Need help with 4.3.0 installation process (LVM etc)

User Support General
1

Hi,

I decided to try to install Qubes 4.3.0 from scratch rather than doing an in-place upgrade, as I have done so far. It seems more difficult than I expected. Maybe it is because it has been a few years since I installed for the first time.

I am facing the following challenges:

  1. Whenever I try to unlock my existing luks volume (where I have 4.2.4 installed), the installer either makes me wait for several minutes or hangs for infinity, especially when using the “Blivet-GUI”.

  2. I want to keep the current disk layout, but I can’t find a doc which explains how to preserve existing partition setup, and I am not much experienced with LVM. The automatic suggestion the installer gives me attempts to create sections on the drive and install the new system in the empty space that I have left for over provisioning. I don’t want that.

In 4.2.4 in /etc/fstab I have:

/dev/mapper/qubes_dom0-root /         ext4    defaults,x-systemd.device-timeout=0,discard,noatime 1 1
UUID=...                    /boot     ext4    defaults,discard,noatime 1 2
UUID=...                    /boot/efi vfat    umask=0077,shortname=winnt,discard 0 2
/dev/mapper/qubes_dom0-swap none      swap    defaults,x-systemd.device-timeout=0 0 0

user@dom0:~ >  lsblk -T /dev/nvme0n1 | head
NAME                                                                             MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1                                                                          259:0    0 953.9G  0 disk  
├─nvme0n1p1                                                                      259:1    0   600M  0 part  /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2                                                                      259:2    0     1G  0 part  /boot
└─nvme0n1p3                                                                      259:3    0 713.8G  0 part  
  └─luks-***                                                                     253:0    0 713.8G  0 crypt 
    ├─qubes_dom0-pool00_tmeta                                                    253:1    0    88M  0 lvm   
    │ └─qubes_dom0-pool00-tpool                                                  253:3    0 703.6G  0 lvm   
    │   ├─qubes_dom0-root                                                        253:4    0 703.6G  0 lvm   /
    │   ├─qubes_dom0-pool00                                                      253:6    0 703.6G  1 lvm

In the installer I see the /boot, /boot/efi but not / and swap, even if I am lucky to unlock the LUKS volume. So, I can’t simply say “Just use this existing section of my drive for this same purpose” for / and swap, as I would like.

  1. I have no idea what ‘PE’ to set whenever I am being offered to choose one.

I am basically lost.

Can someone please help?

2
1 Like
3

Thanks.

Unfortunately, this only describes how to create a partitioning structure (which I already have), not how to unlock and reuse it during the actual installation.

4

Delete and make again.

5

I wanted to keep some “extra” partitions, which was possible, only by manually deleting the 3 main ones, and telling the installer to use free space.

The 4.3 installer gave bigger boot and EFI than before, I think - it was good for me.

This does not keep the previous LUKS container. Is that that you really want? To keep the LVM setup sounds very tricky…

6

That was my initial intent, yes. I deleted the LUKS partition and installed but now I have a much bigger problem.