Installation from live desktop image - pick the right target?

General Discussion
1

I am trying to install clear from the live desktop image on an Thinkpad P1. It has two identical ssd’s. One windows, the other buster.

During the installation the type of the ssd is listed, but not the device name. As they are identical I cannot tell which one is which. Gparted etc lists device name.

As I need to keep the windows partition, how can I make sure that I am picking the right one? Ikey?

Thanks.

2

I have developed a defense mechanism of disconnecting any disk (either in EFI or physically) I am not targeting during installation. I’ve messed up too many disks and partitions even with concentration not to anymore :slight_smile:

But, this does seem like something that could be improved. Maybe suggest at Issues · clearlinux/clr-installer · GitHub .

One way would be to open a terminal and launch the TUI installer with the command clr-installer, configure the settings in the installer as normal, and select “Save Configuration Settings” under the Advanced tab, before installing. This will save detailed installation options in clr-installer.yml. You can break to another console (CTRL + ALT + F2) and look at the contents. It will have a unique disk serial.

3

Hi, I have a bit different issue when trying to install, I’m also using the live-desktop image, my problem is when I try to selsect where to install, the safe Installation option doesn’t show any media available. I want to reuse the partitions I have since I have one partition for /home and I don’t want to loose my files. how can I select the partitions to use like in other distos?

thank you.

4

I believe the current installer can only utilize free space at the end of a disk to install. @mhorn can you comment or add anything more?

5

@m.mora “Safe Installation” will show unformatted disks or a disk with a ‘gpt’ partition table if there is a minimum free space. The free space can be anywhere in the disk as long as the contiguous free space it at least 20GB.

We will be adding functionality to allow you to see existing partitions and reallocate them in a future release of the graphical installer.

There are a few options for working around this:

  • Launch Gparted and delete the partition you wish to overwrite. Rescanning the media or restarting the installer will then make use of the newly freed disk space under Safe Installation. This would be the best option.

or

  • The text-based installer does have some support for partition manipulation under “Advanced Configuration” (which will be added to the graphical installer in the future). Open a terminal window and run sudo clr-installer-tui; this isn’t as pretty as the graphical installer, but it may be useful.
6

I am too faced same problem, Safe installation did not show up any allocated or free space. In destructive installation showing whole HDD. Tried lot many options, at end fed up and did destructive installation, Wiping out whole windows…
Now I am struggling and having teething problems which normally any one face, as a Novice, to get around and study usefulness of Clear Linux in my data scientist study…
Additionally would like to have procedure to go back to windows again if not satisfied with Clear Linux.
Would be great to know procedure to go back to windows.
Also it would be highly advantageous to have Video tutorials rather than documented one. Experts here might have lot of experience, but person like me It is my very first encounter with Linux.

7

If this is your very first experience you better get some variant of Ubuntu quickly. This distribution if far from being ready for prime time. I’ve been using Linux from it’s beginning and can’t actually install Clear. It’s very experimental. They are making quick progress but still has many issues.

8

I strongly recommend that if you are a new Linux user, that you obtain a separate and empty hard disk.

That way, you:

  • don’t need to deal with dual boot issues
  • can swap drives and be back to a working system in a minute or two
9

But it’s not making use of existing swap and esp partition. :frowning:

10

If this is your first encounter with Linux, please choose something else. This is far from representative of what a good Linux system should be.