Why does Anaconda overrides user decisions?

[T.C. Hollingsworth]

On Jan 23, 2015 3:37 AM, "Sudhir Khanger" <ml at sudhirkhanger.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> 1. Anaconda changes X in sdaX. If you make a choice on order of /boot,
swap,
> and / partitions, Anaconda changes the order. As long as layout is valid
why
> does Anaconda has to change it.

IIRC it likes to put /boot near the beginning because some old BIOSes
refuse to boot if it is too far into the disk.

In practical terms very few people care what order their partitions are and
would rather have their system boot than anaconda be super pedantic about
the order in which you created the partitions in the GUI. :-)

If you must have a particular partition order you can use a kickstart file
or partition your drive with your favorite CLI or GUI partition manager
first and use anaconda only to assign mount points.

> 2. 4 primary partitions are allowed on a disk. If I do that Anaconda
changes
> it to 3 primary and 1 logical partition. Why?

As Rex pointed out, if you do that you won't be able to add another one
later. A long time ago, I forgot about the 4 partition rule with old
anaconda, which happily allowed you to do this, and it was a giant PITA
later on when I decided to add another partition. (For my next install I
used LVM and haven't looked back. :-)

Again, if you really want to do this, use kickstart or partition outside of
anaconda first.

With regards to these two: Anaconda is an OS installer, not a general
partition manager.  It therefore tries not to give you too much rope to
hang yourself with, and makes executive decisions about minor details like
partition numbers that 99% of users could care less about.

But if you don't like its decisions you're not forced to use it; just use
what you want first instead. Anaconda will not touch an existing partition
layout unless you tell it to.

> 3. There is no option to create a partition and leave it for future use.
How
> do I create a partition and not have to use it immediately.

This sounds perfectly reasonable. If anaconda doesn't let you create a
partition without assigning a mount point, file a feature request in
bugzilla.

In the meantime, you can just remove the unwanted entry from /etc/fstab, or
again, kickstart or parted first.

-T.C.
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