manual partitioner automatically selects "format" when changing file system, without warning

[RobertH]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

I was installing Intrepid Kubuntu Alpha 4 from the LiveCD onto a multiboot system. I chose MANUAL PARTITIONING. After selecting EDIT PARTITION for my /boot partition, I accidentally chose the wrong file system from the drop down box. It was only later that I noticed that FORMAT PARTITION had a grayed-out X in the box. Fortunately I saw it and figured out the error and was able to cancel out then start again.

I think manual partitioning would be much safer if it warned the user when the installer decides to format a partition when the user had not actively requested it. (I had very intentionally left the format partition box unchecked because I didn't want my boot partition wiped out!)

[RobertH (robert-hunt)]

Sorry, I should clarify "would be much safer if it warned the user...". I meant to say "it would be much safer if it ACTIVELY warned the user WITH A POP-UP WARNING BOX when the installer decides...."

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Changing the file system on a partition does imply formatting it, which is why the box got checked. I'm more interested in why you found it necessary to change the file system in the first place. Did it not have the current file system already selected there?

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

... although I can see the argument that when this is done implicitly the user ought to be warned clearly. I'm not sure I'd go so far as a pop-up warning dialog (it would get very inconvenient when you knew what you were doing!), but how about if we make a warning icon and text appear beside the format checkbox in the "edit partition" dialog?

[RobertH (robert-hunt)]

To answer your question why I found it necessary to change the filesystem, the answer is that I didn't. It was a slip of the mouse and I accidentally selected ext2 instead of ext3 or vice versa. (This would have been less likely, but still not impossible, to happen if the existing filesystem on the partition was already highlighted or pre-selected in the drop-down box, but it wasn't.)

Is it worth a pop-up warning dialog? Yes, I think causing a partition to be formatted by an indirect method (remember, I very intentionally had left the Format Partition checkbox UNCHECKED!), is worth a pop-up warning. I can assure you that if I hadn't noticed and caught the accidental error and if Ubuntu had gone ahead and reformatted my partition, I would have had some very nasty words to say about Ubuntu installers!!!

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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