Anaconda is an Amazing Installer

Lounge EndeavourOS pub
21

I have no idea.

I have been using the manual partitioning option since Manjaro started to use the Calamares installer.

The screenshots was made today - using the apollo iso - intenteded as a proof-of-concept on how to use the Calamares manual partitioning.

The last screenshot is showing the result of the manual partitioning on the final system using the mount command.

1 Like
22

Everything?

  • The buttons to move you forward are often in extreme upper left corner
  • Sometimes you need to hit a button twice in certain circumstances
  • The sections are presented as buttons on a grid with no specific order but are sometimes dependent on each other. Depending on the order you click on them sometimes changing something in once section changes things in another section.
  • The partitioning screen is mostly a usability nightmare.
    • When you enter it, it isn’t terribly obvious which disks are selected.
    • If you don’t have unpartitioned space to install into you need to click “Reclaim space on disk”(Probably not the exact verbiage). However, that is checkbox. It is not at all obvious that you then need to click “Done”(A small button in the upper left hand corner) which will then take you to a screen that will allow you to delete existing partitions.
    • There are 3 seperate partitioning tools available and there is minimal explanation about which you should use.

That is just from memory. I am sure I could come up with more if I had the installer in front of me.

I am actually rethinking this comment. The Fedora Workstation installer has minimal options. However, anaconda itself actually supports more options if a distro chooses to use them.

It has been there as long as I can remember and I have used it many times.

I will admit that it isn’t terribly intuitive that you can type in that field.

2 Likes
23

Here are my thoughts:

You can assign any mount point to any BTRFS subvolume. For example:

  • / to /linux/nobara/root
  • /home to /linux/nobara/home
  • /var to /linux/nobara/var
    This is the feature I look for when I am installing a new distro. No other installer I have tried (Calamares, Pop OS installer, Ubiquity, not even YaST2) has this option.
    Here is what I don’t like:
  • The other so-called “guided partitioning” is hard to use. Hard as in I couldn’t figure out how to use it. I never used auto partitioning so I am skipping that one.
  • Hidden options: For example I am booted to Workststion ISO but I want to use KDE Plasma. The item that lets me select installation source is hidden. If I boot the installer only ISP then I can install whatever DE.
24

I suppose i can somewhat agree with this one, the done button being in the upper left can be bizarre. Though i personally didnt find the buttons to be in particularly crazy spots but that may just be for me.

I actually like this, now they are supposed to be doable in any order (this is the intended idea) but i didnt experience anything being changed in one would change another. This may simply be the case of my chosen order though and would have to experiment.

This is an understandable criticism of the default partitioning tool i think. The custom vs custom advanced is a pretty night and day difference, Blivet i found to be pretty great. The regular custom partition tool can be strange to use having to click the modify buttom to select disks,etc.

I have tried so many times to type in the field and usually it just doesnt accept any characters :expressionless: i can put the cursor there and attempt to type but nothing happens. When my laptop isnt broken ill have to give it another go.

25

I can agree like i said previously that the normal “custom” tool is a bit bizarre. While i personally figured it out fairly quickly i can see how folks would find it obtuse. Its not laid out like any of the other installers ive user with custom advanced being more familiar and more powerful.

Im slightly confused, youre booting the regular iso and wanting to install KDE Plasma using the regular Gnome iso correct?

26

This is an example but that is what I meant. Imagine like using EndeavourOS online installer. The difference is I am not allowed to change installation source on Fedora Workstation but it is possible to do an online install with the installer only Fedora ISO.

27

Yeah, Blivet-gui is pretty impressive. Especially for btrfs/luks/lvm.

The interesting thing is that Blivet is only available in Fedora. It is excluded from RedHat/Centos and all their derivatives.

28

I wonder why that is? My limited experience with it so far is pretty stella. You would think theyd want it across the range.

29

@fbodymechanic here is the reason behind hibernation not being a thing by default. Similar to what I said, and is on purpose. Just came across this.

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30

Interesting - thank you.