Bug 26584

I confess to no experience of such things as 'use whole disc' or 'default' when installing Linux, preferring manual control of partitions. But the disc partitioning is common to the Classic and Live installers, not sure for the bootloader installation.

Passing this to Martin for comment.

CC: (none) => lewyssmith
Assignee: bugsquad => mageia

To debug this, I need the installer logs. Could you repeat the installation with "use whole disk", check it still fails to boot, then boot using Mageia Live, mount the root partition created by the installer, and attach the /root/drakx/report.bug.xz file to this bug report.

By the way, do make sure you boot the installer in UEFI mode (you can easily tell - the title on the initial boot menu screen will end with "(UEFI)"). On some machines, when choosing from the BIOS boot menu, it is quite easy to boot in legacy mode by mistake, which would cause the problems you are seeing.

Keywords: (none) => NEEDINFO

I am sorry, I cannot repeat again and again the install on the notebook of my granddaughter... She needs it and she does not live near of my home.
I have repeated the install 12 or 20 times and I have tried to see what happens in rescue mode from the USB.

All partitions was deleted on both gpt disks. 
1- It was not possible to install in legacy mode, because the installer requires a /boot/EFI partition.
2- Installing with ISO on the whole disk make an unformatted boot partition at the beginning of the disk (sda or sdb) and this in any mode (whole disk, use existing partitions, personalized).
With Mageia Live, I saw that the /boot/EFI was not setup and not formatted or not in the required type).

The only way to have a usable  /boot/EFI partition is to install The live iso using the whole disk. Any other option from the live or the standard iso make an unbootable disk.

(In reply to Pierre Jarillon from comment #3)
> All partitions was deleted on both gpt disks. 
> 1- It was not possible to install in legacy mode, because the installer
> requires a /boot/EFI partition.

The installer checks to see if it was started in bios legacy mode, or efi
firmware mode, and ensures the installed system is set up to boot in the
same way. In order to install in legacy mode, the usb stick or dvd must
be booted in legacy mode.

> 2- Installing with ISO on the whole disk make an unformatted boot partition
> at the beginning of the disk (sda or sdb) and this in any mode (whole disk,
> use existing partitions, personalized).
> With Mageia Live, I saw that the /boot/EFI was not setup and not formatted
> or not in the required type).

When installing on an efi firmware system using gpt partitioned drives, there
are two new partitions that are not present on a bios firmware system using
mbr drives.

The first is required on gpt partitioned boot drives. It's the unformatted
bios boot partition that is used to store the boot loader. Doesn't matter
if the system is using bios or efi firmware. On a drive using mbr partitioning,
the boot loader is stored in the first track, following the boot sector,
instead of requiring the new partition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS_boot_partition

The second is the efi system partition which must use vfat formatting, which
contains the parts of the boot loader that are not stored in the mbr or
bios boot partition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_system_partition

> The only way to have a usable  /boot/EFI partition is to install The live
> iso using the whole disk. Any other option from the live or the standard iso
> make an unbootable disk.

I strongly suspect the installer was booted in efi firmware mode while the
installed  system was being booted in bios legacy firmware mode, or vice-versa.

Closing the report as worksforme. Please feel free to reopen if the bug
can be recreated with the needed logs.

CC: (none) => davidwhodgins
Resolution: (none) => WORKSFORME
Status: NEW => RESOLVED

(In reply to Dave Hodgins from comment #4)
> When installing on an efi firmware system using gpt partitioned drives, there
> are two new partitions that are not present on a bios firmware system using
> mbr drives.

Actually it's either one or the other but not both:
1) EFS will contain the bootloader under EFI
2) The bios boot partition will containt it if not under EFI.
Aka condition is: !EFI + GPT disc


See "drakdoc fs::any"

CC: (none) => thierry.vignaud

Please read carefuly what I have done during at least 2 days.
All partitions are deleted on a gpt disk.
Standard ISO with use the whole disk create a little partition at the beginning of the disk but it is not formatted and empty. The install finishes without error and no boot is found by the bios/EFI.

If I try to reuse these partitions, in a new install, I get a message requesting a partition /boot/EFI.

Installing a live on the disk works _only_ if I select use the whole disk.
1- The standard ISO cannot do that. No boot available.
2- No other way than the Live is able to setup this f... partition