I am trying to dual boot the new Fedora Workstation 43, I used to have the previous version, which I deleted by just removing its two partitions, and then tried to install this version.
I want to have my Fedora and Windows completely separated on my single NVME drive. I choose what to boot by smashing the F11 key or changing the boot order.
I used to have a 1.074 GB EFI partition and a BTRFS partition for root and other, for fedora 42, which didn’t “touch” or mount my windows boot loader during install.
Now when I want to install the new version it wants to mount my windows boot loader every time for some reason.
I have tried to find a work around for this while playing around in a VM. This also occurs if you create empty EFI partitions with no mount point for example with 105MB in size, 1 or more. Restart the installer or PC, create your partitions again in the installer, and it still wants to mount them when I have allocated it the /boot/efi partition. Even when using mount point assignment at the last screen it still wants to mount the windows boot loader.
I know in the screenshot for fedora 43 it shows that the /boot/efi partition is 1.074GB this is also occurs even if the size is 2GB or 4GB it does not matter, and or having a separate ext4 partition for /boot.
How do I work around this? I have PTSD from these installers.
You seem to be missing the creation of a /boot partition (ext4) which needs to be 2GB in size for f43.
If you add that partition it should then properly install.
Note that the recommend on the right side shows that /boot is still recommended.
Even though p1 is shown as available it is not required to have it used. You have p5 as your efi partition and the only thing missing in your config (which It appears is required when using btrfs, even though only recommended) is the /boot partition.
The bios needs access to /boot as ext4.
That cannot be done in a btrfs file system with a standard installation. If you were using ext4 for the root file system then a separate /boot partition would not be required.
I remember this being reported here on the forums, I just cannot find the specific post.
Given that there’s no mount point presented by the installer for nvme0n1p1, it might be that it’s there for information purposes only. But such a supposition is certainly not enough for you to go ahead, unless you have proper backup (or even a full-disk clone).
I wonder if the suggestion above by Jeff changes the proposed storage layout and doesn’t try to mount nvme0n1p1 anymore.
That display above is from the storage editor and the OP has already indicated the partitions he wished to use, but failed to include a /boot partition as ext4 which the new web installer appears to require when using btrfs for the root partition.
In that part of the installation it seems equivalent to the custom installation in the anaconda installer where the user has to specify both the partitions wanted and the mount point for them. Thus, it is not trying to mount or use nvme0n1p1 but instead it is displayed as a potential, already existing, partition that may be used.
If /boot is mandatory (for root as BTRFS), then the information in the right-hand side pane of the storage editor is at least misleading, as it reads there “recommended”, without any reference to the FS type of the root partition.
However, I’ve read the OP’s post again, and I understand that the outcome was the same with distinct /boot partition as well.
I agree 100% that it is misleading.
It is known, however, that the new installer with f43 requires a 2 GB /boot partition when using btrfs. It will fail, as has been noted with numerous threads here, if that condition is not met.
Simply add the /boot partition in the storage manager then install. Fedora will appropriately add its own ESP flags to the new efi partition, and grub will see the windows efi partition and add it to the boot menu when booting from the fedora ESP. Even if it does not, the bios boot menu should be able to select booting from one ESP or the other when there are 2 on the same drive.
according to the original post, p1 was the windows efi partition.
p5 was the new fedora efi partition, and p6 was to be the btrfs file system.
What is shown now is quite different, with p5,6,7, & 8
You should only need p5 as /boot/efi (and reformat that as efi), p6 as /boot (formatted as ext4), and p7 as the btrfs with both / and /home sub-volumes.
I also note that this time it is showing as reinstall instead of a new installation which appears different than the original.
Yes, I have tried to reproduce the issue on a system with a similar, but not identical partition layout using Fedora Reinstall. The observation is the same: Anaconda wants to touch both EFI partitions. Clearing the boot/esp flags of the Windows EFI partition hides that partition from Anaconda.
Thank you this worked, didn’t know that partition flags existed and that you can change them so easily, installed fedora workstation 43 without any problems.
Though when you open the installer on a drive that has snapper snapshots, you get a mess like this, doesn’t really do anything just looks weird, disappears when the partition/subvolume is removed.
