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archlinux
Archinstall encrypts already existing partitions
When using the latest Archinstall (2.4.2) it seems that it encrypts all existing partitions even when they are not edited in the disk layout configuration.
One time i had a windows installation on the disk with its 3 partitions and created 2 additional partitions with archinstall. However, when installing archinstall immediately started to encrypt the windows partitions although i did not edit them in the disk layout.
The same thing happened again when trying to reinstall archlinux on its own / partition without editing the existing /home partition in disk layout. This even though the /home partition was already encrypted, so it seems that archinstall doesn't simply want to encrypt unencrypted partitions but simply all existing partitions.
Unfortunately i can't provide logs as i didn't go forward with both installations but this should be easy to replicate.
Due to the already mentioned bugs that don't let me select f2fs when creating a new partition and the small / partition when letting archinstall suggest a partition layout (19.5GB), the "safest" option right now is for me to let archinstall suggest a layout without /home and giving the disk entirely to archinstall.
Could you supply /var/log/archinstall/user_disk_layout.json and possibly the install.log?
Just make sure they do not contain any passwords! #1062
I'm sorry i can't because i aborted the installations, made a few new attempts and then finally installed with the suggested layout without /home. Therefore i don't have the logs, sorry.
This should be easy to replicate though.
I just had time to look into it again. The problem seems to be, that archinstall defaults to formatting all existing partitions and can't be told not to.
I took the attached screenshot after opening "disk layout -> select what to do" without further input. I am not able to unmark the partitions from being formatted.
To make sure that "format: xyz" is not just an information, i selected a partition to be formatted with another filesystem like btrfs. Thereafter, it says "format: btrfs" and i am not able to unmark the partition from formatting. So i can't revert the entry to "format: xyz" and archinstall would apparently go on to format the partition.
I think this is a bug. The default should be not to format anything and i should be able to unmark partitions from being formatted.
I think it's related to: https://github.com/archlinux/archinstall/issues/998
Could this be it?
Closing as resolved for now, if this re-appears we can have a dive into it
