Install without format

[nebular]

Is there any way to install LMDE without formatting the partition set as root?

When I try leaving it blank I get
"Please indicate a filesystem to format the root (/) partition before proceeding"

I already have an ext3 filesystem that I don't want to format (old home folders) and would rather not go thorugh the tedious process of backup only to return them to the exact same spot.

Any ideas?

[vincent]

If you have a separate /home partition, only format the / partition and not /home.

If you only have a single / partition (and /home is a sub-directory within this partition), then unfortunately there's no way around it; you'll have to format your partition (this is why people recommend having separate / and /home partitions). Formatting a partition effectively wipes it clean so that the installer can proceed to install system files to /; if you do not format it, then what's the point of installing a new OS? Theoretically, if you had the option to not format any of your partitions, the only thing that would be installed would be the GRUB bootloader.

[nevius]

If you have a separate /home partition, only format the / partition and not /home.

If you only have a single / partition (and /home is a sub-directory within this partition), then unfortunately there's no way around it; you'll have to format your partition (this is why people recommend having separate / and /home partitions). Formatting a partition effectively wipes it clean so that the installer can proceed to install system files to /; if you do not format it, then what's the point of installing a new OS? Theoretically, if you had the option to not format any of your partitions, the only thing that would be installed would be the GRUB bootloader.

To add a little bit more to this thought, I believe your two options now are to either
1) Create a separate partition to be the /home partition in your new install, then migrate your existing /home to the new partition, then install LMDE on your original partition.

or

2) Backup the data in /home on an external drive and install LMDE creating separate partitions for / and /home. This way you will be in a better position in the future.

Personally, I think (2) might be less labor intensive than (1), but to each his own.

[nebular]

If you only have a single / partition (and /home is a sub-directory within this partition), then unfortunately there's no way around it; you'll have to format your partition (this is why people recommend having separate / and /home partitions). Formatting a partition effectively wipes it clean so that the installer can proceed to install system files to /; if you do not format it, then what's the point of installing a new OS? Theoretically, if you had the option to not format any of your partitions, the only thing that would be installed would be the GRUB bootloader.

On this I disagree. My current ext3 partition has only one main directory on it: /home. That's it. I deleted everything else in there ( the linux install was a mess and was seldom used for the last year or so). So the installer would have a lot to install besides grub as there's no OS in there right now.

Actually this is how I've been doing things for the last 12 years of Linux usage. Want to use a new distro, wipe out the old on e and keep home, install without formatting the partition. Suse, Slack, Debian, Ubuntu and Mint Julia can all do this. I think the idea is that some people want to tweak the options when formatting outside of what the installer will do.

Mainly I find it strange that the Debian edition of mint would remove an advanced option that's available in the more newbie friendly ubuntu version.

[Silent Warrior]

nebular: ... You've got a yard of guts, I'll give you that, if you do that by habit. If you set up separate partitions for / and /home, you'll see the same outcome with no effort, when a new install asks to format the drive. I understand what you mean about removing that option, though. I believe the installer is made by the Mint-devs (in-house, yo!), so it's probably still wet behind the ears. I'd bet good money the crew just didn't predict your use-case. (I know I didn't. )
Still, separate partitions IS the recommended approach. Either way, the LMDE-installer apparently won't dance to your tune for the time being - until it's been udpated, that is. I was thinking it might be possible to do something FrankenMint-y but I honestly think I should just STFU. Unorthodox thinking, that, and invites all kinds of grief. Just never mind, dump your /home on some external media, or a different drive, and reformat with separate partitions - it'll be less bother for you in the long run - or use a distribution/release that provides an installer that handles your intended usage.

[TBABill]

nebular: ... You've got a yard of guts, I'll give you that, if you do that by habit. If you set up separate partitions for / and /home, you'll see the same outcome with no effort, when a new install asks to format the drive. I understand what you mean about removing that option, though. I believe the installer is made by the Mint-devs (in-house, yo!), so it's probably still wet behind the ears. I'd bet good money the crew just didn't predict your use-case. (I know I didn't. )
Still, separate partitions IS the recommended approach. Either way, the LMDE-installer apparently won't dance to your tune for the time being - until it's been udpated, that is. I was thinking it might be possible to do something FrankenMint-y but I honestly think I should just STFU. Unorthodox thinking, that, and invites all kinds of grief. Just never mind, dump your /home on some external media, or a different drive, and reformat with separate partitions - it'll be less bother for you in the long run - or use a distribution/release that provides an installer that handles your intended usage.

+1 Isn't the installer just a basic remaster installer without much fluff or capability, then tweaked for Mint? If there was a way around the install routine you could probably do so, but it does force you to at least format the / directory and since /home is part of that on your system it will get wiped out.

Many people have complained about the length of time and inputs the Debian installer uses, but it is for reasons like this that the lengthier install process on a plain Debian install is like it is. You get more options, encryption, etc. but it is at the cost of time and patience. For the normal user this scenario doesn't come up, but in this instance a non-formatted drive is exactly what is needed. I've never seen it done in this manner, but I can appreciate that it works as described with the right installer.

[nebular]

My habit of keeping the home folder on the same partition as root came from having only ~5gb of HD space. Back then I wanted all the free space available for either personal files or applications.

I could back everything up, but I find it annoying to backup a directory only so an installer can format the filesystem and put it right back.

