Subject: Re: bug#43879: Problem with graphical installer

From: Marinus Savoritias <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2020 15:52:00 +0100

On 10/31/20 1:04 PM, Miguel Ángel Arruga Vivas wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I CC the list, as we are currently on freeze, but this might require a
> fix or at least a big explanation somewhere, my bad for not answering
> soon enough. :-(
> 
> Marinus Savoritias <[email-masked]> writes:
>> Hi,
>>
>> The steps that I followed were:
>>
>> 1. Use guided installation using full disk with graphical installer
>>
>> 2. I selected use entire disk and not a separate /home
>>
>> 3. It gave me the warning that its going to format the disk.
> 
> Testing this I think this warning may be the confusion source.  "All
> data will be lost" doesn't include in this case the old ESP partition
> (the one in /boot/efi) as that one is not removed when it exists.
> 
>> [...] I curiously found that the files from the previous installation
>> of Gentoo were there. Even though the installer said that it formatted
>> the disk.
> 
> To clarify this I propose the attached patch.

Agreed on this part. I think there should be a clarification.

> 
>> I was using the default that the guided installation uses. I didn't
>> change anything there.
> 
> Probably it's too late to add new options to that list, or a new
> selection step when the partitioning is guided asking if esp should be
> kept, as the tests have to be updated too.
> 
>> At that point as I said I formatted the disk separately to make sure
>> it was properly formatted this time but the same thing happened.
>>
>> The only way I could work around the bug was by selecting the manual
>> partitioning instead of guided in the graphical installer.
> 
> I'm throwing a guess here: did you format the root partition but not
> /boot/efi the second time?

If you mean the workaround I found in the end no. I deleted both of the 
partitions. I also deleted both partitions when I tried to do it 
separately from the installation.

That is what makes this bug so interesting. Because even if you delete 
both the partitions with parted. And then start the graphical guix 
installation it doesn't solve anything.

The only way to solve it is to format both the partitions manually with 
the installer.

Marinus

> Happy hacking!
> Miguel