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Crash report handling

Many Ubiquity bugs arrive in the form of cut-and-pastes from its crash helper dialog. In simple cases, these are often enough to completely diagnose the bug and allow a developer to fix it, which is why the crash dialog exists. However, if the crash occurs in install.py (the component of Ubiquity that actually constructs and configures the newly-installed system), then in Dapper a combination of technical awkwardness and lack of developer time (which should be resolved for Edgy) means that the traceback from the crash dialog often ends like this:

RuntimeError: Install failed with exit code 1; see /var/log/installer/syslog and /var/log/syslog

This traceback is moderately useless on its own, and you must not mark bugs as duplicates on the basis that they both contain a traceback such as this. The real error is hidden in /var/log/installer/syslog, so if the reporter didn't attach that, ask for it, and for /var/log/syslog and /var/log/partman as well for good measure. Look for the traceback from the crash dialog in /var/log/installer/syslog and then trace up a little bit; the real error should be there, often in the form of a subprocess exiting non-zero.

Specific known issues in Dapper

• Crash if /boot is on XFS: [https://launchpad.net/bugs/47848 #47848]

  This can be recognised by grub-installer exiting 10 or 30, and /var/log/partman or /var/log/installer/syslog (look for "mountpoints:" in the latter) indicating that / is on XFS and there is no non-XFS /boot filesystem. Feel free to mark such bugs as duplicates of #47848, with text such as:

  Thanks for your report. You need to use a non-XFS root filesystem or create a non-XFS /boot filesystem. Bug 47848 is filed to note that the partitioner should warn you about this up-front.

• Crash if system partitions are not reformatted: [https://launchpad.net/bugs/47046 #47046]

  This can be recognised by an OSError exception being thrown from the copy_all function, usually "File exists" or similar, and a "mountpoints:" line in /var/log/installer/syslog that includes a tuple with a standard filesystem (e.g. /, /boot, /usr, or /var; not /home or /media/*) as the first item and False as the second item. Feel free to mark such bugs as duplicates of #47046, with text such as:

  Thanks for your report. At present, you must reformat system partitions (e.g. /, /boot, /usr, or /var) during installation; bug 47046 is filed to note that the partitioner should warn you about this up-front. If you are upgrading an existing installation, then please see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DapperUpgrades rather than using this installer.