, and when I run Ubuntu.

I leave on a trip on Friday. I had hoped to have the computer operational. If I am to try Wubi, I would do that when I return.

I assumed that you understood that I want Ubuntu installed as a dual OS with Windows. You never provided commands with "mount". So, I assume that these things should be done automatically. In which case, my installation may be hosed.

Earlier, I tried to explain that I had partitioned the hard drive when it was installed. Consequently, I have used GPartEd to partition another partition in the original first partition to accommodate Linux. I then partitioned the original second partition as "extended", and created a partition for "linux-swap", and the last one for "fat32" as a shared partition.

Revision history for this message
jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

Well, I'd suggest you put a posting on "Installation & Upgrades" where you might get some help from more people than just me. Very few people are looking at this launch pad bug. Lots of people look at "Installation & Upgrades".

Where you'd like to be is just as you have printed, with a partition called / and one called swap. The partition called / should have a faint check mark on it meaning it is to be formatted. Swap should format as well. Seems to me you are very close to where you need to be, but I'm not sure what's troubling install.

Now I currently don't have hard disk space to try an Xubuntu Feisty install tonight, but I might be able to find another hard drive tomorrow to get some idea what the difficulties are.

Where you are headed at the moment is for a dual boot system, booting either Microsoft or Ubuntu of one sort or another. There are virtual setups for running both simultaneously however that's more complex than I have felt like doing.

Revision history for this message
Upa (gdpark) wrote :

Thanks for the encouragement. I have felt that I am close to being where I need to be.

I think I know the problem. I think the problem is with saving information that I have updated in Linux System Rescue CD. I have been giving the following command: Shutdown -r now

The following are the commands that I am using to input information for the partitions in Rescue:

root @sysresccd /root % net-setup eth0

root @sysresccd /root % /etc/init.d/sshd start

root @sysresccd /root % ntfs-3g /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

root @sysresccd /root % mkdir /mnt/root

root @sysresccd /root % mount -t ext3 /dev/hda4 /mnt/root

root @sysresccd /root % mkdir /mnt/osshare

root @sysresccd /root % mount -t vfat /dev/hda6 /mnt/osshare

root @sysresccd /root % df -m

Filesystem 1M-blocks Used Available Used% Mount on

tmpfs 250 13 238 6% /

/dev/hdb 116 116 0 100% /mnt/cdrom

/dev/loop0 103 103 0 100% /mnt/livecd

udev 250 3 248 2% /dev

tmpfs 250 4 247 2% /mnt/livecd/lib/firmware

tmpfs 250 0 250 0% /mnt/livecd/portage

/dev/hda1 69924 5245 64679 8% /mnt/windows

/dev/hda6 33424 1 33424 1% /mnt/osshare

/dev/hda4 9922 151 9268 2% /mnt/root

root @sysresccd /root % shutdown -r now

When I go back into the other programs such as Ubuntu, Linux System Rescue CD and GPartEd: the last three lines, above, no longer appear when entering df -m command.

Please let me know, if possible, what command I should be using so that the information will be saved. If not, I will post it on "installation & Upgrades", if I can figure out where it is. I chose this site because it looked to be the same problem that I was having. I really appreciate your efforts.

Revision history for this message
Upa (gdpark) wrote :

I did make a little more progress this morning. I used GPartEd to do the commands shown in my last enty, and they worked fine. I did not need to use an operation to get out of the command mode.

When I checked the Windows Disk Management, the partitions still read the same as before.

I booted Ubuntu again, and went through the installation processes. It now recognizes the Mount Points. When I hit "Forward", I get a different error message than before. It now says something like the root needs to be defined.

I have created a directory called root, and in Ubuntu, I changed the default name in Mount Point to /root.

I guess that I do not know what root is or how to make Ubuntu recognize it.

Also, the first two commands listed in the last entry, GPartEd would not accept.

I really need to know how to get out of the command mode without losing my input commands.

Revision history for this message
jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

Well you're quite a bit beyond my experience in Rescue which is something I've never done.

