Fresh install without erasing data of external drive

5 replies [Last post]
hack and hack
Offline
Joined: 04/02/2015

I have drive A and drive B.
I want a fresh install on A while setting up a mount point for B (already has user data, and is encrypted).

Some background : B was initially empty and set up with LVM.
Since the SSD with the OS gave up on me, I can decrypt it and access it with a live CD.

My first attempt :
I planned to partition A with LVM (/, /home, and so on)
while setting up the mount point for B without erasing it.
But it seems I have to select the type of partition first (ext4, physical volume for LVM, and so on. I feel like using "do not use partition").

I could also simply unplug the drives, make the install, and plug them again.
But the problem remains: naming them and setting up the mount point.

What's the simplest way to do so ?
Is it better to set it up later in fstab ?

hack and hack
Offline
Joined: 04/02/2015

I forgot one thing:
I'm in the manual partitioning page,
and the disk shoes as sdb, with tiny bits of space before and after.
So I don't know if it counts as a partition.

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Offline
Joined: 07/24/2010

With a ecryptfs-encrypted /home partition, selecting it as the /home mount point (without formatting, of course) in Trisquel 8's installer worked like a charm for me (setting up the same user with the same password). With LVM's encryption, I do not know.

hack and hack
Offline
Joined: 04/02/2015

Assuming you did manual partitioning, did you have to select the partition type ?

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Offline
Joined: 07/24/2010

I am talking about the manual partitioning in Trisquel's graphical installer, yes. I believe it detected by itself the type of the filesystem, XFS, that I wanted mounted at /home. The installer needs that piece of information to write /etc/fstab.

However, it was quite some time ago (before Trisquel 8's official release) and, again, my /home is encrypted with ecryptfs, not LVM.

hack and hack
Offline
Joined: 04/02/2015

Thanks Magic Banana.
Out of curiosity:
1. I've unplugged B (the important one) and kept A and C plugged (empty).
2. I've put C as ext4 and with a specific mount point. there's a file in it, to see if it's still there after the install.
3. I configured A as LVM, and made / and /swap as logical volumes.

What scared me was the the message about formatting C.
I selected only A for LVM anyway, but still.

Anyway, I couldn't install GRUB for some reason (this machine is going to be the end of me...).
Still, I finished the install without GRUB and started the live CD. And the drive is not encrypted anymore, plus the file disappeared...

So for LVM, it seems to be much safer to unplug the drive with data, make the install and configure the mount point in fstab.

Maybe the path was kept, since the drive is encrypted.
Not sure if info about mount point is also kept on the drive.