GNU bug report logs - #43879
Problem with graphical installer

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: Problem with graphical installer
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2020 12:00:36 +0200

If you follow the guided graphical install guix will fail to reconfigure 
afterwards.

Everytime you will reconfigure it will say no space left on device. On 
/boot.

the command to reconfigure i runed was: sudo guix system reconfigure 
/etc/config.scm

Even if it is a new installation. I tried to format the disk seperately 
and then install Guix but the same thing happen.

The only way to work around this bug if you use the graphical install, 
is to choose manually partition the disk at the partition step of the 
installer.

This bug was reproducible everytime in my machine with the latest iso 
yesterday.

iso code: GUIX_i686-LINUX_024B273

Marinus Savoritias

Message #8 received at 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Miguel Ángel Arruga Vivas <rosen644835 <at> gmail.com>
To: Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org>
Cc: 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#43879: Problem with graphical installer
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2020 16:41:32 +0200

Hi Marinius,

Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org> writes:
> If you follow the guided graphical install guix will fail to
> reconfigure afterwards.
>
> Everytime you will reconfigure it will say no space left on device. On
> /boot.

The default installation should not create a separate /boot partition,
only creates /boot/efi for EFI installations when it cannot be already
found.

Could you provide the partition map you had when the error happened?  A
simple df -h would do the trick.

Also, could you confirm the bootloader you were using (grub,
grub-efi...)?

Best regards,
Miguel

Message #11 received at 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org>
To: Miguel Ángel Arruga Vivas <rosen644835 <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#43879: Problem with graphical installer
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2020 21:18:14 +0200

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.

At that point it formatted and I rebooted into the new system. There 
were two partitions there.

One /boot/efi and one root (/). Every time I tried to reconfigure it 
always ended with /boot not having enough space. At that point I went 
into the /boot partition to check what are the files. I curiously found 
that the files from the previous installation of Gentoo were there. Even 
though the installer said that it formatted the disk.

I was using the default that the guided installation uses. I didn't 
change anything there.

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.

Regards,

Marinus Savoritias

On 10/19/20 4:41 PM, Miguel Ángel Arruga Vivas wrote:
> Hi Marinius,
>
> Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org> writes:
>> If you follow the guided graphical install guix will fail to
>> reconfigure afterwards.
>>
>> Everytime you will reconfigure it will say no space left on device. On
>> /boot.
> The default installation should not create a separate /boot partition,
> only creates /boot/efi for EFI installations when it cannot be already
> found.
>
> Could you provide the partition map you had when the error happened?  A
> simple df -h would do the trick.
>
> Also, could you confirm the bootloader you were using (grub,
> grub-efi...)?
>
> Best regards,
> Miguel

Message #14 received at 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Miguel Ángel Arruga Vivas <rosen644835 <at> gmail.com>
To: Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#43879: Problem with graphical installer
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2020 13:04:31 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

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 <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org> 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.

> 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?

Happy hacking!
Miguel

[0001-installer-Report-to-the-user-the-formatted-partition.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

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Message #17 received at 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias <at> oezhayl.dev>
To: Miguel Ángel Arruga Vivas <rosen644835 <at> gmail.com>,
 Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#43879: Problem with graphical installer
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 <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org> 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
> 

Message #20 received at 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mathieu Othacehe <othacehe <at> gnu.org>
To: Miguel Ángel Arruga Vivas <rosen644835 <at> gmail.com>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org>,
 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#43879: Problem with graphical installer
Date: Sun, 01 Nov 2020 20:47:32 +0100

Hello Miguel,

> +  ;; TRANSLATORS: The ~{ and ~} format specifiers are used to iterate the list
> +  ;; of device names of the user partitions that will be formatted.
> +  (run-confirmation-page (format #f (G_ "We are about to write the configured \
> +partition table to the disk and format the partitions listed below.  All its \
> +data will be lost.  Do you wish to continue?~%~{ - ~a~%~}")
> +                                 (map user-partition-file-name
> +                                      (filter user-partition-need-formatting?
> +                                              partitions)))

"All its data will be lost" refers to the hard drive. Maybe we should
say "Their data will be lost", referring to the partitions?

Otherwise, looks nice.

Thanks,

Mathieu

Message #23 received at 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Miguel Ángel Arruga Vivas <rosen644835 <at> gmail.com>
To: Mathieu Othacehe <othacehe <at> gnu.org>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias <at> disroot.org>,
 43879 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#43879: Problem with graphical installer
Date: Mon, 02 Nov 2020 12:17:05 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi Mathieu,

Mathieu Othacehe <othacehe <at> gnu.org> writes:
> "All its data will be lost" refers to the hard drive. Maybe we should
> say "Their data will be lost", referring to the partitions?

Thanks for the review, I overlooked that.

> Otherwise, looks nice.

Pushed as bc9e66f0feb25c77898222cfe5f3ef484dcee95e with the message
changed as suggested.

Happy hacking!
Miguel

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