Ubuntu's ZFS Installation Work Will Continue Into The 20.04 LTS Cycle

With Ubuntu 19.10 one of the changes we have been looking forward to the most is the planned Ubuntu desktop installation support atop ZFS as a root file-system and Canonical's related work around the new ZSYS daemon. It's looking like the basic ZFS root installation support will make it in time for next month's Ubuntu 19.10 release but more advanced installation features won't be ready in time.

As of writing and even with the Ubuntu 19.10 beta freeze upon us, the option for installing the Ubuntu desktop atop a ZFS root file-system isn't yet in place for Ubiquity. There were some disagreements over the zfs_install code for Ubiquity with its design. Revised code is now being worked on.

With this week's Ubuntu desktop team update the status was shared by Jean Baptiste Lallement as:

ZFS in ubiquity: spent a fair amount of time trying to implement the new design. Failed and went with an alternative approach by adding an experimental option on the guided partitioning page. This will be revisited for 20.04 with an additional dialog for advanced and experimental partitioning options.

So for Ubuntu 19.10 next month a ZFS option is expected from the default guided partitioning area while the advanced ZFS partitioning features would need to wait for the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS cycle.

At least though the limited exposure in Ubuntu 19.10 should help in vetting their ZFS On Linux support ahead of next year's Long Term Support release.