I'm thinking of cludging together a mint system using a debian netinstall disk. it will be interesting.

worst case I backup home to an external ext3 hd and do the wipe

[autocrosser]

I understand not wanting to format every time---I install with a separate /home...but there is one program that is a royal pain in the arse to re-install everytime---UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004. I install it to the "recommended" location (/usr/local/games) and after reinstalling the maps, mods,etc.....it comes to around 8G of space---so you see that I don't want to redo it every time I install a new OS. And before you say "backup", for some reason if you backup it to a drive & then reinstall it---it won't work...broken simlinks & segfaults when the links are fixed. So I normally just trash everything on the partition except for the /usr/local/games folder--never caused me a problem..just a bit of thought beforehand.

So it came as a shock that I had to format before install....I used 'buntu from almost the very beginning & kept the same UNREAL install for the whole time...I only nuked it with the move to LDME.

[m.keane]

Mainly I find it strange that the Debian edition of mint would remove an advanced option that's available in the more newbie friendly ubuntu version.

I fail to see how an option that was never there was removed. live-installer was a from-scratch
effort. You can't remove something that isn't there

+1 Isn't the installer just a basic remaster installer without much fluff or capability, then tweaked for Mint? If there was a way around the install routine you could probably do so, but it does force you to at least format the / directory and since /home is part of that on your system it will get wiped out.

Fairly confident the original developer of live-installer would be insulted by that remark.
live-installer was written entirely from scratch.

Many people have complained about the length of time and inputs the Debian installer uses, but it is for reasons like this that the lengthier install process on a plain Debian install is like it is. You get more options, encryption, etc. but it is at the cost of time and patience.

Those options were previously planned for live-installer. I'm adding them to my own fork
of live-installer. If Clem wishes to import those changes he is more than welcome.

For the normal user this scenario doesn't come up, but in this instance a non-formatted drive is exactly what is needed. I've never seen it done in this manner, but I can appreciate that it works as described with the right installer.

At the risk of causing a flame war I'll speak quite openly here on a matter that hurt Ikey many
times. People were quick enough to criticise his software but when it came to helping or contributing
they were nowhere near so quick off the mark. Contributing doesn't just mean writing code, it can mean
drawing flow charts and writing up logic diagrams or merely putting forward researched ideas with helpful
input. I know some people did help but for those who decided to slate the software and not help, they're
just contributing to the cancer that is eating away at Linux.

[craig10x]

I think it would be nice if auto-installer options could be added like the kind that are on the ubuntu based version of Mint...you know, the:
1) Wipe out your current install(s) and replace with the new install 2) Install this side by side with your other installs....
It would make it much more newbie or non-techie friendly...I was able to manage getting it manually partitioned, but i would SO PREFER to have the auto-installer options available to use...

[rizzeh]

why stop at just /home as separate partition.
Partitions on my system that don't get formatted:
/home
/home/user/music
/home/user/video
/home/user/downloads
/opt
/usr/local
/backup
/windows <--- custom FAT32 partition, makes life easier in dual boot with Win setup

A bit more work to configure fstab but it's only done once and saves time long term.

[vegandalf]

Want to use a new distro, wipe out the old on e and keep home, install without formatting the partition. Suse, Slack, Debian, Ubuntu and Mint Julia can all do this. I think the idea is that some people want to tweak the options when formatting outside of what the installer will do.

Mainly I find it strange that the Debian edition of mint would remove an advanced option that's available in the more newbie friendly ubuntu version.

Seconded, it's the same way I always install my distros, I use a single-partition setup as well and I don't have enough space to backup all my data at every installation. I was slightly befuddled when I found out that it's impossible not to format the target partition while trying to install the newest Linux Mint XFCE, I hope that option will make its way into live-installer.

[vegandalf]

Reading this comment to the release announcement:

I have installed the original release, the RC and now the new release on virtual box with guest additions. The new release has made significant improvements, moving from a Debian squeeze type installer that required you to format and partition your hard drive, to the most recent version that offers a more Mint like suggested partition layout (although not assigning root / automatically). A vast improvement!

I thought the problem was fixed, but I don't see an option to install without formatting the target partition yet.

[Silent Warrior]

I don't know if this is still unresolved, but there is one thing you could do: Adjust your partitions from a LiveCD/DVD so that you have a separate root partition, then try to install LMDE there.
That is, shrink the original partition, move it around if necessary so that you have enough space for a root partition (and opt. swap), Apply, fire up the LMDE installer, profit. You're sure to see plenty of warnings in GParted, though, but they're there for a reason. I've never had a problem doing something like this myself, so it's at least 'reasonably' safe. It just isn't recommended.

Hm... If we're ranting about how the installer demands formatting, well, I fold.

[lech42]

The issue is not resolved in the 201109 images.

And it really is an issue:
1. Any partitioning is a waste of hard disc space. Even LVM.
Yes, hard discs are cheap, but SSDs are not and there is no going back to hard discs once you tasted SSD (with apropriate kernel parameters and mount options).
2. There are situations where it's really hard to "backup up and copy back": Consider a small server with huge discs (i.e. 4 discs with 3TB each), serving as a home NAS (perhaps besides serving as desktop), where one did not dare to use more than 1 partition when setting it up in the first place. Most distros recommend a 1-partition-setup to newbies. Do You expect those people to set up another 12 TB server and to copy say 11 TB away and back?

I'd offer to develop the apropriate patches to the installer if not for the workaround I found and used successfully:

Before confirming the data entered to start the actual installation process (including ext4-formatting of /), open a terminal and do this:

Code: Select all

sudo bash
cd /sbin
rm mkfs.ext4
ln -s ../bin/true mkfs.ext4

Hope this helps other people too, because using LMDE on the developer- and home-desktops seems a perfect strategy to become comfortable with the next debian release and beeing ready to update debian servers once a release is declared stable.