New Debian 12 install

larstrier · 07-09-2023, 09:45 AM

I currently have Debian 11 on my desktop and would like to dual boot with debian 12.
I have found this tutorial very useful as the debian pages are labyrinthine: https://ostechnix.com/install-debian-12-bookworm/.

I will be downloading a debian-live-usb-installer .iso onto my usb.
After a SHA512SUMS check - I'm going to use the dd command and 'burn' the .iso onto the usb.

After booting from usb - I'll be going through the install wizard to install debian 12 to my disk drive.
I have a few questions:

1. My current OS has the following partitions:

Code:

# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 232.89 GiB, 250059350016 bytes, 488397168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xf45215aa

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1            2048 122097663 122095616 58.2G 83 Linux
/dev/sda2  *    122097664 126003199   3905536  1.9G ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sda3       126003200 165064703  39061504 18.6G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I want to allocate about 60GB of unallocated space to the new debian 12 install.
Everything will reside on the new 60GB partition.
a) So I assign '/' (boot) to the 60GB partition?
b) What do I do about the uefi partition on sda2?
c) Can I assign sda3 swap as swap for the new install too?
Just to let you know - I don't actually configure the OS to hibernate to swap.
I only suspend-to-ram. This avoids writing to disk as with hibernate.

2.GRUB Installation

I always get stumped with this one.
After every install - grub seems to get confused with the original OS and fails to show the grub screen with the 2 installs.
I end up having to delete the new install and try again.
Or install another debian install and trying a different option on the grub page!

Please does anyone know the option to take when installing grub with an existing grub on the mbr?
Also I have a uefi motherboard and have no clue how that works when installing grub.

GlennsPref · 07-10-2023, 07:27 PM

Hi, ok, Deb11 on sda1.

the EFI partition doesn't need to be that big, but should work fine and will be linked to >> during the install of the boot loader...

Your new installation will use the swap that's available, you won't need another one.

install grub to the main system... sda in your case, it will update the list with the new install kernel version.

You may edit /etc/default/grub to be sure os-prober is called to find other OS's on the system to boot.

Don't worry if you can't edit it now, you can do it later when you have rebooted into the deb12 install.

Just try not to touch sda1. Also, if you do touch the EFI or swap partitions they will get a new UUID, and that could halt your access to deb11 install.

But if it does happen you can fix it... like above.

larstrier · 07-11-2023, 04:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlennsPref

the EFI partition doesn't need to be that big, but should work fine and will be linked to >> during the install of the boot loader...

1. So when I am on the 'Partition Disks' part of the debian install - I assign the same EFI partition (sda2) to the new debian 12 install?

2. This EFI partition (sda2) must also be assigned the boot (/) partition?

3. The existing swap partition (sda3) should also be the swap partition of the new debian 12 partition?

Quote:

install grub to the main system... sda in your case, it will update the list with the new install kernel version.

I see. So I'll just apply the default option.
This should be the:

Code:

primary drive (UEFI partition/boot record

which is actually written on the 'GRUB install' page?
So in my case the GRUB install page should be referring to my sda2 (EFI partition?

GlennsPref · 07-12-2023, 05:55 PM

Quote:

I assign the same EFI partition (sda2) to the new debian 12 install?

In this situation of having 2 Debian installs, point any reference to grub on your new deb12 (/)root partition because /boot is in /. That way /boot will be kept separate for each install.

Quote:

This EFI partition (sda2) must also be assigned the boot (/) partition?

I'm not really sure about EFI, I stopped using it as soon as I found a way, ymmv. Generally I use a separate disk for other OS's and have grub unite them all from the Primary SSD boot loader.

Quote:

The existing swap partition (sda3) should also be the swap partition of the new debian 12 partition?

The swap partition will be shared, you only want one, or it will slow down your boot and shutdown time.

I see you will need to test a few things...

When the install finally asks, do you want to install the boot-loader? it will still install the files for grub and re-fresh the entries on the main harddrive grub page.