[Solved]PCLOS installer wants to format despite paritions already formatted?

[nooby]

Hi I am very new to doing full install. I have always done frugal install
of Puppy, Slitaz, Knoppix, Antix, Porteus, Parted Magic, Linux Mint,
and xPUD etc

PCLinuxOS booted from USB using that method too so that is great.
But when I want to install it to the sda3 on a ext3 formatted partition
then it want to reformat it  despite already formatted to ext3 which
is what I want.

What am I supposed to do. I don't want to wipe out the Bodhi Linux install
on Sda1 so ...?

[Just17]

First of all it is offering to format the selected partitions .....  those you wish to install PCLOS onto .....  and no others. So if you make your selections correctly no other partition is interfered with.

Secondly, you can untick the box and not allow it to format the partition .....  possibly under the Advanced tab. (It is a long time since I prevented it from formatting before install so memory is hazy).

Just make sure the correct partition/s get selected and all should be well.


BTW ......  welcome to the forum 

[djohnston]

However, if you do not reformat the single partition you are installing to, the older (other) Linux installation will not be erased. You will end up with two different sets of distro files in the same partition, except for any files overwritten, which could be very messy on bootup.

[nooby]

Thanks to both of you.

Yes but I am not advanced so the whole thing is still a mystery.

The partition I want to install on is empty so that would not make a mess.

What I don't know is the / should that always be there even if one isntall
a second os on another parition and add it to the 40_custom grub later

It gives me many options. Most likely you have described it in a guide
or FAQ but my severe ADHD makes such hard for me to find. I drown in all the info.

It is all too new to me.

I also tried to read two threads on how to do frugal install just in case that work
on my computers. But it fail to find the live something so I must do something wrong.

AFAIK others has mention that PCLOS don't do grub2 install? Still uses grub legacy?
Is that true?

Would this mean it will try to add grub legacy to the MBR of partition  sda3 or even to sda1
where I ahve bodhi linux installed?

Does PCLOS belong to those Linux that wants to be first and alone? I've heard that another distro
and LinuxMint maybe behave like that. Not sure. I know too little.

I feel very unsure of how to proceed now. Cool that it booted from the usb but
I am totally stuck now.

Ooops times fly bye fast. Too late to be up here so I turn in and look for your friendly answers tomorrow.
By the way I am using the xfce version of PCLOS.

[djohnston]

PCLinuxOS booted from USB using that method too so that is great.
But when I want to install it to the sda3 on a ext3 formatted partition
then it want to reformat it  despite already formatted to ext3 which
is what I want.

As Just18 said, if you have already formatted sda3 and you don't want to format it again, just uncheck that option. The PCLinuxOS installation will give full choices as to what you want formatted or not. Normally, only those partitions you are installing to will be selected for reformat. If you are installing to a blank formatted ext3 partition (sda3), it won't hurt anything to format it again. It's your choice.

As far as GRUB1 and GRUB2, yes, PCLinuxOS still uses GRUB1 (0.97). Bodhi uses GRUB2. If you want to mix them, use the bootloader you already have installed (GRUB2) and install PCLinuxOS GRUB in the sda3 partition. It will then be up to you to add the PCLinuxOS boot entry to your existing GRUB2 menu.

As far as co-existence, PCLinuxOS will co-exist peacefully with any other operating system, without overwriting any boot records. The PCLinuxOS install program will give you the option of where to put GRUB1 bootloader. Just be sure, during the installation, that you install GRUB to the same partition you are installing PCLinuxOS to.

The GRUB2 configuration will have to be done from Bodhi. GRUB2 supports the chainloader command.

If you want to add the PCLinuxOS entry, add an entry to /etc/grub.d/40_custom. While the legacy GRUB would count disks and partitions starting at 0, (so that /dev/sda1 would be hd0,0), GRUB2, while still counting disks at 0, starts partitions at 1. So, /dev/sda1 will be (hd0,1). Assuming you have installed PCLinuxOS on /dev/sda3, add the following to Bodhi's /etc/grub.d/40_custom file:

# (2) PCLinuxOS
 menuentry "PCLinuxOS XFCE" {
 set root=(hd0,3)
 chainloader +1
}

When done, run grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg. Be aware that if you update your grub2 configuration by its tool ( update-grub ) you will need to apply this setting again.

[nooby]

djohnston thanks for the detailed answer.

May I kindly ask about the / or /home thing too?

I don't even know what that is. I guess / stand for root.

When I installed Bodhi the installer complained that
I had not set the root partition. When I did / then it
installed and worked.

Does every Linux OS need one such root partition?
And Bodhi has sda1 as it's root and PCLOS has sda3
as it's partition.

What I don't get is why would I need to do the grub1
mbr thing on sda3 I boot using the grub2 so no need for grub1? 

