Partitioning in the installer

Partitioning in the installer

[Demi Marie Obenour]

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I'm working on updates and am very close to getting something that at
least runs.  However, the installer doesn't support more than three
partitions, so I have to create the others manually.

Where would the best place to address this be?  I'm not sure if this
needs a patch to the installer's C source code, or if I should fix
it in a script somewhere.
-- 
Sincerely,
Demi Marie Obenour (she/her/hers)

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Re: Partitioning in the installer

[Alyssa Ross]

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Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:

> I'm working on updates and am very close to getting something that at
> least runs.  However, the installer doesn't support more than three
> partitions, so I have to create the others manually.
>
> Where would the best place to address this be?  I'm not sure if this
> needs a patch to the installer's C source code, or if I should fix
> it in a script somewhere.

Did you look at how GNOME OS does this yet?

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Re: Partitioning in the installer

[Dom (shymega) Rodriguez]

On 27.10.2025 18:05, Alyssa Ross wrote:
>Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I'm working on updates and am very close to getting something that at
>> least runs.  However, the installer doesn't support more than three
>> partitions, so I have to create the others manually.
>>
>> Where would the best place to address this be?  I'm not sure if this
>> needs a patch to the installer's C source code, or if I should fix
>> it in a script somewhere.
>
>Did you look at how GNOME OS does this yet?

I've worked with the build tooling for GNOME OS as part of $dayjob, so
if any help is needed understanding the structure, feel free to ping me
on Matrix :-)

It's [GNOME OS] based on freedesktop-sdk with Buildstream for
integration. `genimage` is probably what you're after?

Best wishes,
--
Dom Rodriguez

Re: Partitioning in the installer

[Alyssa Ross]

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"Dom (shymega) Rodriguez" <shymega@shymega.org.uk> writes:

> On 27.10.2025 18:05, Alyssa Ross wrote:
>>Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> I'm working on updates and am very close to getting something that at
>>> least runs.  However, the installer doesn't support more than three
>>> partitions, so I have to create the others manually.
>>>
>>> Where would the best place to address this be?  I'm not sure if this
>>> needs a patch to the installer's C source code, or if I should fix
>>> it in a script somewhere.
>>
>>Did you look at how GNOME OS does this yet?
>
> I've worked with the build tooling for GNOME OS as part of $dayjob, so
> if any help is needed understanding the structure, feel free to ping me
> on Matrix :-)
>
> It's [GNOME OS] based on freedesktop-sdk with Buildstream for
> integration. `genimage` is probably what you're after?

I think what we're specifically interested in is actually the GNOME OS
installer, rather than the image generator.

Do they have an installer that copies a disk image / partition images to
the target disk?  Does the installer image also provide a live GNOME OS
environment?  Do they have A/B updates?  How do those partitions get
created in the install process?

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Re: Partitioning in the installer

[Dom (shymega) Rodriguez]

On 28.10.2025 11:08, Alyssa Ross wrote:
>"Dom (shymega) Rodriguez" <shymega@shymega.org.uk> writes:
>
>> On 27.10.2025 18:05, Alyssa Ross wrote:
>>>Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> I'm working on updates and am very close to getting something that at
>>>> least runs.  However, the installer doesn't support more than three
>>>> partitions, so I have to create the others manually.
>>>>
>>>> Where would the best place to address this be?  I'm not sure if this
>>>> needs a patch to the installer's C source code, or if I should fix
>>>> it in a script somewhere.
>>>
>>>Did you look at how GNOME OS does this yet?
>>
>> I've worked with the build tooling for GNOME OS as part of $dayjob, so
>> if any help is needed understanding the structure, feel free to ping me
>> on Matrix :-)
>>
>> It's [GNOME OS] based on freedesktop-sdk with Buildstream for
>> integration. `genimage` is probably what you're after?
>
>I think what we're specifically interested in is actually the GNOME OS
>installer, rather than the image generator.
>
>Do they have an installer that copies a disk image / partition images to
>the target disk?  Does the installer image also provide a live GNOME OS
>environment?  Do they have A/B updates?  How do those partitions get
>created in the install process?

Probably a question to ask in the GNOME OS Matrix channel, if there is
one. 

Does Spectrum support A/B updates? Perhaps ChromeOS is worth a look at
for inspiration of implementation detail.

Best wishes,
--
Dom Rodriguez

Re: Partitioning in the installer

[Alyssa Ross]

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"Dom (shymega) Rodriguez" <shymega@shymega.org.uk> writes:

> On 28.10.2025 11:08, Alyssa Ross wrote:
>>"Dom (shymega) Rodriguez" <shymega@shymega.org.uk> writes:
>>
>>> On 27.10.2025 18:05, Alyssa Ross wrote:
>>>>Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> I'm working on updates and am very close to getting something that at
>>>>> least runs.  However, the installer doesn't support more than three
>>>>> partitions, so I have to create the others manually.
>>>>>
>>>>> Where would the best place to address this be?  I'm not sure if this
>>>>> needs a patch to the installer's C source code, or if I should fix
>>>>> it in a script somewhere.
>>>>
>>>>Did you look at how GNOME OS does this yet?
>>>
>>> I've worked with the build tooling for GNOME OS as part of $dayjob, so
>>> if any help is needed understanding the structure, feel free to ping me
>>> on Matrix :-)
>>>
>>> It's [GNOME OS] based on freedesktop-sdk with Buildstream for
>>> integration. `genimage` is probably what you're after?
>>
>>I think what we're specifically interested in is actually the GNOME OS
>>installer, rather than the image generator.
>>
>>Do they have an installer that copies a disk image / partition images to
>>the target disk?  Does the installer image also provide a live GNOME OS
>>environment?  Do they have A/B updates?  How do those partitions get
>>created in the install process?
>
> Probably a question to ask in the GNOME OS Matrix channel, if there is
> one. 

We got our answer. :)

https://spectrum-os.org/lists/archives/spectrum-devel/87wm4dlkhz.fsf@alyssa.is

> Does Spectrum support A/B updates? Perhaps ChromeOS is worth a look at
> for inspiration of implementation detail.

That's the idea.  GNOME OS is the more obvious place to look because
we'll be using the same updater implementation (systemd-sysupdate).

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