On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 02:54, Nitebirdz <nitebi...@sacredchaos.com> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 04:37:55PM -0500, Dan Ritter wrote: > > Nitebirdz wrote:
> > > I currently have a laptop running buster on an encrypted disk that boots > > > via EFI. The filesystems look like this: > > > > > > /dev/mapper/tangier--vg-root / > > > /dev/mapper/tangier--vg-home /home > > > /dev/sda1 /boot/efi > > > /dev/sda2 /boot > > > > > > I know I can easily upgrade to bullseye from the running system. However, > > > what I usually do when it's time to upgrade Debian on a laptop is to start > > > from a clean slate. It's my chance to clean up and remove old cruft (well, > > > with the exception of my own home partition, of course). So, instead of > > > upgrading, I just install the new version of Debian. > > > > > > Now, my problem is that, whenever I launch the installer, it wants to > > > partition the disk. Is there a way to tell the installer to leave the > > > existing partitioning scheme alone? Also, I'd need the installer to leave > > > the home partition alone, and format and install over the other > > > partitions. Is this possible? If so, how? I've been trying different > > > approaches, and I don't seem to be able to find the way to do it. > > > > Yes. Tell the installer you want to partition the disks > > manually, and then select each one and assign it to the role > > that you want. For /home, either don't assign it or make sure > > that you mark it as "leave the contents alone". > > Thanks. But it doesn't appear to work. The disk partitioning tool > only shows the actual partitions, but no trace of the already existing > encrypted volumes. See the screenshot attached. > > I'm testing this using QEMU. No matter what entry I select on that > screen, it wants me to continue partitioning, and ends up destroying the > previous setup. I cannot see a way to just get it to notice the already > existing layout. That does work for more simple setups, but not for > encrypted volumes, it seems. Hi Nitebirdz, For people quickly scanning through a lot of messages that they aren't heavily interested in, I suspect it was easy to overlook the crucial word "encrypted" in your first message. I know I didn't notice that until your second message, which used that word a few more times. I'm not really paying attention to the latest capabilites that the installer might have, or to what any other distros are doing, but when I have attempted this in the past it appeared to me that the Debian installer does not directly support installing a fresh installation into a previously created LUKS encrypted volume. However it is certainly "possible" with some complicated tricks, and if you are prepared to risk accidentally destroying the whole encrypted volume if you make a mistake. That's what happened to me the first time I tried it. But I have adequate backups and alternative machines, so that didn't bother me. It is possible to trick the installer into opening the existing encrypted volume. Then (with numerous fiddly steps and using great caution not to make a mistake) the installer can then install into a new partition inside that, in the usual way. However the installation it creates will be broken and likely not bootable. Because we have tricked the installer beyond what it understands, it makes many mistakes. There will be problems with grub, with the cryptsetup configuration, and with the initramfs. That all then needs to be fixed by rebooting into an alternative environment that has cryptsetup tools available. Maybe the installer rescue system is capable of doing that, but I'm not sure because ... The way I currently manage my machines (which are single-user, not servers) is that for convenience I always have a minimal bootable linux rescue system including the cryptsetup tools available on the disk in a small partition outside the encrypted volume, and I use this for that purpose (I also run the installer from there). But I expect it could be done with any other alternative boot method. So, being totally unaware of your level of skill and interest, I want to strike a balance in the information that I'm giving you here ... If you have adequate backups and are interested in learning more about how your system works, this could be a good project for doing that. Your desired end goal is possible. I spent time doing it and I'm happy I did that, because now all my stuff is configured and encrypted the way I want it, and that feels good. On the other hand, my reaching that goal involved developing the skills required. I don't have time to write out a detailed recipe for you on how to do it, and I don't remember all the detailed steps without some effort which I don't have time for. I can only offer occasional hints like this message. I can't guarantee that any hints given will be correct or will not cause catastropic data loss. There's probably no shortage of people around who are capable getting to that goal, but they also likely don't have time to pay attention to walk you through the entire process step by step. It's just too complicated and too many details to remotely describe to a user with unknown skills. In fact, people smarter than me would probably not even use the installer! Because there are many ways to install Debian. The installer is just a place for beginners to get started. It's not intended to handle all conceivable situations. Because there are other methods, and for someone who knows how to use those (not me), they're probably easier. So, if you are a casual user and don't have much interest in learning high-level administrator skills on your own, then "my other hand" advice is: Drop the idea and keep life simple: Backup your data to another drive, do a new installation, and restore your data into it. Until the installer gets more capable, this is by far the easiest method. Because trying to do this with the installer is not officially supported as far as I know, and it is not easy, might take a lot of time and effort, there might be easier methods than however I did it, and the attempt might make you unhappy, or lose all your data.
