A month or so back I ran an install of Gecko MATE on my '12 MacPro and all went well. I shared a /home folder with a prior install of LM MATE, another user name as per recommended here on the forum . . . and I formatted it as “ext4” . . . . And, I liked it; so after fiddling with YAST and getting the hang of “su” instead of “sudo” . . . I thought I’d go for the mainline LEAP install. I set aside a 50 GB partition for the filesystem and I even formatted it to the official choice “btrfs”??? to help give the installer a “hint” as to where I wanted it to go . . . and then it got “crazy.”
It seemed like in Gecko the installer was using GParted or something basic and/or “universal” like that to do a “custom” install, but the LEAP installer was almost another “language” for someone who has done a fair amount of linux installs . . . . The problem was that the “suggested” install was showing that LEAP was going to be installed into almost all of the other partitions that I already had OS’s installed in . . . the only one it wasn’t selecting was the one I wanted to hit, the “btrfs” formatted partition. I tried to do “advanced” but there were so many “subvolumes” showing up I couldn’t take a chance on pulling the trigger . . . and it didn’t seem to offer any simple way to select the partitions that I wanted to use . . . .
I had no choice but to hit “back” and back out of the install . . . right now I don’t have any empty HD that I can use to just let LEAP decide how to fill it or where it wants to put its “subvolumes” . . . . Wha happen mon? Seems like night and day compared to Gecko . . . is that the way it is? : - ) LEAP appears to be very complicated on the install side, GECKO went smoothly, no hiccups or burps.
Alrighty, thanks for the fast reply and the suggestion . . . that’s what I did on the Gecko side, and it went like a normal linux style install . . . . I’ll post back when I’ve given that approach a try . . . prolly a couple few days . . . .
When the install does not see unpartitioned space to use and you have multiple OS you really need to take control to tell it what you want. Software is not good at reading minds
While I cannot say if the Gecko installer is different, Gecko does use a different configuration so a bunch of things look different from the “official” openSUSE LEAP.
That said, you can do what you need by the following procedure.
When at the “Install proposal” screen, choose “Expert Partitioner”
Then select the disk you want to install to, you should see all the partitions and any blank space (if not so, try “Rescan devices”);
Select the partition you created for /root, right-click on it and choose “Edit”: then you should be able to do whatever you want, e.g. choose the filesystem (me too recommending EXT4), the mount point (/)…
You can do so for any other partition (e.g. a /home partition to be shared with other systems…, a swap partition or whatever you need).
You should be able even to create new partitions if you have blank space available and the partition table allows that.
Alternatively, you could choose “Import mount points” when you plan on replacing an already installed system with the new one, preserving the settings (e.g. a fresh install of a new release).
Feel free to ask if the above is not clear enough.
Have Fun!
@GGT: Indeed; that was the question, how to “take control” of the situation . . . also, the space wasn’t “unpartitioned” . . . it was partitioned and formatted, but the installer was “proposing” to install over and/or into most of all the other partitions, except the one I wanted–not even mentioned in the proposed install–so I tried “expert” but couldn’t figure out how to select the partitions I wanted . . . in stark contrast to the Gecko install, where I also used “expert” and had no issues whatsoever . . . . Hence, the question . . . .
@OrsoB:
Thanks for the details . . . as mentioned above I had no problem getting to “expert” . . . but I probably missed the “right-click” on the partition list name . . . as usually in GParted it is “double-click” to edit the formatting and mount points . . . I was frantically trying stuff out, but possibly didn’t get the message to “click-right” . . . .
And, thanks for the “import mount points” . . . might be running this install over the olde LM install . . . would that work to erase the old data and then format and install the new? Or, better to erase the partition first and then use the empty partition as the target? I have in the past used the OSX Disk Utility to write a bunch of zeros over the old partition before doing a fresh install of another filesystem/OS . . . but, it takes time.
Not sure to understand what you mean by “erase the old data”…
Normally when you “Import mount points” you get a mount point for /root (system packages) and a mount point for /home (user data): I would normally select “Format” (to EXT4 maybe) for the /root partition and “DO NOT FORMAT” for the /home partition, so user data remains there.
No need to blank the /root partition in advance, the installer does it all.
And please BACKUP ALL IMPORTANT DATA first, just in case something goes wrong…
Thanks for the further details . . . the data that needs to be backed up usually is . . . . I’ll report back when I’ve had time to play about with this . . . .
Alrighty . . . was able to get it done . . . ran the install and it booted itself into the new system and everything seems to be “OK.” This time the installer seemed to have a “better” proposal, as I had pre-formatted the partition I intended to use . . . it got the root partition, but “missed” the shared /home folder option. So I did use “expert partitioner” to get those details set . . . and it went well, although perhaps because I checked “online repository” the install seemed to take quite awhile? I was anticipating a “fast” install considering the large file on the DVD, but it seemed to be using the DVD for some packages, and then “downloading” for others and my dsl connection is a 2MB or less . . . took about an hour for the install.
I went with “Gnome” DE, spent a few minutes fiddling with it, I like Gnome for the “floating feet” screensaver, but the install didn’t seem to include any screensaver? And, I also couldn’t find how to “suspend” the system? It just has “lock” but the display remains on with the image of the lightbulb, rather than the system and display going to “sleep”? Gecko MATE has “suspend” and the fabulous “floating feet” screensaver . . . are those items something that can be added to Gnome DE? I think the “Gnome classic” is the more simple DE that I prefer, but didn’t have time to try the “IceWM”??? or whatever the other options are for DE sessions that were listed–haven’t been able to explore the LEAP 42.2 system fully, but seems fine. Thanks for the assist, y’ all.