Do note, in Xubuntu install, in order for install to use partition

/

it must be absolutely empty with nothing in it, nothing restored, nothing written to it, nothing rescued to it. I usually do this by manual install doing a delete followed by a new. However, that's busted in Xubuntu. My workaround was to use gparted to create the partition before booting CD Live to do the install.

Then in install I could edit the partition, select mount point /, then select format, and continue install. As far as I can tell, install itself must format the partition so it is quite sure it can use it. I can't give you the keystroke sequence right now because I don't have a blank partition handy; I may later today. I don't remember whether in install I had to unmount the partition to set it to /. It does have to be /, and install does have to do a format as part of its install sequence. Cheers, Jerry

Revision history for this message
Upa (gdpark) wrote :

Jerry -

Thank you for your patience. I did get Ubuntu installed this evening. I knew it had to be a simple solution. It was TOO simple. The black square box that I mentioned. I selected it, amazingly it put in a checkmark! It was all downhill from there. Mostly I had to wait for the computer to do its thing. I will wait until I return to make the Application installations. All the basic ones in Windows Office are easily accessed through Applications.

I will also wait to fix the toggle between Ubuntu and Windows. Right now, if I do nothing then Ubuntu comes up. I have to use the down arrow to bring up Windows.

You were certainly correct. The only software that is required is GPartEd. I did not need Linux System Rescue CD.

Instructions that I found in www.Linux.com, www.sysresccd.org, gparted.sourceforge.net, www.ubuntu.com, www.matthewjmiller.net, www.MagicISO.com, isorecorder.alexfeinman.com, www.associatedcontent.com were extremely helpful. Ubuntu has good FAQ resourses and search routines to help find what was needed. I did find that many of my questions were too simple for many of these resources. Dell BIOS update in www.dell.com was extremely helpful in getting the computer to function properly for this installation.

I really appreciate your help. Take Care.

Revision history for this message
jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

I was hoping you'd get a breakthrough. You can switch whether Ubuntu or Windows comes up as default by doing Applications, Accessories, Terminal
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst (where l is lower case L)
Look for the groups of entries starting with "title". The default will be the first entry, so I habitually switch the intact groups around as needed.
This is a critical file used in boot, so you may wish to make a backup before editing.
Cheers, Jerry

Revision history for this message
Upa (gdpark) wrote :

Jerry - At least for the time being, I will keep the setup as is. I have a lot of work to do in Linux. I installed a new hard drive. So, the only backups would be Ubuntu. As I understand it, the OS files need to be reinstalled if some disastrous event occurs. I backed up all my files before removing my old drive, and I put my old drive in a turtle shell in case I need the old files. Currently, I am enjoying my new found speed. The efforts have been well worth it. My next computer will have Ubuntu already installed. Hopefully, this dual-boot will allow me the opportunity to develop my Linux skills so that eventually Windows will no longer be necessary. That is my goal. Thanks again for everything. You have been very helpful.

Revision history for this message
Hale M. Jones (selahco) wrote :

I have a dell dimension xps t450 and have had the problem of error message "no root fs defined" at the partitioning step since installing ubuntu 6.06. Each time, I tinkered with it til the error vanished, with me not knowing why. This time I was installing from a 7.04 live cd and had same problem. The solution was to rename the install partition to "/" instead of /media/...... using edit option of partitioning window.

I think you people are doing great, but could you have the error message tell how to 'define a root partition' instead of just saying it isn't?

Also could you do something about the windows being too tall for the screen? If the install is running and a terminal window opens, the last line of terminal text is below the bottom status bar, even after pushing the window up as far as it will go.

Have a good day, and keep up the good work.

Hale M. Jones

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

Please can the general installation help discussions go to a forum or the ubuntu-installer mailing list? This bug isn't appropriate for them.

