I am looking at fresh install of leap 16 using installation media. My concern is about storage setup strategies agama is proposing. It wants to wipe out everything. I am familiar with how to set up expert partitioning options with Yast installer but can’t find way to setup a customized storage plan in agama. fdisk of my system is below:
(base) tom@mydesktop: ~ $ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 3.64 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 sectors
Disk model: TOSHIBA HDWE140
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 04F040ED-92C0-4D0B-B201-2192DE39FD0C
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 34 34 1 512B unknown
/dev/sda2 35 35 1 512B unknown
/dev/sda3 36 36 1 512B unknown
/dev/sda4 37 37 1 512B unknown
/dev/sda5 946567168 948310015 1742848 851M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda6 948310016 952530943 4220928 2G Linux swap
/dev/sda7 952530944 1259751423 307220480 146.5G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda8 1259751424 7814035455 6554284032 3.1T Linux filesystem
/dev/sda9 2048 923647 921600 450M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda10 923648 1128447 204800 100M EFI System
/dev/sda11 1128448 1161215 32768 16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda12 1161216 946565864 945404649 450.8G Microsoft basic data
I have dual boot. I want to leave windows partitions as they are (sada12 and others). I want to also leave my linux /home partition (sda8) as is and especially not to format it. I want to install new leap 16.0 in sda7 and keep formatting at ext4.
I just can’t see the mechanism to get to a customized (used to be called expert) configuration option. It must be there.
Strange document. It talks about “Using Existing Partitions” but does not say how to get to that step as far as I can see. If you can get there it does look like the options I am looking for.
I have the devel Agama for TW and Slowroll opened as I write this to the initial storage screen. Whether it’s materially different from Agama for Leap I can’t remember. Under “Use disk…” are:
New partitions will be created for / and swap ↔
All content will be deleted ↓
That’s a semi-visible little minimalist select list “arrow” or button beside “deleted” that opens up another list:
Delete current content √
Shrink existing partitions
Use available space
Custom
Something other than the selected first item needs to be selected to avoid Agama’s obvious intended destruction of everything already there. First choosing custom opens a list of partitions with every last one of them preselected to delete, but on return after going back to review to check out the “Use available space” option, they are all changed to do not modify. It looks like you should be able to get what you want fiddling long enough between “Use available” and “Custom”. I managed it several days ago.
@tckosvic It’s in the dropdown(s) to delete (trash can) a partition, or select a device and a partition etc?
For example, select /dev/sda10 and in the left hand window type in /boot/efi and select to not format, same for the other(s). Make sure you read the notice about the other partitions, select as appropriate and select the “do not modify” box.
There might be available (unpartitioned) space. Perhaps the disk is empty, perhaps you’ve freed up space with another partitioning system (for example, Windows or another Linux distribution), or perhaps you reserved it when installing another system.
There might be free but unavailable space. You have another system that you may or may not want to keep, or there are partitions of any kind that you may or may not want to keep. Some or all of these existing partitions have both free and occupied space.
Agama uses a flexible approach. Let’s say it partitions your disk into / and swap without asking. To add a partition for /home, you simply click “add partition,” and that’s it, Agama takes care about sizes. Some people are seriously saying this is difficult.
By default, Agama installs the system using the entire disk. If that’s not what you want, all you have to do is tell it how to obtain the necessary available space. Do you want it to resize the partitions? Do you want it to resize (one home partition, for example) but not another (a root partition, for example)? Then tell it what you want.
It’s absurdly simple for anyone who has ever used a drop-down menu.
It was my way of saying it is rude to initialize to wiping the disk totally clean to start from scratch when more than one operating system is apparently present. 12 partitions as OP mentioned strongly suggests more than one OS present even if what they contain is not determinable.
You either have enough space or you don’t. By default, the entire disk is for the system. If you don’t want that, you tell it what you want to do. No problem here.
“Use available space” to me suggests freespace, not existing partitions, thus partitioning needed, not 100% prepared in advance, as is always done here. Thus I am induced to choose “Custom” as initial choice.
Selecting “Custom” as initial selection doesn’t eliminate the destruction proposal — It retains “destroy existing”, IME, for all partitions.
IMO, what the default actually is should be predetermined before the partitioner is presented, according to whether the putative target(s) look(s) like more than one OS is present, or even anything is already present. Defaulting to total destruction is just plain wrong.
@mrmazda Time to give it all a rest, it is what it is, like I said in another post, the horse has bolted, likewise there is no right or wrong, yesterday is history.
Not every one doesn’t multi-boot with lots of different operating systems, likely more dual boot… I had no issues with my on the road laptop (dual boot), it gave me a warning on what it was going to do…
The problem has been solved for the OP, so lets focus on the present and future.
I have installed maybe 40 linux, bsd, unix, solaris, and “linux from scratch” developed in a leap 15…6 host and I have never had any issue with an installer. Perhaps, since they were vm 's, any hardware issues were masked.
Due to w10 and w11 issues, there is projected to be an army of potential new users trying linux. I hope this nvidia driver issue can be fixed sooner than 16.1. A new person testing and not being able to get the installer going would just walk away. A new person with nvidia proprietary drivers will not be an infrequent occurrence.
For a test, I am changing to “nouveau” driver and will restart the installer in bios. Will see if agama functions as planned.
@tckosvic unless your passing the nvidia device through to the VM, no. I did a test install with a VM and Nvidia passed through, didn’t add nomodeset, screen was all funky.
But (always a but )… I do all my installs via my local desktop, just plug in the USB device , boot the system I’m installing Leap 16.0, then back to my desktop to complete the install at https://agama.local/. Likewise I set an installer password, so can also ssh onto the remote system if needed.
If your installing multiple machines, then profiles are the way to go, however different disk layouts will always be an issue.
If this wasn’t so important to the integrity of my system, I would do some fresh install testing but I cannot take the chance. I am long term Yast installer user and been doing “expert partitioning” for a while.
My agama screen is garbaled some, e.g., “change …” dialogue only shows “cha” where the remainder of the phrase is covered. I am perhaps not seeing other needed click points.
I need a step by step instruction to allow each partition to be modified or left alone. By modified I don’t mean resize anything. I want to select format, file system, mount point, etc.
I’d like to see a final status summary of all partitions for what I have selected before I pull the trigger.
I can only find a bunch of not complete descriptions of “agama custom storage setup” references. Not any step by step instructions set. Everyone just says it is just same as Yast partitioner but I am not seeing that. If I am missing some key reference please point me.
)… I do all my installs via my local desktop, just plug in the USB device , boot the system I’m installing Leap 16.0, then back to my desktop to complete the install at