Missing disk locations, confusing location list
On many systems, Baobab doesn't allow users to see how their disks are being used. As a result, it fails to provide its core functionality. Some examples of what the home screen shows:
Example screenshots
- Single partition for /
- Partitions for / and ~/
- LVM with volumes for / and ~/
- Single Btrfs filesystem, with subvolumes for / and ~/
Issues
- Having the home folder included with the list of devices causes confusion - it becomes unclear what you are looking at. The expectation for a Disk Usage tool is to see disks that have a fixed storage size, but that's not what you get. The inclusion of different types of items makes the list confusing.
- The identity of the locations is hard to figure out. It is hard to get from "localhost-live, /" to "root partition on my internal disk".
- Separate home storage isn't shown in cases 2 and 3, and it's not possible to see how much of the partition/volume has been used or is remaining.
Proposed design changes
- Include all available fixed size storage locations in the list: physical disks, partitions, LVM volumes. (Don't show partitions for /efi, /boot or /swap, though.)
- Don't include mounts which don't have a storage capacity. That includes the "Home folder" location and "remote locations".
- Show more information about each location:
- Add a description which indicates the size and type of location, as well as an ID. For example: "100 GB Partition (vda2)" or "100 GB Logical Volume (home)".
- Add a label which shows if a storage location is internal