I am sorry I don't get what you are doing, and why you have problems like not being able to set the boot flag and why ext4 isn't available. Are you using Manual Partitioning? This is recommended for an individual setup as you like it.

Steps:
1.) Highlight the disk where you want to install (sda, nvme....) and press Return (RET). You should be asked if you want to create a new partition table. Say yes and choose gpt (I just did that in a VM). May you have created partitions already, does not matter, they are getting deleted.
2.) When thats done, in the next screen you should see the disk and below that a line that says free space xxx GB. Move the cursor to the free space and press RET.
3.) On the next screen select "Create a new partition", press RET. Specify 256M as size, Beginning. Press RET.
4.) On the next screen first scroll down to Use As (ext4 should be presented as default). Press RET. You should get a list with 15 choices starting with ext4, ext3, ..... , Do not use.
5.) Select EFI System Partition and press RET. You should get a screen where the name is empty, the bootable flag is already set. You can't specify any mount point here, this is done automagically by the install process.
6.) Move the cursor up to the Name field, press return and call it e.g. EFISystem.
7.) Move the cursor down to "Done setting up the Partition" and press RET.
8.) On the next screen move the cursor to the large free space below the EFI partition. Press RET. Specify 64G, beginning, RET. Note: the installer leaves 1M empty before the EFI partition.
9.) Again you should see a screen that starts with Name, then Use as (you should see ext4 as default). You should leave everything at default, and just modify Name and Label. When you are happy move down the cursor to "Done setting up the Partition" and press RET.
10.) Same game for the swap partition. Specify 16G and beginning. USE as Swap partition. Done RET.
11.) Same game for /home. Slect the rest of the disk, Use as ext4, mount point /home. Done RET.
12.) Move cursor to "Finish partitioning..." and RET.

Now you should have the disk split up in 256M EFI System, 64G for /, 16G for Swap and the rest for /home.

rolfie

I just tried the latest netinstall dated Sept 13th in VBox. The installer main menu misses the "Setup users and passwords" initially. I usually load the LVM and the static address bits during "Load installer components ...", and after that the "Setup users and passwords" suddenly is present.

rolfie

Stop, that not right. You need to go for an efi partitioning scheme. If you are getting asked, use GPT not msdos.

1.) 256M as "efi system partition", will be formatted as FAT32, bootable flag set, name is your choice (not required), will be mounted to /boot/efi later on. Will hold the efi starter.
2.) 1024M to 2048M for /boot (but only if you want to encrypt your root). ext4, name is your choice (not required)
3.) Unencrypted root: since you have a 500G disk/ssd I would spend 64G for /root. Gives you plenty of headroom for additional SW. ext4. name is your choice (not required).
4.) I would spend 16G for swap
5.) Rest for /home, ext4, name to your choice again.

If you want everything encrypted, thats a different beast.

rolfie

What is Beowulf Gold? The step "Setup users and passwords" normally comes past setting up the network. In expert mode you just have to klick through that step. Maybe https://www.devuan.org/os/documentation … all-devuan helps to show what to expect. Chimaera isn't that much different.

Make sure you got the official downloads from Devuan.

rolfie

Have a look at https://www.devuan.org/os/install and drill down the links. Especially https://www.devuan.org/os/documentation … all-devuan may be useful. Unfortunately it only shows the legacy grub installation, not the efi version.

rolfie

@Ralph: thanks for taking up this side issue. Maybe we should ask Golinux to split out this as a separate thread.

Ok, lunchbreak is over now. I have looked at the original iso and my creation, here is the output:

# fdisk -l devuan_chimaera_4.0.beta-20210906_amd64_netinstall.iso
Disk devuan_chimaera_4.0.beta-20210906_amd64_netinstall.iso: 371 MiB, 389021696 bytes, 759808 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: 0x6b8b4567

Device                                                  Boot Start    End Sectors  Size Id Type
devuan_chimaera_4.0.beta-20210906_amd64_netinstall.iso1 *        0 759807  759808  371M  0 Empty
devuan_chimaera_4.0.beta-20210906_amd64_netinstall.iso2       4040   5511    1472  736K ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
# fdisk -l daedalus.iso
Disk daedalus.iso: 373,22 MiB, 391350272 bytes, 764356 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

The VM based on the daedalus.iso is running Mate desktop on encrypted LVM with openrc with daedalus in the sources.list.

I can't answer what VBox does not see. Does it make sense to show the printouts I am getting?

rolfie

Asking the seller isn't an option? At least give it a try.

rolfie

Tried to install the devuan_chimaera_4.0.beta-20210906_amd64_netinstall.iso in a Virtualbox VM in efi mode. Got two issues.

1.) The Devuan isos do not boot in VBox efi mode. My solution was: unpack the iso into a folder, add the EFI directory from a Debian iso, and create my own iso with Brasero. That boots directly.

2.) efivarsfs isn't mounted on the boots past installation. Added the following line to fstab, and now I have the efi variables available.

efivarfs /sys/firmware/efi/efivars efivarfs rw 0 0

I think both topics deserve a look at.

rolfie

Evolution

Virtualbox 6.1.26 now is available from Orcale directly as .deb. Can be installed via dpkg -i name.deb

rolfie

Thanks, looks like my problem has been reported already: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … bug=983285, unfortunately for arm64. I'll try to add that this is a general probbem.

rolfie