How to install on UEFI with LVM (encrypted root)

English Install/Boot/Login
1

When selecting “Create LVM Based Proposal” and “Encrypt Volume Group” in the “Disk” part of the DVD installer the installation overview says “Because of the partitioning, the bootloader cannot be installed properly”.

The release notes mention this problem:

3.6. Crypted LVM in UEFI Mode Needs /boot Partition

This only affects installations in UEFI mode.

In the partitioning proposal when checking the option to use LVM (which is required for full disk encryption) YaST does not create a separate /boot partition. That means kernel and initrd end up in the (potentially encrypted) LVM container, inaccessible to the boot loader. To get full disk encryption when using UEFI, partitioning has to be done manually.

I’ve tried adding an additional /boot partition (so that I have both a /boot/efi and a /boot partition), but the same error remains. The expert partitioner says:

Warning: With your current setup, your installation will encounter problems when booting, because the disk on which your /boot partition is located does not contain a GPT disk label.

It will probably not be possible to boot such a setup.

If you need to use this disk for installation, you should destroy the disk label in the expert partitioner.

Really use this setup?

I can’t find any way to “destroy the disk label” in the expert partitioner, and I’m not really sure what I can do about this warning.

Using UEFI isn’t a hugely important issue for me, but I’m still curious to try it out. Is it possible to get this working somehow?

2

You just can’t have both.

3

I installed in an encrypted LVM. I did not run into the problems that you are having.

I used both “/boot” and “/boot/efi”. I set both to be formatted by the installer. I think I set “/boot” to use “ext2” for the file system. And “/boot/efi” has to use vfat.

Here’s what I might have done differently:

I booted using the live KDE image (on a USB). Actually, it was the live KDE from RC2, but that probably doesn’t matter.

I created the partitioning I wanted using “gdisk” on that live KDE boot. And then I created the LVM running Yast partitioner from the live KDE boot.

I then used the 12.3 DVD image (actually written to a USB) for the final install. I gather that there might be some brokenness in the live KDE installer for 12.3 final (not tested, but reported by others).

I’m not familiar enough with “gpt disk label” to understand your message. Perhaps the fact that I used “gdisk” got that right automatically.

Is your disk “gpt” partitioned or MBR partitioned (“fdisk” partitioned)? I don’t think you need to have gpt partitioning, but I’m not certain on that.

Hmm, google turned up a Fedora forum thread that seems to discuss “gpt disk label”:

From a brief scan through that thread, it does seem to be a matter of whether you are using gpt partitioning or fdisk partitioning. If the disk is otherwise empty, then you could delete all partitions in fdisk, and then recreate them with gdisk.

There’s also another possibility. If you use “elilo” for booting, then you should be able to manage without “/boot” (also not tested).

I have both “/boot” and “/boot/lilo”, so that seems to be mistaken.

4

I refer to

where the OP seems to talk about partitions instead of directories.

5

I wrote that wrongly.

I should have said that I have both “/boot” and “/boot/efi”

Both are partitions. This was a second hard drive that I installed in a Win8 box. The drive was initially empty. I created both
“/dev/sdb1” and “/dev/sdb2” at 500M each, and a larger “/dev/sdb3” for the LVM. The “sdb1” is flagged as an EFI partition (code ef00 in gdisk), and the “sdb2” partition is flagged as linux (type code 8300 in gdisk). The install mounted sdb1 as /boot/efi, and mounted sdb2 as /boot, with the rest of opensuse going in the encrypted LVM.

6

Of course you can. Do not spread total nonsense.

7

Did you try to ignore it and continue installation? There were reports that it will actually work, and it is error message that is misleading.

8

Thank you for the compliments.

9

I, too, have this setup. /boot is ext2 I think, and /boot/efi is vfat or
whatever the lousy thing wanted. I bought the computer new and it came
with another OS, so first thing I did was use fdisk (boot into the
installer, then press Ctrl+Alt+F1, then type fdisk /dev/sda (where
/dev/sda is your hard drive)) to nuke all partitions. It turns out that
was probably a mistake since then the openSUSE installer didn’t want to
create partitions on its own. Still, if I went into custom partitioning
and used the expert stuff in there it just magically created a partition
table for me and then I manually created /boot/efi and /boot, I think in
that order on the disk itself, followed by the rest of my disk as LVM.

I hope the installer will be a bit more helpful in the future. This whole
“It isn’t right so it won’t work, but we won’t tell you how to fix it”
stuff is a little bit backwards. I’m sure things will improve, but for
now just do things the manual way. When I get to the other box I’ll try
to respond with the layout exactly in case it helps others… basically
150 MB partitions for those first two.

Good luck.