Bug 9571

Summary:	Installer Hard Drive manipulates are destructive even when cancelled
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	Ken Jernigan <kenny3794>
Component:	Installer	Assignee:	Thierry Vignaud <thierry.vignaud>
Status:	RESOLVED OLD	QA Contact:
Severity:	major
Priority:	Normal	CC:	pterjan
Version:	3
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Source RPM:		CVE:
Status comment:

Description Ken Jernigan 2013-03-30 20:30:50 CET

Description of problem:
During a live DVD on USB of Mageia (GNOME), I was looking at the installer (advanced partitioning) with hopes of identifying which drive I wanted to install on, I became worried that I had chosen the wrong partition so I cancelled.  I then looked at some of the other optins, including the CLEAR ALL option.  Afterwards, realizing this would erase the entire hard drive, including I quit the installer.  My assumption (perhaps poorly based on other OS experience -- Windows, Ubuntu, Debian) was that the installer was non-destructive until committing to the install.  However, upon exiting the installer and rebooting the PC, I realized that all other partitions had been deleted.  The graphical installer had proceeded with MBR destruction even though I cancelled the install. 

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Beta 3 of Cauldron

How reproducible:
Change a partition installation then cancel.  Observe change (such as deleted MBR or resized partition) has remained.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Load live USB
2. Click Install on HD
3. Chose Custom Partitioning when prompted.
4. Delete all partitions
5. Click Quit



Reproducible: 

Steps to Reproduce:

Ken Jernigan 2013-03-30 20:31:05 CET

Severity: normal => major

Comment 1 Manuel Hiebel 2013-03-31 18:09:31 CEST

there was no popup saying that it will write on the disk ?

Comment 2 Ken Jernigan 2013-04-01 05:02:06 CEST

Manuel,

At this point, I cannot recall.  That said, however, even if a pop-up did occur, this should still be filed as a usability bug then.  Even experienced systems administrators make mistakes wherein they change partitions and believe they have done the correct thing.  However, once the visual proof is displayed, they can realize they incidental error.  Every other main line operating system takes this into account by allowing the user to remove the changes by either pressing an undo button or quitting the installer/partition manipulation tool.

I'm aware that not all tools may take this approach, but the majority of main line operating systems and partitions tools do (gparted, Partition Magic, fdisk, Ubiquity Installer used by Ubuntu, & the Windows installer).  I believe they do this to allow mistakes to be seen and undone.  Mageia currently doesn't allow mistakes to be seen and undone easily.  For example, I had to manually manipulate the MBR 4th partition (extended) to include another ~ 0x10000000 sectors in it's window size before parted would perform a correct rescue operation and find one of my more critical partitions.  An average user may figure this out.

Manuel Hiebel 2013-04-07 15:23:19 CEST

CC: (none) => pterjan
Assignee: bugsquad => thierry.vignaud

Comment 3 Manuel Hiebel 2013-12-05 21:41:07 CET

Changing version, it will be great to test if mga4 state is better (and add back to cauldron if it's still valid).

Version: Cauldron => 3

Comment 4 Marja Van Waes 2015-03-31 16:05:25 CEST

Mageia 3 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status 4 months ago.
http://blog.mageia.org/en/2014/11/26/lets-say-goodbye-to-mageia-3/ 

Mageia 3 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Mageia
please feel free to click on "Version" change it against that version of Mageia
and reopen this bug.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.

--
The Mageia Bugsquad

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => OLD