Why does Anaconda overrides user decisions?

[Sudhir Khanger]

On Friday, January 23, 2015 11:15:02 AM T.C. Hollingsworth wrote:
> 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.
> 

I choose manual partitioning for a specific reason. When I choose manual 
partitioning I expect it to let me make legal decisions about partitioning.

The last time I installed Fedora 21 Anaconda was dead set to stick a data 
partition between two system partitions. And 99% of users would care about 
partition numbers because a data partition between two system partitions or 
sticking swap between a bunch of data partitions makes it impossible to 
shrink/extend/merge without too much hassle. 

> > 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.

Thanks. I will do that. Anacoda is the weakest link in Fedora toolchain. The 
non-linear UI is completely non-intuitive and not to mention it being GTK+ 
means it will keep breaking in non-GNOME environments.

-- 
Regards,
Sudhir Khanger,
sudhirkhanger.com,
github.com/donniezazen,
5577 8CDB A059 085D 1D60  807F 8C00 45D9 F5EF C394.
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