GNU bug report logs - #30312
documentation: misleading EFI partitioning instructions

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From: ludo <at> gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)
To: Marius Bakke <mbakke <at> fastmail.com>
Cc: boskovits <at> gmail.com, Ricardo Wurmus <ricardo.wurmus <at> mdc-berlin.de>, 30312 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#30312: documentation: misleading EFI partitioning instructions
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2018 15:55:33 +0200

Hi Marius!

Marius Bakke <mbakke <at> fastmail.com> skribis:

>> Ricardo Wurmus <ricardo.wurmus <at> mdc-berlin.de> skribis:
>>
>>> Finally, it is not clear where the efi partition should be mounted.
>>> Should it be /mnt/boot/efi?  If so, should the configuration file
>>> specify “/mnt/boot/efi” as the target?  Or should it be “/boot/efi”?

[...]

> I've tried to address the latter issue in <https://bugs.gnu.org/31959>.
>
> I tested it by installing in a virtual machine with the ESP mounted at
> "/mnt/boot/efi", using a Guix snapshot that included that commit.  It
> also works on my installed system with the ESP on /boot/efi.

So with #31959 applied, users can mount to /boot/efi or /mnt/boot/efi,
and both will work, right?

I think #31959 can be applied.

> From 28b1aff2f0a78e7736c214880bbcfce1c0135346 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Marius Bakke <mbakke <at> fastmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2018 11:59:51 +0200
> Subject: [PATCH] doc: Use a consistent partitioning scheme.
>
> * doc/guix.texi (Preparing for Installation): Consistently refer to the ESP as
> /dev/sda1; root file system as /dev/sda2; and swap as /dev/sda3.

Go for it!

> I'm not sure how to best resolve the first issue.  I suppose we can
> mention that if unsure which GRUB to use, the user can test whether
> "/sys/firmware/efi" exists on the live image.
> 
> We could also make it clearer when booting whether the installer is in
> "UEFI" mode or not.

Maybe ‘guix system’ could warn, but I’m not sure how to do that in a
clean way.

Or at the very least we can document it.  Perhaps we need to add a “UEFI
vs. BIOS” section in the manual.

Ludo’.

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