storage: Action redesign #19882

mvollmer · 2024-01-24T12:07:25Z

Erase dialog: No overwriting
Partition table dialog: Use radio buttons
Everywhere: drop "/dev/" prefix
New demo
- Start with encrypted xfs on partition
- Lock/Mount/Unmount a bit
- Erase the lot
- Show how to do a expand the "Create partition" dialog step wise to do a lot in one go.
- Point out that "Unformatted data" and "Locked data" are no longer a thing.
- Format as ext4 with keeping the encryption.
tests, coverage

Action redesign for Storage

Demo: https://youtu.be/BkDCAOvOPVc

Goals:

Simplify the "Format" dialog. It does too much.

Especially, don't require people to figure out that they need to
use it with type "No filesystem" to wipe a block device before they
can use it as a LVM2 physical volume, etc.

Design:

mvollmer · 2024-04-08T06:43:14Z

@garrett, what do you think of this? There is a demo: https://youtu.be/BkDCAOvOPVc .

One point I didn't make in the demo: The awkward "Unformatted data" and "Locked data" cards are gone.

jelly · 2024-04-08T10:19:44Z

Some things from my side:

It looks interesting!

Instead of Format as swap, maybe, Create swap partition? Although I guess you can format a whole /dev/sda as swap?
I would list both Format actions next each other.
Add encryption feels a bit weird, I understand what you mean, but I am not sure if others do. It feels that this action would be to "add encryption" to a Filesystem. Maybe something easier? Encrypt disk, Add disk encryption, I understand that this acts on a disk so maybe it is logical after all. (Also this can handles LVM logical volumes as well so we can't put disk in there). So in the end, maybe it is just fine as is :)
Format cleartext device - This is feels like a lot of technical jargon, for a user this just means format $encrypted_device so maybe we can keep it as Format device?

mvollmer · 2024-04-09T09:31:18Z

Here is a mockup from Garrett:

mvollmer · 2024-04-09T10:57:50Z

It looks interesting!

Thanks, yes! And I exactly share your concerns!

Instead of Format as swap, maybe, Create swap partition? Although I guess you can format a whole /dev/sda as swap?

Hmm. We could add "swap" as a type to the "Create partition dialog". It can do more than filesystems anyway, like "biosboot" etc.

I really wanted to have "Format as filesystem" as the action title, and then we can't have anything else but filesystems in it. And if we want to still allow people to make swap on arbitrary block devices, we need a "Format as swap" action.

I would list both Format actions next each other.

Yes, I was going back and forth on the menu order many times, exactly because I wanted the two "Format as ..." next to each other. But "Add encryption" is argueably more important than formatting swap, so... I really don't know.

Add encryption feels a bit weird,

Absolutely. I am not happy about the wording.

I understand what you mean, but I am not sure if others do. It feels that this action would be to "add encryption" to a Filesystem. Maybe something easier? Encrypt disk, Add disk encryption, I understand that this acts on a disk so maybe it is logical after all. (Also this can handles LVM logical volumes as well so we can't put disk in there). So in the end, maybe it is just fine as is :)

"Format with encryption only"? This could give the idea that other actions can also use encryption.

Format cleartext device - This is feels like a lot of technical jargon, for a user this just means format $encrypted_device so maybe we can keep it as Format device?

"Format as encrypted filesystem"?

"Erase encrypted device"?

This is a good PR for a user study...

mvollmer · 2024-04-12T08:40:59Z

So I start to have doubts about making "Erase" and "Format" mutually exclusive. It just forces people to do in two steps what the tool can actually do in one. I still think it's good to have a dedicated "Erase" action and dialog, but we shouldn't hide "Format as ..." until people have done the Erase.

pkg/storaged/block/erase-dialog.jsx

pkg/storaged/swap/format-dialog.jsx

pkg/storaged/block/erase-dialog.jsx

+import {
+    dialog_open,
+    CheckBoxes,
+    BlockingMessage, TeardownMessage,
+    init_teardown_usage,
+} from "../dialog.jsx";


And make "Mount" and "Create new logical volume" primary actions.

