TW and Leap 15.3: now it is possible to format EFI system partition with FAT32 during install

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Settings for EFI system partition (EFS) formats during OS installation have been changed:

When proposing a new EFI partition in x86

  • when aiming for the recommended size
    • requires /boot/efi it to use FAT32
    • requires /boot/efi to be at least 256 MiB
    • requires /boot/efi to be at most 512 MiB
  • when aiming for the minimal size
    • does not enforce FAT32 or 16 (FAT size will be decided by mkfs.vfat)
    • requires /boot/efi to be at least 128 MiB
    • requires /boot/efi to be at most 512 MiB

Previously FAT32 was available only when user sets EFS partition greater than 512 MiB.

Bugs: https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1177358 and 1170625 – UEFI: ESP Partition is formatted with FAT16 instead of FAT32 .

Additionally some enhancements could be made: 1177358 – EFI system partition: VFAT or FAT16 or FAT12 or FAT32?

When proposing a new EFI partition in x86
…

  • when aiming for the minimal size
    • does not enforce FAT32 or 16 (FAT size will be decided by USER)
    • requires /boot/efi to be at least 32 MiB
    • requires /boot/efi to be at most 512 MiB
2

This should all be possible with the current install.

Requirement:
The BIOS should already be capable of, and configured to be UEFI.
Target disk for installation must have free, unpartitioned space (yes, either the entire disk must have no partitions or if there are partition should not be the entire disk)

Boot to the openSUSE installation
The installation should identify the disks in your system, scan them and identify the free, unpartitioned space, and identify the EFI boot configuration
The installation will then propose a disk layout which will include a sufficienntly large EFI partition formatted with FAT32, a root partition formatted with BTRFS and a SWAP partition.
If you don’t want to accept the defaults, you have options to either modify the proposed layout or enter the Expert Partitioner where you start with a completely blank configuration and can set up anything you wish.

TSU

3

No.
With Leap 15.2 and earlier (and earlier TW) you cannot select exact type of FAT, you can only set “vfat”, then mkfs.vfat decides it by itself.

Try to get FAT32 with 256 MiB partition with Leap or earlier TW.
Read bug reports.