I am trying to test out Tumbleweed coming from Ubuntu 24.
I am running into problems for the install.
Initially, I tried to use an USB enclosure with an NVME drive to test without affecting my main nvme drives. I got an error that it didn’t have permission when it started to do the partitioning (when I made all choices and it started the install).
So I grabbed a USB cable for an Sata SSD, and ran into the exact same problem.
Then I tried to install on my main drive while keeping my /home intact. I am currently using a single BTRFS partition with @ and @home sub volumes, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to wipe / while preserving /home.
I have multiple backups of /home, so it’s not a major concern to recover it, but I am trying to figure out the best way to do this for my future self and if I want to move off it in the future. I’m starting to feel a physical partition and not a sub volume is the only way to make this work painlessly, which doesn’t help me now but would in the future.
There is. Using exert partitioning during installation, you can do almost any configuration. E.g. diverge from the current default (where /home is not on a separate partition, but is a Btrfs sub volume in the Btrfs / file system) and use an existing file system for it (without “formatting” it).
I had a hard time figuring this out. If I tried to mount the sub volumes, it just gave me an option to edit the name. If I selected the disk and edited that, it wanted me to wipe the entire disk, or it complained it wouldn’t be a safe install as it wouldn’t wipe / and it would put it at risk, and then it would complain there was no / mount (as it was @).
I tried using mount as / but then it complained about being unsafe like above.
If I deleted all sub volumes, snapshots instead of @home, it would complain it didn’t have a / and it couldn’t install like that.
It was really confusing, and I couldn’t figure out the correct way to maintain a single partition with sub volumes @ and @home for / and /home so I wouldn’t have to decide how much to give / and /home while still allowing me to save /home between installs/distro hops.
You booted from it? (When I have to ask for every detail, this will take some time. We do not look over your shoulder).
I am not quite following what you are telling here. What you say about “tried to mount”, etc. all seem to be things after installation. But you should do this during installation.
When you get the screen that informs you about the things it is going to do during installation, there is a partitioning suggestion. When you click on that, you can change there until it fits you. The only thing you have to do there is choose the partition with your present /home directory (it should then already have filled in all the parameters like file system type), then configure it to be mounted on /home and take care that you see it is not formatted. That is all as far as I can remember.
BTW, using user’s home directories while hopping between distros can give strange results to those users. E.g. applications (that includes Desktop Environments) may have different versions and may interpret, miss, add or even change configuration parameters for those users.
Sorry, I thought it was obvious I booted from it if it is an ISO.
Yes, I tried to do this during install, I could only get @home to be @home, I couldn’t find anyway to specify it as /home, it would show @home but mount point would be blank.
I was only able to mount / as it was a single partition with sub volumes, but both @ and @home didn’t have mount points listed, despite setting it to mount as / and it complained it could have problems if it isn’t not wiping /.
No way could I find to have it do a clean install on / but not touch /home. I tried editing the disk itself, I tried adding it to btrfs and modifying it that way, but everything I did ending up complaning it had no mount points and it can’t install.
The only option I could find that I think would work, if I let it delete everything on the disk and start from scratch.
That is correct. You cannot wipe out btrfs filesystem containing subvolume while magically keeping this subvolume.
You confuse filesystem device and filesystem mount point. It is most certainly possible to preserve whatever is mounted on /home as long as this “whatever” is a device separate from the device you are formatting.
You are still mesmerized by what is on / partition. I tried to explain that you should select the existing file system that you want to use as /home and tell the installer that it should use that for /home .
Maybe you should first show us what the present situation is so we can name partitions by name.
Again, what is the “it” there.
What is normally done is using a DVD or a USB memory stick with the installation ISO burnt (in the case of the DVD) or copied to the device by e.g. dd (in the case of the USB stick). Insert it in the system and then boot from it (hoping that the BIOS allows that).
I see no reason for the permission problem when you do that, thus my stress on the exact way of what you are doing.
It’s a 4TB nvme with one partition and two sub volumes @ and @home which are mounted as / and /home. In the installer though it only sees the sub volume and will not pick up the mount points. I can only seem to select mounting the entire volume as a whole in the installer.
Are you saying to select the entire disk and have it mount as /home? Even though it is @ (/) and @home (/home) sub volumes? I can’t seem to select just @home to mount as /home
I’m confused at what you are using to store the ISO image??? The iso is boot ready and normally with a USB you copy the image without modification to the USB (not to a partition on the USB). You seem to indicate your are not using a USB but some other drive device???
You are not. Until now you gave no precise and exact, step by step description of what you did. Nor where that ISO is stored on, or how you booted from it. Nor did you provide us with the listings of your mass storage devices/partitions/filesystems. This was all asked already several times.
How else would I use a ISO? I understand it to be pretty standard to put it on a usb, use ventoy, or some way of booting it. I would think this would be known.
I said a few times the layout, I have multiple NVME, but for this purpose, I am using one NVME with one partition (BTRFS) and two sub volumes, I said this like 3-4 times. @ as / and @home as /home. I just assumed the ISO was understood to be booted off a USB, I don’t know of any other way it would be used (unless of course in a vm, which I am not doing).
I honestly don’t understand where I haven’t been clear.
You are talking all the time about an existing partition with file system for /home that you used in an earlier installation. Where is it? Not in this vague story.
And the most important thing is that we believe no stories. We believe computer facts. Thus when asked for your mass-storage layout, you should provide the commands suggested with their output. When not, we quit.
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 4096 2957311 2953216 1.4G EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 2957312 7814032064 7811074753 3.6T Linux filesystem
