On Jan 11, 2015 11:26 AM, "Steve McIntyre" <steve@einval.com> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 10:10:39AM -0500, Andrew Brouwers wrote:
> >Package: debian-installer
> >Version: 20150107
> >
> >I've tried using each beta2 + a daily image (from 20150109) to install
> >debian on a laptop, which already had partitions in place. This includes
> >an EFI partition, which was formatted on a previous distribution using
> >"mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/foo"
> >
> >During installation of jessie, the installer recognized the partition well,
> >and allowed me to delete the contents. However, it refused to easily allow
> >me to format it, always opting to keep the data (shown with a "K" in the
> >summary page).
> >
> >I suspect that the debian installer wasn't quite sure how to handle it
> >being 32-bit, as the D-I seems to prefer and use 16. As a result, the
> >partitioning failed. I was eventually able to go back, and after some
> >selecting/un-selecting, finally noticed that the installer flagged the
> >partition with "f" for format.
>
> It's a deliberate choice, nothing particularly to do with it being 16-
> or 32-bit. We try to keep existing ESPs in case there are other OSes
> using them, basically.
>
> --
> Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve@einval.com
> < liw> everything I know about UK hotels I learned from "Fawlty Towers"
>
So the installer should have been fine dealing with a 32bit partition? That was not my experience; it failed until I was able to trigger the installer to format the partition, at which point package installation proceeded. My theory was just that it couldn't mount or interact with fat32 for some reason.