That’s expected, the existing /home partition looks just as an ordinary “data” partition and the system cannot read your mind… it would simply default to “not using a separate /home partition” and use a /home branch in the /root partition instead.
and it went well, although perhaps because I checked “online repository” the install seemed to take quite awhile? I was anticipating a “fast” install considering the large file on the DVD, but it seemed to be using the DVD for some packages, and then “downloading” for others and my dsl connection is a 2MB or less . . . took about an hour for the install.
That’s not too bad, unless you install to an SSD an “offline” install would take, say, some 30 minutes on a 5-year old machine; but now you have a fully updated system, with maybe 1GB or so of updates already installed, plus the “extra” packages not included in the DVD…
I went with “Gnome” DE, spent a few minutes fiddling with it, I like Gnome for the “floating feet” screensaver, but the install didn’t seem to include any screensaver? And, I also couldn’t find how to “suspend” the system? It just has “lock” but the display remains on with the image of the lightbulb, rather than the system and display going to “sleep”? Gecko MATE has “suspend” and the fabulous “floating feet” screensaver . . . are those items something that can be added to Gnome DE? I think the “Gnome classic” is the more simple DE that I prefer, but didn’t have time to try the “IceWM”??? or whatever the other options are for DE sessions that were listed–haven’t been able to explore the LEAP 42.2 system fully, but seems fine. Thanks for the assist, y’ all.
Not using screensavers here, not of any use beyond graphical amusement unless you still have a CRT. But suspend is available in the control panel (upper right corner): just press the left “ALT” key and watch the “PowerButton” to become a “PauseButton”
Have fun with your updated system!
Thanks for the tip on using “ALT” key to have the Power button become “Pause.” And, yes, the floating feet screensaver is indeed just for “graphical amusement” . . . we must have our amusements to stay “healthy” . . . . And, sure, the installer can’t read my mind, I was posting this data because in comparison to my first post where the installer was “proposing” to install across almost All of the partitions . . . seemingly indiscriminately to whether data/OS was already there, this time it seemed to have a “better” understanding that there was stuff in many of the partitions . . . this time it had it more “dialed in” . . . .
Thanks also for the clarification on the distinction . . . clearly they are indeed different . . . it’s not too important, but I was/am used to the “GParted” style installer, which shows the partitions and also shows which partitions have data using space . . . which once there are multiples of partitions going, and the numbers change when the data gets erased . . . the Yast installer wasn’t showing me which partition was “used” and which “empty” . . . had to reboot into another OS with GParted to get the current data . . . . If I recall the Calameres installer might have shown me that data . . . install went fast and it went well, etc.
Thanks for the replies, appreciate this forum for the fast response to questions,
Keep in mind that you can install GParted from the repos for when you wish to do other partitioning duties or just refresh your understanding of the visual representation of your partitioning in the future.
I have it installed, and I use the Yast Partitioner for some things, GParted for others.
Thanks for that, for some ubuntu distros I’ve had to add GParted back into the install, as it seems to be removed by the installer at the end . . . . I’m still getting used to the differences with Yast and synaptic, which I’m very familiar with . . . so in OpenSUSE I’m still leaving it all “stock” and seeing what’s what before I start “manipulating” it . . . .
Thought I’d piggy-back a follow-up newbie-ish question here, and if I need to move it or try in another sub-forum I’m happy to do that. So, I kind of like doing basic stuff on the console, like updates/upgrades . . . and/or “patches” . . . as well as installing packages that I know the “install name” for . . . as per a suggestion here I used zypper to install GParted . . . .
Today, as part of my exploration of my new LEAP install I thought I’d try to add the KDE option to give some variety to the GNOME choices . . . I looked through Yast, which I still don’t entirely grasp, and I saw that the KDE desktop was called “plasma5-desktop” . . . and Yast listed quite a number of dependencies, including it looked like korean language packages, which I work at a korean school, but don’t need that package . . . so I went to Terminal and I ran su> #zypper install plasma5-desktop . . . and it showed about 200MB of data and numerous dependencies to install . . . and it snagged them and then “installed” 309 packages . . . I rebooted and the log in session only showed the previous GNOME choices . . . I shut down and then cold-booted, same thing . . . . I ran “zypper patch” and it installed a few patches and updates . . . logged out . . . so far no Plasma5 desktop???
I’m typing this in GNOME classic DE, so far that doesn’t seem to have been messed with . . . Yast shows that the “Plasma5-desktop” package is “installed” . . . but, no go as far as logging into a Plasma5 session? Do I have to choose between them? In the past in various linux OS’s I have had multiple DEs installed and was able to log out and into the other sessions . . . some were known to not be “compatible” and would mess with the packages . . . I’m assuming that in OpenSUSE the two offered DEs would be “friendly” to each other?
In Yast Software Management, select the “Patterns” view.
There should be a pattern for KDE. Actually, there will be two - one for KDE base and one for KDE desktop. Select both. That will pull in all of the needed packages for KDE.
OK, I found that and saw that there are a number of options there, besides KDE, so that is fine. I started the KDE process and the bottom line showed “828 MB” to upgrade . . . right now I don’t have time to sit for that download . . . which apparently would be on top of the 200 MB ± that were already downloaded?
My question is . . . what happened to the “zypper install plasma5-desktop” . . . install? That only downloads some of the packages, but, not enough for a complete DE? Still, it does seem like 1 GB of packages on top of the base LEAP install . . . does that seem “high”??? Or, that is the nature of KDE, lots of features, so lots of data??
