Sparky installer issue

[SleepyD]

Hi.  Does anybody know why the Sparky installer requires you to format an existing EFI and Swap partitions to install Sparky?  I've noticed this with a few Debian based distros.  I have a multiboot Linux PC.  A lot of distros automatically pickup the existing EFI and Swap partitions.  I don't want to have to correct the Fstab on each distro after I install Sparky which is what I will have to do since it makes me reformat the EFI and Swap partitions.

[paxmark1]

Sparky 4 or 5??

Calamares or Advanced. 

if installed the output of "inxi -b"  gives us a lot more info that is not that intrusive.

It wouldn't hurt to post your present etc/fstab
example Sparky lxqt on a netbook

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# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=f817a267-6199-424f-8f2e-c731faaed6c0 / ext4 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda3 home
UUID=5cf442f8-ffc4-4e6d-8fd1-15960bcb019b /home ext4 relatime 0 0
# /dev/sda2
UUID=71bdab69-9c23-4474-989e-f965c73614ed none swap sw 0 0
# cdrom
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0


And for down the road having numerous linuxs os's booting on same computer - yeah share the same swap.  However sharing the same /home means sharing the same .dot files.  That can pose problems. 

some people with multi-boots use a /data partition and /home1  (for os 1) /home2  (for os 2), etc.  That solves the .dot file problem. 
lvm can be quite nice for things like this. Another option I like virtualbox or kvm/qemu  for kicking tires of different OS's  if you have enough memory.  I do not know if Calamares does lvm yet. 

https://calamares.io/
Also if you are using calamares installer, please check their bug list.

https://sparkylinux.org/wiki/doku.php/advanced_installer    the other option for Sparky install.

[SleepyD]

Hi paxmark1.  Sorry for the late response.  Thanks for the response.  I ran the advanced installer options to use the existing partitions for EFI and Swap.  It seemed to work.  I don't have the delayed boot when I login to Peppermint OS but I do have the delayed boot on some other OSs.  I'm not sure why but it is the same issue when I installed some other Debian distros before.  I will have to edit Fstab on the other OSs.  I only have a dual core i3 so I don't generally go for running distros in a VM.  I have a separate partition where I store my data.

Here's my inxi-b output:

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System:    Kernel: 4.9.0-8-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit)
           Desktop: LXDE (Openbox 3.6.1) Distro: SparkyLinux 4 (tyche)
Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: GIGABYTE model: MKLP3AP-00 v: 1.x
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: F3 date: 10/20/2015
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i3-6100U (-HT-MCP-) speed/max: 447/2300 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel HD Graphics 520
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.2 drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.6
Network:   Card-1: Intel Ethernet Connection I219-V driver: e1000e
           Card-2: Intel Wireless 3165 driver: iwlwifi
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (1.8% used)
Info:      Processes: 168 Uptime: 21 min Memory: 575.8/7903.4MB
           Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.5



[paxmark1]

I do not have multi-boot (except for an sdhc  for one os and small hdd on an atom)  so I can't try to see how/if sparky does not give the option to not fomat existing and swaps.  I applaud that you use a separate partition for your data.  Using the advanced installer seems wise also. If i read correctly it appears that for you the advanced installer does not re-format the swap and efi.

If Calamares doe do that, that would be upstream in Calamares for the fix.  Standard Debian has their own installer.

Delayed boot. You can hit the escape key during the boot to escape from the Plymouth screen and watch for things that slow it down. Viewing the logs can show what might be slowing the boot down.  I like "systemd-analyze blame" for a quick look at what slows things down.  "journalctl -b -1" will show your last boot logs and you can use grep  to see what fails  "journalctl -b -1 | grep ail"   will show fail failed Failed, and the false positives of daily, etc. 

Have fun, others might have ideas also.