If this fix looks good in Gutsy, I do expect to backport it to Feisty, although I'm not sure if/when a point release of the CD images will happen.

ubiquity (1.5.0) gutsy; urgency=low

  * Fix escaping of migration-assistant summary.
  * Only display partitions with scheduled migrations in the summary, and
    improve the formatting slightly.
  * Remove another stray newline from the migration-assistant summary.
  * GTK frontend:
    - Pressing Enter in the migration-assistant user/password entry boxes
      activates the Forward button.
    - Drop X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=ubiquity in the .desktop file for now, to
      work around a bug somewhere that causes the translations in the
      .desktop file to be ignored in that case.
    - Disable thunar automounting during installation (LP: #107259).
  * Remove the old advanced partitioner.
  * Use code based on shutil.copyfileobj rather than shutil.copyfile to copy
    files, avoiding a couple of unnecessary stats due to os.path.samefile.
  * Remove netcloner, noui, and text frontends, which are too out-of-date at
    the moment even to be worth using as examples. A reimplementation would
    need to start from scratch anyway.
  * Rename gtkui frontend to gtk-ui to match kde-ui (which had to be named
    that way due to a clash with python-kde3).
  * Update some copyright dates.
  * Split out internationalisation code from ubiquity.misc into
    ubiquity.i18n.
  * Remove some dead code from ubiquity.misc.
  * Create a BaseFrontend class and move various things to it; it now counts
    as a relatively clear specification of what a frontend has to implement.
  * Reorder some frontend methods to follow the ordering of the UI.
  * Fix crash if partman exits while the create or edit dialog is being
    displayed (LP: #108204).
  * Reconfigure /etc/papersize on installation (LP: #104160).
  * When changing values of debconf questions in /target, make sure to shut
    down debconf-communicate even if the Python debconf confmodule raises an
    exception.
  * Add an intro message noting that we're alpha again.
  * Rename ubiquity.misc.ex to ubiquity.misc.execute.
  * Automatic update of included source packages: apt-setup 1:0.21ubuntu1,
    base-installer 1.79ubuntu1, choose-mirror 2.15ubuntu1, clock-setup
    0.16ubuntu1, console-setup 1.15ubuntu1, debian-installer-utils
    1.48ubuntu1, grub-installer 1.24ubuntu1, hw-detect 1.52ubuntu2,
    localechooser 1.38ubuntu1, partconf 1.23, partman-auto 69ubuntu1,
    partman-base 107ubuntu1, partman-basicfilesystems 54ubuntu1,
    partman-basicmethods 35, partman-efi 13ubuntu1, partman-ext3 47,
    partman-jfs 22, partman-newworld 18, partman-partitioning 49ubuntu1,
    partman-reiserfs 36, partman-target 50ubuntu1, partman-xfs 34,
    silo-installer 1.10ubuntu1, tzsetup 1:0.17, user-setup 1.14ubuntu1,
    yaboot-installer 1.1.11ubuntu1.

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Wed, 23 May 2007 15:24:35 +0100

Changed in ubiquity:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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Stanley Poh (ptsg) wrote :

Can this be link to the official XUBUNTU homepage so that newbie like me doesn't has to go through the same headache and trouble for many hours ALL OVER AGAIN!

Please mention the solution if possible at the XUBUNTU homepage

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jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

Most of us use Ubuntu Community Support, in this case Installation & Upgrades forum. I couldn't see how to put a link in the Xubuntu Homepage, which does refer to Ubuntu Community support. My suggestions are in a post as follows. Cheers, Jerry

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2718455#post2718455

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Simon Anders (sanders) wrote :

I agree with Stanley that the solution needs to be mentioned at a prominent place.

I suspect that the crucial point got lost in this long discussion: While updates may work, any fresh installation of Xubuntu from the current CD fails _always_!

Imagine a user new to Linux, who decides to give Xubuntu a try. He puts in the CD, boots up, clicks on "install", does not have any special wishes and hence always tells the installer to use the default option. The installer will notice that there is free space on the hardd disk and suggest to put an ext3 partition there, to which the user happily agrees. The installation then aborts abruptly with a completely unhelpful and misleading error message.

