The Tumbleweed DVD installer ignores the first drive (dev/sda) in my two-drive machine. It consistently uses only /dev/sdb.
I want to use the all of /dev/sda for ‘/’, with BTRFS, and all of /dev/sdb ofr ‘/home’, with XFS.
The LEAP installer opted to use only /dev/sda/. I deleted /home on that drive, recreated it on the second drive, and then enlarged ‘/’ on sda to encompass the entire drive.
I cannot do that with the TW installer. If I delete the partition table it wants for /dev/sdb and try to create ‘/’ on /dev/sda, it complains that I must first create a 1-mb bios_grub partition. However, I find no way to create a 1mb partition and no way to set it as bios_grub.
This happens when you are using GPT partitioning. If your system does UEFI booting, it is better to use that. But if you are using legacy booting with GPT partitioning, then you need a bios_grub partition. You can create one with the “gdisk” command which should be in systems since 13.1 or earlier, and should be on live media for those systems. I don’t know if “gdisk” is on the DVD installer. If not, then perhaps “fdisk” can be used, though I have never tried creating a bios_grub partition with “fdisk”.
Note that when it says a 1MB partition, that really means “at least 1MB”. It is okay for it to be larger.
Using “gdisk”, use “p” to print (display) the partition table.
Use “x” to switch to the expert menu.
In the expert menu, use “l” to change the sector alignment. Change it to 1.
Next use “m” to return to the main menu.
Now use “n” to create a new partition. For that new partition, use 34 as the starting sector and 2047 as the ending sector. That will put the new partition in the otherwise unused space between the partition table and the first ordinary partition. Set the partition type code to “ef02” – that makes it a “bios boot partition” (otherwise known as a “bios grub partition”).
Alternatively, you can just add an additional partition at the end, and make it as small as possible (but at least 1MB). Then set its type code to “ef02”.
Yes, sda was GPT (dunno why), and it’s legacy booting. Neither drive is typically set as GPT, though. Switching it back to MSDOS eliminated the bios-grub prompt. I was able to created ‘/’ on sda as BTRFS, and /home as XFS on sdb. However,the installer complained that subvolumes on sda were incorrectly shadowed. I’m in the process of trying to find out what that means.
This is all premised on the notion that BTRFS offers a typical desktop user advantages Ext4 does not.
All’s well: I removed the partition tables from both drives, made sure neither was GPT, and reinstalled. No complaints from the partitioner: Deleted home on sda, created it on sdb, and resized swap and / on sda.
Some people like Btrfs because if the snapshot feature (which you canswitch off, thus no need to use it), which alows them to undo package installs very easy. But if that is a typical desktop vs. laptop or vs. computer room system advantage I do not know.