[Bald Brick]

/ is the root directory. All other directories will be subdirectories of / (or subdirectories of subdirectories and so on). To complicate matters there is also a /root directory, a subdirectory of / which is just the home directory of the root user (the user with all the administrative privileges).

You also need a /home directory as the home directories of all your normal users will be subdirectories of that one. However, /home does not have to be on a partition of its own. If it isn't, it will just be a normal folder under /.

[Just17]

Does every Linux OS need one such root partition?

Yes, that is the designation of the partition on which you install the main parts of the operating system.
Because Linux is capable of having different parts of its operating system on different partitions, the user is given the option to specify more than one partition to be used during the install.

The most popular use of a second partition is for the /home part of the operating system.
This is where all the user data and configuration is stored.
So if you have two partitions that you can use for an installation, it is common to put  /  on one and use the second for  /home.

This set up has advantages ....  it allows for a physical separation of the user data from the OS, and so if the OS has to be reinstalled the  /  partition can be completely wiped without deleting any user data which is on the second partition under  /home

The simplest install is to use one partition ....  selected as  /  ........  and ensure that no other selections are made for other partitions. That will ensure that the complete OS, including user data is placed on a single partition .......  which is what you appear to desire at this time.

So, in your case, when installing PCLinuxOS, you would select sda3 as the  /  partition, and have no other partition selected.

***

Grub manages the boot selections as presented to the user, and allows multiple OSs to be bootable through the selection screen.

The MBR is a particular physical section of the HDD.
It is in that section that the boot manager is installed, to allow the HDD to be bootable.

In addition, each Partition has a special section, which acts in a similar manner to the MBR, but for the partition only.
If the overall HDD booting is not to be interfered with, Grub can be installed to the partition's boot sector.
With that arrangement the 'master' Grub on the MBR can be set to link to Grub installs on partition boot sectors.
So you could have one master Grub installation on the MBR, and 20 or more grub installations on partition boot sectors.

Now you can just imagine what the selection screen might look like if you had 20 installs, each of which having 5 boot options for each individual OS installed.
The user would have to select from 100 boot options.

Installing grub to the boot sector of the partitions, and using the master Grub install to link to each of the 20 boot sector installs, gives the user 20 boot options to choose from .....  and each can be named simply with the OS name.
This makes it much easier for the user to make the selection.

Of course with only one or two OS installs it is not necessary to use this scheme, but it is available if required.

So it seems you wish to place PCLinuxOS on sda3 so select that partition as  /

When, at the end of the installation, you get to select the options for the Grub install, you can select either  sda   which will cause PCLinuxOS to become the master Grub on the MBR, or, if you wish to retain a different OS controlling the master Grub, you would put the PCLinuxOS Grub on sda3 (the boot sector of the partition).
If it is put on sda3, then you will need to make whatever edit is required to the master Grub to allow it to present the PCLinuxOS boot option to the user.

I hope I did not make things more confusing .....

[nooby]

Wow this is a very friendly forum indeed.
Sadly I am so ADHD and confused that
I easily will carried away and not live up
to the generosity of the forum.

So hope you can give me friendly reminders
when I do off topic things.

Yes I get it a bit better now but still feel very unsure
of if I should go ahead or not.

My gut feeling tells me that it will wipe everthing
I spent so many many hours on Sorry.

So I will learn more and get back to this thread later.

Now I'll start a new thread asking about firewall maybe.
or frugal install or ... I am full of questions.

Ooops I will ask about grub2 Or have I already started that thread?
I take a look

Anyway Much appreciated that you took care.
Thanks to all of you for helping me out. I am booted
now in PCLOS but in frugal install on the sda1 but I
write from another computer having better keyboard.

[Just17]

You have nothing to fear ......  all you need do is select the correct partition to install into (sda3) and allow it to reformat that partition and when it comes to the Grub installation, after the OS has been installed, select sda3 again (not sda which will be the default).

After that is done you will need to make an entry in your boot list to boot sda3.

Nothing more should be required.
Nothing you have already installed will get overwritten ....  not even your boot list or MBR, which is important.

[nooby]

Thanks. You sure are an optimist that works not for me.
I am a reluctant pessimist by birth and practice. So ...

Maybe I do as you say if I can somehow save what I have
to a USB so I easily can recreate it. I have now PCLOS
booting frugally and with persistence on sda1 so that is cool.

I stay with that for a while. I have the Phoenix xfce version 2012.

[Just17]

You might like to check out the utility

PCLinuxOS-LiveUSB creator

which will place a 'frugal' install on removable media, giving you the option to have a persistence boot entry if you wish.
Using this you can have several PCLOS versions on one partition of a flash disk or USB HDD, allowing other partitions for other purposes.
It works ONLY for PCLinuxOS and not other distros.
The partition to be used must be formatted as ext.

Have fun!