Install Garuda on 4Kn Drive

[Arny006]

The Grub-Topic and LTS-Kernel are solved topics, would I assume, btw. already clearified.

Thanks anyway for you appreciate efforts.

[NaN]

@Arny006

The Grub-Topic and LTS-Kernel are solved topics, would I assume, btw

Yeah I posted that before reading further replies below. I thought since it’s already posted I would just leave it there.

[Arny006]

@NaN

Here is my /etc/fstab file

That’s really great thing, thank you so much.

By the way, no trim-option in the fstab? I sow in Garuda-Videos in youtube there is a Garuda-App for setting trim-option, will do it in the same conf-file or somewhere else?.

The best thing of your /etc/fstab, there is the UEFI-partition formatted in vfat and mounted under /boot/efi.

Would almost say: all “problems” almost solved.

Maybe I have luck making all partitions at first, than formatting only UEFI & SWAP and finally let overtake from Calamares to make BTRFS-ROOT, Subvolumes, etc.

Thanks anyway

I think have read a comment about not supporting dual-boot or multi-boot, well, to be clear I don’t want to do it, I just want select it from MB-BIOS (Motherboard UEFI-BIOS), I never ask for support dual- or multi-booting and will also not do it in the future.
The installer have just to remain on his only one assigned drive, even grub-os-prober is not wanted ;-).

[Arny006]

Thanks for answering first

@Bro

Garuda defaults to the BTRFS filesystem, though it is my understanding it can use others. Garuda is built around BTRFS and several of the components that make Garuda, Garuda, will not otherwise function properly.

Well, the partition is an ext4 (8300) see manual partition for Btrfs in Arch-Wiki, “formatted” later as btrfs, hence you cannot state Garuda has nothing to do with ext4 because the partition is one ext4 and nothing else. Btrfs is a kind of wrapper like ZFS too.

If we want to be precise, we should say that this (as also many other distros) use “Btrfs on Root-partition” that practically is exact the same as “ZFS on Root-partition”.

The ext4 format option, have I posted just to show everybody that ext4 basically don’t understand 4Kn that actually the standard. This cause the formatting of ext4 with two “F” equal to two time Force-Options.

Also vfat must be “forced” and must indicate or force sector-dimension and other parameters, but, vfat is not a Linux-topic.

@Arny006

mkfs.vfat -F32 -s 2 -S 4096 -v /dev/nvme0n1p1

“Kpart” & “Gpart” don’t understand 4Kn either, so, if I format the UEFI-partition with those tools:

• First set the start-point of this partition at 8Mib and not at 1Mib.
• Second don’t set all necessary parameter that permit this partition to work.
• Third, no bootloader will work on it, neither grub nor refind.

The only OOTB 4Kn-partition are swap (see swap man-page) even it is also very old and btrfs.
If swap & btrfs support out of the box 4Kn (4Kib) and are natively Linux-partitions you cannot define 4Kn as unsupported Hardware at all.

The problem is also a little bit on Calamares-developer-side that cannot react because the distributors of OS also don’t recognize the problem and even don’t work for solution.

If the user let Calamares use an entire “disk”, underneath is always a “script” that partition and format the disk, is this true? => Ergo the Problem is: The distributors use the wrong (middle-aged) partition- & formatting-tool = “Kdisk-part”.

Linux-distributors are neither able to modify vfat nor ext4 or wait that ext5 appear, but just to live with what they/we have, right?

The “quick and dirt” solution is very simple:

1. Detect physical and logical block size over script, that’s mandatory.
2. Use gptfdisk-tools to partition, in the TUI (in Calamares) with cgdisk by “manual partition” and sgdisk for scripting-partitioning by “use entire disk”.
3. Use mkfs for formatting UEFI (EF00), Swap (8200) and Btrfs sitting on top of Ext4 (8300=Root), for “creating” ZFS (the future) should be allowed in Calamares just to use mounted partitions but the same must be aware of ZFS & Btrfs too.

Note: Detection of block-size, gptfdisk-tools and mkfs are mandatory. By the way, the developer of gdisk is also the developer of refind which is much better than grub.

Stop calling 4Kn=4KiB “Unsupported Hardware” since the specification for “512e” are defined in 2012 and the advise and the tools to handle those already old specification are at least a decade old.

Nobody want “Dualboot” but just not landing by boot-problems in a CLI and don’t know what to do like with/under grub.

[BluishHumility]

@Arny006

My question is very simple:
Do Garuda-Installer (Calamares) will recognize my 4Kn disk/nvme?

Almost thirty replies in this topic for this “simple” question?

The answer is: yes, your disk will work fine. No special considerations need to be made for your disk. Go ahead and use the installer in the normal way, just like everyone else. You don’t need to make any custom formatting decisions or any other unusual preparations. If you run into problems with the installation process, please open a new topic for that.

@Arny006

Well, the partition is an ext4 (8300) see manual partition for Btrfs in Arch-Wiki, “formatted” later as btrfs, hence you cannot state Garuda has nothing to do with ext4 because the partition is one ext4 and nothing else. Btrfs is a kind of wrapper like ZFS too.

This is incorrect. Btrfs and ZFS are completely independent filesystems that have nothing to do with ext4. ext4 is not involved in setting up a Btrfs filesystem in any way.

@Arny006

Also vfat must be “forced” and must indicate or force sector-dimension and other parameters

This is also incorrect. See this explanation from the ArchWiki:

mkfs.f2fs(8), mkfs.fat(8), mkfs.ntfs(8) and mkfs.udf(8) use the backing device’s logical sector size. I.e. they will use 512 byte sectors for 512e disks and 4096 byte sectors for 4Kn disks.

The clunky formatting command you have written above is not necessary–it will default to 4096 byte sectors on its own.

@Arny006

The only OOTB 4Kn-partition are swap (see swap man-page) even it is also very old and btrfs.
If swap & btrfs support out of the box 4Kn (4Kib) and are natively Linux-partitions you cannot define 4Kn as unsupported Hardware at all.

This is also incorrect. See the explanation from the ArchWiki page linked above:

mkfs.btrfs(8), mkfs.jfs(8), mkfs.nilfs2(8), mkfs.reiserfs(8) and mkswap(8) default to a 4096 byte sector size.

Even filesystems that do not default to 4096 byte sector size typically support it with no intervention needed. As you pointed out yourself, this is not a new standard anymore.

@Arny006

The problem is also a little bit on Calamares-developer-side that cannot react because the distributors of OS also don’t recognize the problem and even don’t work for solution.

You have not identified a problem that needs to be addressed by the Calamares developers, Garuda Linux, or by anyone else. It seems like the only “problem” in this topic is a foundational misunderstanding of the significance of your hard drive’s physical sector size.

@Arny006

Stop calling 4Kn=4KiB “Unsupported Hardware”

Your disk is unsupported hardware. Garuda Linux doesn’t write the firmware for your hard drive, or anyone else’s. Garuda Linux supports Garuda Linux, and the fact of the matter is this topic has nothing whatsoever to do with Garuda Linux. It seems to have something to do with your hard drive, so it was placed in an appropriate category.

At your insistence, I have moved the topic to a more appropriate category. When you have a chance, give the installation a try and open a new topic if you run into any problems.