Bug 18923

I think the short answer is to make a BIOS boot partition.
The limitation was applied to avoid situations where (depending on actual partition start sector) your setup may not have worked.

As a side note, the message could be more explanatory, saying it's because it's a GPT partition so it has no MBR, and explaining how to add one.

Well if one does a custom partitionning, one should read the release notes:
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_6_Release_Notes#Grub2_used_as_boot_loader_by_default
Which links to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS_boot_partition

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => INVALID

It still wouldn't hurt to explain in the installer how to create this "BIOS boot partition" instead of awaiting that all Mageia users will have read Wikipedia before attempting their install...

It's offered in the list of FS along swap, ext4, ...

You're welcome to enhance our release notes in order to make them clearer as you've the POV of such a user

So I gather giving smart hints in error messages is not something we aim to do ? I thought we did.

(In reply to Rémi Verschelde from comment #4)
> It still wouldn't hurt to explain in the installer how to create this "BIOS
> boot partition" instead of awaiting that all Mageia users will have read
> Wikipedia before attempting their install...

(In reply to Thierry Vignaud from comment #5)
> It's offered in the list of FS along swap, ext4, ...

CC'ing documentation team, in case someone has time and motivation to add that to the help file for custom partitioning in installer.
(please, when writing, keep in mind that during installation the screenshots are not available)
http://docteam.mageia.nl/en/installer/content/diskdrake.html


(In reply to Samuel Verschelde from comment #7)
> So I gather giving smart hints in error messages is not something we aim to
> do ? I thought we did.

Please check how many bugs are assigned to Thierry (232 atm). Tbh, I think caring about smart hints is a luxury, which he cannot have, since he is too much alone maintaining our tools (and LO, and more..).

If the help file gets updated, and if the error message *only* occurs in the custom partitioning screen, then the error message could refer to the help.

However, it'll probably show in other partitioning step screens, too :-/

CC: (none) => doc-bugs, marja11

(In reply to Marja van Waes from comment #8)
> (In reply to Samuel Verschelde from comment #7)
> > So I gather giving smart hints in error messages is not something we aim to
> > do ? I thought we did.
> 
> Please check how many bugs are assigned to Thierry (232 atm). Tbh, I think
> caring about smart hints is a luxury, which he cannot have, since he is too
> much alone maintaining our tools (and LO, and more..).

Thierry hasn't said he won't do it, he said the answer lies in documentation. I disagree and consider that when software can avoid sending users to documentation that's better design (or the message can explicitly send the user to read the documentation, that's OK too). I could even send a patch for a reworded error message if it was seen as useful.

i'd like to see your patch, please attach it :)

unsent patches never end up in our tools, yours has a chance, when attached ;)

(In reply to Marja van Waes from comment #8)
> (In reply to Rémi Verschelde from comment #4)
> > It still wouldn't hurt to explain in the installer how to create this "BIOS
> > boot partition" instead of awaiting that all Mageia users will have read
> > Wikipedia before attempting their install...
> 
> (In reply to Thierry Vignaud from comment #5)
> > It's offered in the list of FS along swap, ext4, ...
> 
> CC'ing documentation team, in case someone has time and motivation to add
> that to the help file for custom partitioning in installer.
> (please, when writing, keep in mind that during installation the screenshots
> are not available)
> http://docteam.mageia.nl/en/installer/content/diskdrake.html
> 

Installer help will be updated with Grub2 now used by default. We will add a note about what is called BIOS/GPT boot.

CC: (none) => lebarhon

Created attachment 8158 [details]
Make warning about BIOS boot partition more explicit

Here's a patch to make the warning more explicit. Of course translation catalogs would have to be updated too, but it's no big deal: 1) There are only a handful of translations done for this string. 2) The ones done are often more misleading than the original one as they lose the term "BIOS boot".

The new warning gives instructions on how to create this partition and why it's required; please check that 'BIOS_grub' is the proper fs type we display, I took it from Wikipedia.

Also the s/Boot BIOS partition/BIOS boot partition/ won't hurt for clarity, as the latter is the technical term used everywhere.

Thanks, André and Rémi :-)

About attachment 8158 [details], I don't know how the window size of that pop-up is determined, nor whether the message will be automatically be split into two lines (with the window adjusting its height, if needed) if it is too wide to fit.

It would be nice to see a screenshot of the message.

There is information about testing installer patches here:

https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Drakx-installer_tips_and_tricks#Customisation_of_the_install_by_patching_it

But, with current stage2, the first chunk of the patch (for the NEWS) will most likely fail, because last previous changes didn't get packaged, yet.

Thanks Akien. I suggest replacing the last maybe too technical sentence with "Please add one before continuing." since the partitioner does offer to create one.

Created attachment 8160 [details]
Make warning about BIOS boot partition more explicit

Enhanced the patch based on Samuel's feedback.

Attachment 8158 is obsolete: 0 => 1

commit 962056e2a198e2ce02c4220e99b84022ae1be408
Author: Rémi Verschelde <rverschelde@...>
Date:   Tue Jul 12 08:58:28 2016 +0200

    make warning more explicit about "BBP" purpose
    
    (BIOS boot partition, thus fixing mga#18923)
---
 Commit Link:
   http://gitweb.mageia.org/software/drakx/commit/?id=962056e2a198e2ce02c4220e99b84022ae1be408

Fixed (I added bug ID and updated installer's NEWS too)

Status: REOPENED => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => FIXED

Thanks!

Thanks Thierry.