I want to install Fedora KDE spin on an existing XFS partition without formatting it

cantab · 08-29-2010, 11:40 AM

I want to install Fedora KDE spin on an existing XFS partition without formatting it. (Since said partition is full of my data that I have nowhere else to put). But the installer doesn't allow me to set the partition as / without formatting. XFS is not one of the filesystems listed as options for formatting.

How can I make Fedora do what I want?

ultimate_linux · 08-30-2010, 04:59 AM

that's not possible,for any operating system to install,you have to create a filesystem of dedicated to it.

cantab · 08-30-2010, 06:06 AM

I've done it with Arch Linux, it can be done with Ubuntu's alternate installer. It's very possible. If the partition already has a filesystem that Linux can use on it, there's no need to format it. Provided that you ensure there are no folders with names the installer will want to use, and that there is enough free space, it works just fine.

linus72 · 08-30-2010, 06:11 AM

so cantab
do you mean boot it as frugal usb off hdd
or
you mean decompress the compressed filesystem of livecd into a folder
like a chroot?

cantab · 08-30-2010, 06:13 AM

I mean a full, standard install.

linus72 · 08-30-2010, 06:28 AM

you could manually install it I would think...
thats how I install alot of distros

Mount your partition you want to install too and
example:
mkdir /target
mount /dev/sda1 /target

Code:

cp -R --preserve /bin /target
cp -R --preserve /boot /target
cp -R --preserve /dev /target
cp -R --preserve /etc /target
cp -R --preserve /home /target
cp -R --preserve /lib /target
cp -R --preserve /opt /target
cp -R --preserve /root /target
cp -R --preserve /sbin /target
cp -R --preserve /srv /target
cp -R --preserve /usr /target
cp -R --preserve /var /target

and

Code:

mkdir -p /target/media
mkdir -p /target/mnt
mkdir -p /target/opt
mkdir -p /target/proc
mkdir -p /target/sys
mkdir -p /target/tmp

then setup grub/lilo
?

EDIT:
oh, I left out the other stuff
after that I chroot into the install and setup grub/lilo, upgrade pkgs etc

Code:

mount --bind /dev/ /target/dev
mount -t proc none /target/proc
mount -t sysfs none /target/sys
mount -t devpts none /target/dev/pts

export HOME=/root
export LC_ALL=C

chroot /target

then install grub/lilo,etc

then exit and umount everything

Code:

exit
umount -l -f /target/proc
umount -l -f /target/sys
umount /target/dev/pts
umount /target/dev
umount /target

cantab · 08-30-2010, 07:57 AM

Well, if I run the anaconda installer, either from the non-live installation DVD or from the LiveCD, as opposed to the liveinst program, it no longer insists I format the partition to set a mount point. But after setting the existing xfs partition as /, I get

"Bootable partitions cannot be on an xfs filesystem."

In general, they can, my Arch system has been on a single xfs filesystem, booting using GRUB. So seems like this is a Fedora issue. Googling hasn't really helped, it turns up lots of reports of a bug in Fedora 11 regarding ext4 but nothing regarding Fedora 13.

A manual install is an idea, but I'd always be wary of whether there were going to be any differences between it and a standard install.

cantab · 08-30-2010, 12:53 PM

Well, I installed Kubuntu just fine. I'd wanted to try Fedora because I've never used it before and I'm interested in the stuff it's doing with virtualisation. But ultimately, one has to go with what works.