aims team mailing list archive

[Erick Brunzell <lbsolost@xxxxxxxxx>]

Based on the last two comments I'll mention this here even though it
probably deserves a new bug report, or multiple bug reports.

Another way in which a new user may mistakenly delete a partition is the
design choice of replacing the Add & Remove buttons with + & - in the
advanced partitioning tool, and there is no confirmation or warning that
you're about to delete the selected partition if you click on -.

Quite simply + & - do not always = add & remove, look at the GNOME
screenshot tool and you'll see that + & - = increase & decrease. Or look
at the GNOME disk utility, it uses + & - but when you "mouse-over" the -
button a pop-up window appears saying Delete partition. No warning is
given, nor is any confirmation requested by the installer in this case
................ just highlight a partition, click on -, and poof it's
deleted even if the user only intended to reduce the size of the
partition.

Of course the installer also lacks any indication that it's going to use
the largest continuous free space if sufficient free space exists and
the user selects Install alongside, the only indication is that the
Continue button in the lower right hand corner changes to Install now.
We still see complaints about that on the forums, frequently if a user
has a mass storage device with unformatted space they'll end up with
both Ubuntu and grub in undesired locations.

Prior to Maverick if a new user wanted to install Ubuntu alongside
either Vista or Win 7, and less than 4 primary partitions existed, they
could simply use Windows own partitioning tool to resize the desired
Windows partition and then select Use largest continuous free space.
Since most newer computers use gpt rather than msdos that option would
make installing Ubuntu a snap if it were clearly defined, and if
confirmation of the changes was requested before the actual installation
proceeds, including the option of where to install grub.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1265192

Title:
  Install/reinstall wipes out all/other partitions

Status in elementary OS:
  Triaged
Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in “ubuntu-livecd-image” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Trusty:
  Triaged
Status in “ubuntu-livecd-image” source package in Trusty:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Brand new Samsung laptop with UEFI. I had installed 13.04 Ubuntu but on reboot I never saw the 'grub' style menu. It just kept going into Windows 8.1.  So I got the 13.10 version (64 bit) and choose "Reinstall Ubuntu" (That may not be the exact text)
  It removed all the partiions including the recovery partitions. I do have a backup for the windows install, but I was very surprised that this happened.
  On a positive note I now have Ububtu up and running on my machine. 
  This is not my first time with Ubuntu. I have installed Ubuntu alongside WinXp, Vista and Windows 7. I've used Ubuntu desktop for over 6 years.
  If you would like me to try something to replicate this. .. I could shrink my existing partion make another one - reinstall and see if it whacks that one. I can do this now .. I'm still moving into this laptop so starting over is not so bad.

  Steve Devine

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