Can we talk about Mint 20.x's auto partition behaviour?

[Intrinsic]

I booted in MBR mode, as I wanted an MBR partition setup. I was lazy and let Mint 20.1 take over the whole (500GB) hard drive and the results are a bit puzzling.

The "disks" program shows the drive as being MBR, and I can only boot from the drive if the BIOS is set to legacy mode, but there is a ~512MB fat32 partition, with a type of, W95 FAT32, mounted at /boot/efi (/deb/sda1). There is an extended partition (/deb/sda2) that is not mounted. There is /dev/sda5, which I'm guessing is a logical partition, inside of /deb/sda2? that is mounted as /

Does anyone know the reason behind this new and odd partitioning setup? I was hoping for /dev/sda1, and that's it ( because the swap is now a file). Why does my MBR setup seem to have an UEFI partition? And why does it now make a nested extended / logical partition setup when it could just use another primary partition? I spent most of the day setting up my computer and I want to start over because my OCD is like: /dev/sda5 ? why? I assume it skipped a few numbers to leave room for the other potential primary partitions?

[LanceM]

To install as you want, boot to the choice that says just USB as you presumably did. Erase the disk with Disks or Gparted, create a MBR table, then launch the installer. At the choice choose "something else" Create one primary partition (make double sure it's a primary and not logical) and set as /

[Moonstone Man]

And why does it now make a nested extended / logical partition setup when it could just use another primary primary partition?

As good as it is, Linux Mint cannot predict the future, for example you may want to install another OS on the same partition, or split a larger partition into any number of smaller ones. If the installer didn't create an extended partition then you would be limited to a maximum of four partitions. By installing an extended partition, the installer is doing you a favour so that you don't have to destroy the entire drive and do it all over again when your needs change.

I spent most of the day setting up my computer and I want to start over because my OCD is like...

Nobody here can assist you with psychological issues. You are welcome to start over, but if you want to avoid the things you mention then you will have to set up your partitioning all on your own by using the 'something else' option, and you need to get it right or you'll have to start all over again, so my suggestion is to put up with it for a little while until you gain more experience and feel confident to set up manual partitioning.

[LanceM]

Myself, I like just the one primary for Legacy. You can shrink it later and have up to 3 more, although normally, I like simple - just 1 partition.

[zcot]

It's an upstream bug.

[Reddog1]

Yup, it's a bug. The Mint 20 installer creates a FAT32 partition for the EFI bootloader, even if you are installing MBR. It's a small partition and my advice is to ignore it. Everything works. The installer does it even if the computer doesn't have an EFI boot option available at all, as I found out (Dell Optiplex 760, core 2 quad).

[AndyMH]

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=326270&p=1855497&h ... y#p1855497
Also happens with 'install alongside'. A bug introduced with LM20 - blame ubiquity the upstream installer used by mint. LM19.x and earlier behave how you would expect them to.

[rbeltz48]

It has now been almost a year since Ubuntu 20.04 came out, from which Mint's install partition bug originated. The same thing happened to me trying to install LM 20 MATE. I chucked it after it froze on the Installation Type screen and others on this forum have talked about it not installing to the selected partition. I find it rather annoying that neither Ubuntu nor Mint is willing to fix this bug. It's like, no one really cares anymore about writing good code. After using Linux since 2006 I am quite sick and tired of Ubuntu based bugs. I am moving all my laptops to a Debian based distro!

[zcot]

It has now been almost a year since Ubuntu 20.04 came out, from which Mint's install partition bug originated. The same thing happened to me trying to install LM 20 MATE. I chucked it after it froze on the Installation Type screen and others on this forum have talked about it not installing to the selected partition. I find it rather annoying that neither Ubuntu nor Mint is willing to fix this bug. It's like, no one really cares anymore about writing good code. After using Linux since 2006 I am quite sick and tired of Ubuntu based bugs. I am moving all my laptops to a Debian based distro!

Yea, fo sho! I'll be changing to debian too, where the bug actually originated in their souce code.