Our new user is be disappointed that a straight-forward vanilla install on a completely ordinary PC fails. Being new to Ubuntu he does not know about Community Support and simply reasons that this Xubuntu thingy is a conpletely broken, badly maintained thing.

Ubuntu strives to be "Linux for the people", a distribution that simply works and does not require any guru-style fiddling ot tweaking. A bug like this: in the _installer_, striking _always_, making installation _impossible_ without tricks, must be corrected immediatly.

Hence, I sincerely ask you to apply the patch directly to the the ISO images for Xubuntu Feisty. I realize that replacing the ISO images is a major trouble but it seems necessary. The next best solution would be to put a link to an easily comprehensible explanation of the work-around right next to the download link for the ISO image.

Cheers
   Simon

O

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Stanley Poh (ptsg) wrote :

Thanks Simon.

The first thing in my mind after facing the problem is to go to the Xubuntu homepage and trail to the download section. Just to look for any hint about installation problem. Of course there aren't any. I am basically left clueless.

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jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

Bear in mind Xubuntu is a Ubuntu with the XFCE desktop. Ubuntu is Ubuntu with Gnome desktop. Kubuntu is Ubuntu with KDE desktop. Basic Ubuntu is all the same.
O.K., go to http://www.xubuntu.org/. Click on Help and Support. Partway down the page it says:

"Online forums
Just as in the traditional sense, forums on the web are discussion areas on a web site where visitors can post questions or make remarks on a given topic to be answered by their peers. The forums are an excellent place to ask for help as well as to find user-written tutorials, how-to's, and old threads that may already answer your question.
You can find the official Xubuntu forums at ubuntuforums.org."

Go there. Click on Installation & Upgrades. In the search box put Xubuntu Install Partitioning and click Go. Browse the first few (latest) postings to see if there's any help.

Launchpad here is for technically defining bugs. Most all the user to user helpful communication is in the forums. Please continue your discussion there. Thanks, Jerry

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kokoko (bababa) wrote :

I downloaded the Xubuntu ISO for PPC today, and got this error. After a small search in the forums I found this work-arround:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2486744&postcount=1

Just pointing out that if the fix is actually released, it's not yet in the PPC release of Xubuntu.

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jerrylamos (jerrylamos) wrote :

Gutsy 7.10 Tribe 2 Xubuntu partitioning appears workable however it does have the Ubuntu Gutsy Ubiquity bug. This is on an IBM NetVista A30p 2GHz Pentium 4.
1. Tried running Xubuntu manual partitioner. This is a three boot system so I wanted to replace a specific partition not anything the automagic partitioner imagined.
2. As in release notes, partitioning edit was running forever. While still running (won't stop):
3. Do Accessories, Terminal and issue:
sudo killall ubiquity; sudo ubiquity
enter password
For unknown reasons to me, partitioning then ran through and Xubuntu installed (of course with some new Gutsy bugs and leftover Feisty bugs). By the way, Xubuntu Gutsy Tribe 2 doesn't have the annoying Ubuntu Tribe 2 Network Manager bugs such as very slow boot filling up 3MB to 5MB /var/log/syslog with senseless eth2 loops.
Cheers, Jerry

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fjodork (fjodor) wrote :

Boot the desktop CD.
  Go to Applications -> Settings -> Settings Manager.
  Select "File Manager".
  Switch to the "Advanced" tab.
  Click on the "Configure" link ("Configure the management of removable drives and media ...").
  Uncheck "Mount removable drives when hot-plugged" and "Mount removable media when inserted".
  Close all the windows just opened, and start the installer.

<<< somewhy, this did NOT work for me.. i tryed for an hour or so.. Then i booted livecd, tryed again. didnt work, so i started gparted and deleted the partitions on the drive i was trying to install to manualy. Then i let gparted to say open, as it disables automount while its running, and started the installed and woula:P it worked... but damn. i used several hours on trying to make it work. this is something you should try to fix as soon as possible:P

Br fjodork

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