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Debian "Bookworm" Installation

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  Debian "Bookworm" Installation Peter Hillier-Brook <phb@hbsys.plus.com> - 2022-04-14 01:20 +0200
    Re: Debian "Bookworm" Installation David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2022-04-14 02:20 +0200
      Re: Debian "Bookworm" Installation David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2022-04-14 06:20 +0200
      Re: Debian "Bookworm" Installation Nathanael Schweers <NSchweers@mailbox.org> - 2022-04-14 08:30 +0200
    Re: Debian "Bookworm" Installation Christian Britz <cbritz@t-online.de> - 2022-04-14 11:00 +0200
      Re: Debian "Bookworm" Installation Peter Hillier-Brook <phb@hbsys.plus.com> - 2022-04-17 12:10 +0200
    Re: Debian "Bookworm" Installation Steve McIntyre <steve@einval.com> - 2022-04-14 17:30 +0200

#247208 — Debian "Bookworm" Installation

Hello All,

I've just attempted to Install "Bookworm" to a USB stick and it went 
mostly to plan, apart from the fact that it won't boot. However that's 
not the issue at hand: I can't find a way to persuade  the installer's 
partitioner to use GPT instead of the MS-DOS partitioning scheme.

Anyone with thoughts (Brian?) about this?

Best wishes.

Peter HB

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#247209

On 4/13/22 16:07, Peter Hillier-Brook wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> I've just attempted to Install "Bookworm" to a USB stick and it went 
> mostly to plan, apart from the fact that it won't boot. However that's 
> not the issue at hand: I can't find a way to persuade  the installer's 
> partitioner to use GPT instead of the MS-DOS partitioning scheme.
> 
> Anyone with thoughts (Brian?) about this?
> 
> Best wishes.
> 
> Peter HB


I use the d-i at the simplest level I can (e.g. text "Install" mode from 
the main menu).  From what I have observed, d-i detects if the host is 
using BIOS or UEFI, and chooses MBR or GPT partitioning accordingly. 
Assume the host firmware can operate as UEFI, I would use the CMOS Setup 
program to set the host firmware to UEFI and then boot d-i.


David

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#247211

On Wed 13 Apr 2022 at 17:13:39 (-0700), David Christensen wrote:
> On 4/13/22 16:07, Peter Hillier-Brook wrote:

> > I've just attempted to Install "Bookworm" to a USB stick and it
> > went mostly to plan, apart from the fact that it won't boot.
> > However that's not the issue at hand: I can't find a way to
> > persuade  the installer's partitioner to use GPT instead of the
> > MS-DOS partitioning scheme.
> 
> I use the d-i at the simplest level I can (e.g. text "Install" mode
> from the main menu).  From what I have observed, d-i detects if the
> host is using BIOS or UEFI, and chooses MBR or GPT partitioning
> accordingly. Assume the host firmware can operate as UEFI, I would use
> the CMOS Setup program to set the host firmware to UEFI and then boot
> d-i.

I didn't know that, probably because I have never tried to run the
debian-installer with what's effectively a blank disk.¹

So my answer would be to write a blank partition table onto the USB
stick before you start the installer. You can do this with fdisk
using its "g" command, or with gdisk using its "o" command.

If you want to keep the contents of the stick, rather than starting
afresh, you can usually convert it from MBR to GPT with gdisk.
If the last partition has been created to completely fill the stick,
this will probably fail, because a GPT disk needs room for a backup
partition table at the very end. You would need to shrink the last
partition's filesystem, and then the partition itself, before
converting the stick.

¹ Back in the 1990s, I required dual-booting with DOS6.22, and so
  I let DOS's FDISK set the disk geometry and create the first
  partition. Since that era, I've always created my partitioning
  scheme before starting the installer.

Cheers,
David.

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#247212

David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> writes:
> I use the d-i at the simplest level I can (e.g. text "Install" mode from the
> main menu).  From what I have observed, d-i detects if the host is using BIOS or
> UEFI, and chooses MBR or GPT partitioning accordingly. Assume the host firmware
> can operate as UEFI, I would use the CMOS Setup program to set the host firmware
> to UEFI and then boot d-i.

It might be possible or even necessary to boot the USB-drive in UEFI
mode.  I have seen firmware interfaces which have this option when
determining the boot order.  I.e. just having the firmware be in UEFI
mode might not be enough.

Regards,
Nathanael

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#247214

On 2022-04-14 01:07 UTC+0200, Peter Hillier-Brook wrote:

> I've just attempted to Install "Bookworm" to a USB stick and it went 
> mostly to plan, apart from the fact that it won't boot. However that's 
> not the issue at hand: I can't find a way to persuade  the installer's 
> partitioner to use GPT instead of the MS-DOS partitioning scheme.

The installer should choose UEFI or BIOS mode depending on the settings
of your firmware. Do you have previous experiences with a non-usb storage?

Regards,
Christian

-- 
http://www.cb-fraggle.de

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#247321

On 14/04/2022 09:57, Christian Britz wrote:
> 
> 
> On 2022-04-14 01:07 UTC+0200, Peter Hillier-Brook wrote:
> 
>> I've just attempted to Install "Bookworm" to a USB stick and it went
>> mostly to plan, apart from the fact that it won't boot. However that's
>> not the issue at hand: I can't find a way to persuade  the installer's
>> partitioner to use GPT instead of the MS-DOS partitioning scheme.
> 
> The installer should choose UEFI or BIOS mode depending on the settings
> of your firmware. Do you have previous experiences with a non-usb storage?
> 
> Regards,
> Christian
> 
Many thanks to all for the useful tips. The problem is now solved.

Peter HB

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#247222

Peter HB wrote:
>
>I've just attempted to Install "Bookworm" to a USB stick and it went 
>mostly to plan, apart from the fact that it won't boot. However that's 
>not the issue at hand: I can't find a way to persuade  the installer's 
>partitioner to use GPT instead of the MS-DOS partitioning scheme.

When you're partitioning, the installer will keep the partitioning
type that is currently on a disk (GPT or MS-DOS). You can ask it to
write a new blank partition table by hitting <enter> on the raw disk
device. The default choice for the new partition table will depend on
whether you have booted the installer in UEFI (GPT) or legacy BIOS
(MS-DOS) mode. You can override the that choice, but depending on your
setup you *may* need to use expert mode to be asked the question about
which partition type to use.

-- 
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK.                                steve@einval.com
"We're the technical experts.  We were hired so that management could
 ignore our recommendations and tell us how to do our jobs."  -- Mike Andrews

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