Ubiquity advanced partitioner redesign

Registered by Colin Watson

Evan Dandrea and Matthew Paul Thomas have been working on a redesign of Ubiquity's advanced partitioner, and one of them should fill in a better summary here.

Blueprint information

Status:
Not started
Approver:
Steve Langasek
Priority:
Medium
Drafter:
Evan
Direction:
Needs approval
Assignee:
None
Definition:
Discussion
Series goal:
Accepted for oneiric
Implementation:
Unknown
Milestone target:
None

Related branches

Sprints

Whiteboard

Work items:
[mpt] Ubiquity advanced partitioner visual design: DONE
[ev] Implement visual design: POSTPONED
[ev] Automatically partition using free space option: POSTPONED
[ev] Clean up lack of swap space warning, others: POSTPONED
[ev] Create a warning for an uncomfortably small installation size: TODO
[ev] Ensure the new interface is fully accessible: POSTPONED

== UDS session notes ==

Barry Warsaw didn't understand the installer
- not clear what was going to do something destructive
Should continue saying which OS is using which partition, not just give the filesystem
no way to say you don't want a bootloader
the "Use as:" menu doesn't navigate by letter
ensure everything has a unique access key
"New partition size:" field presents units inelegantly
- maybe connect a slider to the text field, instead of spinbuttons
- maybe default to GB sizes
could we smooth the border between the simple and advanced partitioners?
- e.g. have a menu for the basic options, which you can then customize
- restore context option on free space to perform automatic partitioning
- recommend sizes for an Ubuntu partition, a swap partition, etc
- warning for / being uncomfortably small
swap files vs. swap partitions? (future work in a separate specification)
"You have not selected any partitions for use as swap space" message is verbose
- other warning messages probably are too
- evaluate which should be warnings, which should be errors
- give some kind of size recommendation
should be a way to edit partition properties in place rather than having to invoke "Change..."
further performance improvements?
- build on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Ubiquity/PartitionerOptimisation
run ubiquity in debug mode to collect more detailed log files and reduce bug report roundtrips; requires either:
- intercept debconf stderr and filter
- do all debconf logging in debconffilter instead (if sufficient?)
Log installation successes and failures over time
- There may be an old existing Tech Board decision on this, otherwise discuss it on the mailing list

(?)

Work Items