"install them side by side" lucid install fubar

[gregconquest]

I'm not sure if this is the best place to write this.

I just installed Beta1 amd64 kubuntu. In the install, when asking how to set up my partitions, the top option was to "install them side by side". There was no "them" being referred to earlier. There was no reference to OS's found. It was just looking at my hard drive. Since there are other OS's there, I clicked "install them side by side" and then it did not show a graph or explain what it was going to do, it just gave the warning, "This will cause permanent changes to your hard drive and cannot be undone. Are you sure?" Of course I was not sure. I went back and proceeded with a manual partition.

The wording and intent of that needs fixing. It is not at all clear what "install them side by side" means.

[hunkirdowne]

Re: "install them side by side" lucid install fubar

I don't even think about it anymore. I tried one of the "canned" schemes on a recently wiped hard drive once and it still wasn't what I wanted. Nowadays I prepare my partitions beforehand with a LiveCD and choose manual. I'm also surprised at the utter lack of control with some (non-Debian) graphical installers even in "manual" mode (but I *want* a separate /tmp :-).

You're right. It should be fixed. To say a newbie could get confused is an understatement. I give more attention to the ramblings of a two-year old than the dialogue on that screen. :-D

Maybe a little verbiage clean-up along with a "more information" device would be all that is needed. Of course maybe a new language pack wouldn't hurt my feelings: EN_US-redneck or something like that.

[oshunluvr]

Re: "install them side by side" lucid install fubar

I think since Lucid is still Beta, the dev. expects you're not running it alone but along side another OS and if you're smart (crazy?) enough to install a Beat version on your computer, you're going to select manual 90% of the time anyway.

IMO; Any "Guided" partitioning mode should make intelligent choices, then display a detailed list of pending actions and a list of warning dialogs that are clear like "Are you planning to install a second OS?" and offer the chance to make changes before hitting next. How about sliders that control partition sizes and Add, Remove buttons for partitions? If we're smart enough to choose to NOT use windows, we should be treated like we're smart enough to make these decisions.

I would go a step further and say the "Guided" mode choices need to be expanded to fit various systems. I, for example, have more than 2tb of drive space and currently 5 hard drives. Letting ANY guided installer have it's way would be crazy for me.

But, I think for an range of hard drive sizes, you should have a guided or suggested partitioning scheme. Like hunk pointed out he likes a separate /tmp (always in my installs )

Let say;
Single drive/Single OS (no dual boot)
<20gb : swap=1-2gb, /=8-10gb , /home
20-60gb : swap=1-4gb, /=10-16gb , /home
>60gb : swap=2-4gb, /=10-16gb , /tmp 10-32gb, /home

Then have options that expand choices, like save or reserve space for a backup install, detect current installs and preserve them, leave room for windows, create a bootable rescue CD, I'm sure we can all come up with more options.

It would be nice to be able to do all my partitioning along with the installer, rather than after.

[kevinc]

Re: &quot;install them side by side&quot; lucid install fubar

I'm not sure if this is the best place to write this.

I just installed Beta1 amd64 kubuntu. In the install, when asking how to set up my partitions, the top option was to "install them side by side". There was no "them" being referred to earlier. There was no reference to OS's found. It was just looking at my hard drive. Since there are other OS's there, I clicked "install them side by side" and then it did not show a graph or explain what it was going to do, it just gave the warning, "This will cause permanent changes to your hard drive and cannot be undone. Are you sure?" Of course I was not sure. I went back and proceeded with a manual partition.

The wording and intent of that needs fixing. It is not at all clear what "install them side by side" means.

I've only ever used the manual option. You are right - if it doesn't tell you what Kubuntu is going to be installed with, then, you're taking a huge risk, especially if you have more than one OS and it only finds one other and it doesn't tell you what it found.

The manual option works well, it lists partitions and fstypes and you should know what OS you have on what partition.