Hello !
It's been several years that I'm still on the same arch linux installation. It's a new year and I finally have some vacations, I would like to test garuda.
The problem is that I have 4 hard disks and a well bloated grub ( I don't really want to unplug everything to test this distribution and i need this computer for work . )
$ lsblk > output_lsblk.txt
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda 8:0 0 9,1T 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 4,6T 0 part /montage/linux-data
└─sda2 8:2 0 4,5T 0 part /montage/data2
sdb 8:16 0 1,8T 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 789,9G 0 part /montage/arch-home
├─sdb2 8:18 0 15,6G 0 part
├─sdb3 8:19 0 172,3G 0 part
└─sdb4 8:20 0 885,2G 0 part /montage/vmware
sdc 8:32 0 1,8T 0 disk
├─sdc1 8:33 0 529M 0 part
├─sdc2 8:34 0 100M 0 part
├─sdc3 8:35 0 16M 0 part
├─sdc4 8:36 0 219,5G 0 part
├─sdc5 8:37 0 661M 0 part
└─sdc6 8:38 0 1,6T 0 part /run/media/fafa/w10-data
sdd 8:48 1 7,5G 0 disk
└─sdd1 8:49 1 7,5G 0 part
nvme0n1 259:0 0 447,1G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 336,8G 0 part /montage/fastssd
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 78,1G 0 part /
└─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 500M 0 part /boot/efi
I would like to format nvme0n1p1 and install garuda on this ssd ( 336,8G ). Is there a way to install garuda without touching the UEFI or the MBR of the existing system ?
I guess my os-prober will detect this new partition and if not i'm used to deal with grub and stuff like "grub / chainloading". It would be really annoying if i must chroot just to get my system back.
Hi there, welcome to the forum!
Garuda use Calamares as installer.
As far as I know, Calamares has an option to skip bootloader installation but at the moment this is available only for MBR mode.
That option for EFI mode should have been already implemented, but I don't think it is available yet in our (the AUR package) release.
it’s worse than that, in fact the option only works if you format the whole disk.
If you want to do a custom install on a specific partition, you can’t choose anything.
I’ve been thinking a little bit this morning, I see two solutions...
As I use open source drivers : Install garuda on a virtual machine with "/" as an option for the bootloader. Then use "VBoxManage clonemedium" to convert the vdi into a raw img. And then clone the whole image to my ssd. But I guess it's not that simple. At least I'll have to edit fstab to specify that it is an ssd before launching the os.
Or, I can add one disk and disable the others in the bios, it seems a lot simpler and should even work for those who have an nvidia card. But i guess that I'll have to tweak the "uefi boot order" in the bios after that ? ( Maybe not if i can use the MBR option ). I'm not sure about this.
Why this option is not present in calamares, so much trouble for this.
If anyone has another idea or a better solution, I’d be delighted
Honestly, it all seems too complicated to me.
It is much simpler, should it be necessary and you don't like Garuda, to delete its Grub (entry in efibootmgr and directory in ESP partition).
Apart from that, using Garuda without Grub precludes you from automatically generating snapshot entries in the Grub, for example. You should also disable all hooks that assume the presence and use of the Garuda grub.
I'd go for a normal installation in nvme0n1p1 and put the Garuda Grub in nvme0n1p3.
This is quite simple to do in Calamares with the manual partitioning setup. You just need to specify two partitions to mount.
Mount a partition at /; this is where Garuda will be installed.
Also mount the EFI partition and specify /boot/efi as the mount point. Make sure the “format” option is not selected, and it will preserve what is on the EFI partition–it will just add files to it for Garuda’s bootloader.
I have had many concurrent installations all sharing an EFI partition, and can say for sure this type of installation is as easy as pie.
