MASTER: partitioner should warn about too small disk while autopartitioning (some_device)

Problems with Dutch localisation

/var/log/syslog

/var/log/partman

This isn't a Dutch-specific issue. In fact:

IOError: [Errno 28] No space left on device

Your disk is just too small to complete an installation. The partitioner should have warned you about this, though ...

I am using a 2 GB disk within VMWARE, which gets recognised by the partitioner as a 2.1 GB VMWARE disk.

It look like there needs to be 2.27 GB for the installation to finish

I don't think the partitioner should warn about this, but there should be a check right after the partitioning to see if the created disk structure is large enough.

The partitioner has to do *something* after checking and discovering that the disk is too small. Warning is about as good as anything else. :-)

I just finished typing up a bug report for the exact same thing. Good thing I found this.

No warning at all from the installer. I definitely think that a warning is a good idea.

One problem is the text in the Ubuntu jacket. It says only 2GB is required, which should lead one to assume that 2GB would be sufficient for the install plus some data. The text on the jacket should be changed to 3GB. I set my partition size solely on the statement of system requirements and the partitioner didn't blink at all when I gave it the specified 2.0 GB.

The installer shouldn't just warn you that it will fail, it should give you some option to *do something* about it!
For example, an option to install just ubuntu-minimal + X + gnome/kde-base.

Another problem: the installer doesn't delete cached debs from /var/cache/apt/archives. This means that about 700MB of space is wasted, which can make all the difference. See bug #90606 for this.

Incidentally, I have a very good ubuntu install on a 1GB compact-flash card, running KDE + Amarok. But I had to manually install ubuntu-server, then add xorg, and then kde-base + kdm; always running apt-get clean in between installing packages.

Richard, it sounds like you're talking about the alternate install CD. On an install from the desktop CD (which is what this bug is about), 'apt-get clean' won't make a whole lot of difference. Furthermore, the desktop CD can't give you an option to install a reduced set of software; the desktop CD installer just copies over the live filesystem, and doesn't know how to copy just those bits associated with certain packages - in the general case this isn't possible, and even in very specific cases it's harder than you might think. It does remove itself and a few other packages from the installed system, but it does this by removing those packages after copying all the files over, which doesn't help on systems that don't have enough disk space to copy all the files in the first place.

I believe that the CD sleeve text is being changed in Feisty to say 3GB rather than 2GB.

For reference, the manual partitioning case is covered by this bug:
 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/77966

ubiquity (1.7.2) hardy; urgency=low

  [ Evan Dandrea ]
  * XS-Vcs-Bzr is now Vcs-Bzr.
  * Strip out support for creating multiple users in migration-assistant.
  * Save state in between runs of migration-assistant (LP: #151126).
  * Added partman/check.d/03partition_too_small to warn the user when a
    partition isn't large enough to contain the respective part of /rofs
    (LP: #48355).
  * Modified scripts/install.py to handle ENOSPC.
  * Tore out partition_help. This may be replaced by more detailed help text,
    viewable by pressing a help button.
  * Don't set can_focus on the timezone combo box as it prevents you from
    tabbing back out of it. Thanks Sebastien (LP: #136665).

  [ Colin Watson ]
  * Copy xserver-xorg/config/display/modes to the installed system before
    reconfiguring usplash (LP: #150930).
  * Update for apt-setup 1:0.31ubuntu1.
  * Update d-i/update-control to work with the new Dpkg::Deps module in
    dpkg-dev 1.14.8.
  * Update partman extensions to cope with changes in partman-base 114
    (/lib/partman/definitions.sh -> /lib/partman/lib/base.sh).
  * Automatic update of included source packages: apt-setup 1:0.31ubuntu2,
    base-installer 1.86ubuntu1, debian-installer-utils 1.50ubuntu1,
    partman-auto 73ubuntu1, partman-base 114ubuntu1, partman-basicmethods
    36, partman-efi 14ubuntu1, partman-partitioning 54ubuntu1.

  [ Mario Limonciello ]
  * Correct a small typo in mythbuntu template. (LP: #155194)
  * Don't allow mythbuntu remote configuration pages to progress
    when "Other Remote" is selected. (LP: #157233)
  * Check for files related to mythbuntu autostart rather than assuming
    they don't already exist. (LP: #173378)
  * Don't allow the user to progress on non mythbuntu master backend roles
    unless they test their connection. (LP: #164979)
  * Allow dvb-utils to be selected during installation (LP: #130924)
  * Allow hdhomerun configuration to be installed. (LP: #153065)

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:05:15 +0000