Anyway, my bowl of popcorn is empty now, so, bye.

[AndyMH]

Canonical are replacing ubiquity, so these problems should go away, doubtless to be replaced by others.
https://www.debugpoint.com/2021/02/new- ... installer/
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/refreshi ... ller/20659
Probably hit us with LM21.

[rbeltz48]

Reply to Zcot: The Debian based distro I am converting my laptops to installed perfectly to the partition I selected. NOT the partition(s) the installer selected. So the last laugh is on you Zcot and Ubuntu because they didn't fix the problem before they released 20.04. Another example of poor programming!

[zcot]

Reply to Zcot: The Debian based distro I am converting my laptops to installed perfectly to the partition I selected. NOT the partition(s) the installer selected. So the last laugh is on you Zcot and Ubuntu because they didn't fix the problem before they released 20.04. Another example of poor programming!

Cool! Good job!

[rbeltz48]

I haven't been here since March 2021. Did this installer bug get fixed with Linux Mint 20.1 or 20.2? The problem being that LM 20 would not install to the partition I selected but rather created a new EFI partition. Thanks.

[mikeflan]

No, the bug is not fixed. See this:
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=359955

[rbeltz48]

It has now been almost 2 years with this bug. Why can't Mint get off their duff and use their own installer? I have moved all my laptops to Debian based distros and wondered if Mint had fixed the bug so I could try Mint again. So I guess I will stick with Debian for the foreseeable future.

[mmortal03]

Yup, it's a bug. The Mint 20 installer creates a FAT32 partition for the EFI bootloader, even if you are installing MBR. It's a small partition and my advice is to ignore it. Everything works. The installer does it even if the computer doesn't have an EFI boot option available at all, as I found out (Dell Optiplex 760, core 2 quad).

Unfortunately, there are legacy boot situations such as migrating the disk image to external hard drives or thumb drives, where having this small FAT32 partition in there makes things not work (not boot).

[antikythera]

It's best to let sleeping threads be, if you have a specific issue with partitioning can you open a new thread please and post exactly what you want to achieve in there. I agree that ubiquity automatic partitioning inherited from Ubuntu 20.04 is less than ideal but you can get around it by doing your own manual layout as already stated above.

Mint switching to a different installer is achievable, they can use Calamares from LMDE for example. It would require quite a large ISO overhaul as it's not quite as simple as just removing ubiquity from the package list and adding Calamares in it's place.

So I doubt it would happen for Mint 21 even if the idea gathered enough vocal interest from Mint users.

[AndyMH]

Unfortunately, there are legacy boot situations such as migrating the disk image to external hard drives or thumb drives, where having this small FAT32 partition in there makes things not work (not boot).

can you elaborate, don't understand the problem?

Note, pbear has been playing with the latest ubuntu, it has improved (a bit):
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=326270&p=1855497&h ... l#p1855497

[mmortal03]

Unfortunately, there are legacy boot situations such as migrating the disk image to external hard drives or thumb drives, where having this small FAT32 partition in there makes things not work (not boot).

can you elaborate, don't understand the problem?

Note, pbear has been playing with the latest ubuntu, it has improved (a bit):
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=326270&p=1855497&h ... l#p1855497

Yeah, I saw that thread. Thanks! To elaborate, prior to Mint 20.x, I could make a dd image of an entire disk containing a LM install and write that to an external hard drive or thumb drive, and it would boot LM *even* in a legacy BIOS configuration. It *just worked*. Now, with the LM 20.3 installer auto-partitioning, doing that no longer works. I believe the blank FAT32 512MB partition breaks boot, whether Legacy BIOS or UEFI boot is being used. Instead, I would have to have manually set it up to install to a single partition at install time, avoiding the auto-partitioning situation.

[Moem]

It's best to let sleeping threads be, if you have a specific issue with partitioning can you open a new thread please and post exactly what you want to achieve in there.

As a moderator, I'm going to repeat this very good suggestion and lock the topic. It's old, and it was someone elses topic... so let's let it have its rest, as per our forum policy.