Offer it on the "Partition" card instead of the "Filesystem" card, for example. This makes more sense. One formats a partition, but mounts the filesystem.

That's where they belong. Filesystems are still automatically locked and unlocked when mounting and unmounting them.

They have no actions anymore.

This allows us to make the format dialogs non-dangerous and primary, and give them more descriptive names. The "Create partition" version of the "Format" dialog now defaults to "empty", and "empty" can not be encrypted. This makes it a very simple dialog.

It's not a secure erase by any means.

Use radio buttons, and only offer MBR when it will work.

mvollmer added the no-test For doc/workflow changes, or experiments which don't need a full CI run, label Jan 24, 2024

mvollmer force-pushed the storage-action-redesign branch from efddee6 to 5c026f1 Compare January 24, 2024 13:46

garrett mentioned this pull request Jan 25, 2024

storage: Change order of actions for a blank disk #19888

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mvollmer force-pushed the storage-action-redesign branch from fea8037 to e73add8 Compare February 21, 2024 08:34

mvollmer mentioned this pull request Apr 5, 2024

storage: Improve handling of LUKS backed btrfs #20070

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mvollmer force-pushed the storage-action-redesign branch 3 times, most recently from fa9ef75 to 21ded11 Compare April 5, 2024 14:48

mvollmer requested a review from garrett April 8, 2024 06:42

mvollmer mentioned this pull request Apr 11, 2024

storage: Confirmation before erasing non-empty filesystems #20272

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mvollmer force-pushed the storage-action-redesign branch from c5c38a9 to 19d612a Compare June 17, 2024 14:07

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pkg/storaged/block/erase-dialog.jsx

Comment on lines +27 to +32

import {

dialog_open,

CheckBoxes,

BlockingMessage, TeardownMessage,

init_teardown_usage,

} from "../dialog.jsx";

Check notice

Code scanning / CodeQL

Unused variable, import, function or class Note

Unused import CheckBoxes.

mvollmer force-pushed the storage-action-redesign branch from 56003ba to b128a8e Compare August 28, 2024 08:01

mvollmer and others added 11 commits September 11, 2024 15:22

storage: Move all actions into the menu, except primary ones

2618d8f

And make "Mount" and "Create new logical volume" primary actions.

storage: Move "Format" action one card up

804b79b

Offer it on the "Partition" card instead of the "Filesystem" card, for example. This makes more sense. One formats a partition, but mounts the filesystem.

storage: Move "Lock" and "Unlock" actions to "Encryption" card

4dfcf04

That's where they belong. Filesystems are still automatically locked and unlocked when mounting and unmounting them.

storage: Remove "Unrmatted Data" and "Locked Data" cards

37602fc

They have no actions anymore.

storage: New "Add encryption" action for unformatted blocks

1b188d9

storage: Offer "Format" on "Encryption" card

71603fc

storage: Remove "Reuse existing encryption" option

02854f7

storage: Offer global "Create partition" action

c7f54e3

storage: Move swap creation out of filesystem format dialog

138a1e7

storage: Remove "Overwrite" option in Erase dialog

0f5983c

It's not a secure erase by any means.

mvollmer and others added 4 commits September 11, 2024 15:22

storage: Simplify "Initialize disk" dialog

7d35f12

Use radio buttons, and only offer MBR when it will work.

storage: Polish encryption actions and options a bit

441df7c

FIXUP - rebase conflicts

5875fe9

storage: Omit "/dev/" prefix from device names everywhere

e372e56

mvollmer force-pushed the storage-action-redesign branch from 9728c85 to e372e56 Compare September 11, 2024 12:23

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storage: Action redesign #19882

storage: Action redesign #19882

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storage: Action redesign #19882

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storage: Action redesign #19882

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Action redesign for Storage

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