On 01/05/2021 06:38 PM, Mike McCulley wrote:
Package: debian-installer Version: buster Severity: normal Dear Maintainer, I have a triple-boot setup so GRUB and swap both exist, and that creates the annoyance. Debian installer displays messages about the necessity of having GRUB installed, which implies it's possible to not install GRUB, but that option is not available. After installing Debian it's necessary to boot the primary OS and reinstall the custom GRUB. Life would be better if there was an option to skip the 'install GRUB' step.
I don't recall what options are available in the installer's default mode, but if "expert" mode is chosen there is option to not install any bootloader.
There is a related annoying assumption by the installer is that the user wants the system currently being installed to be the default. I work around this by only installing grub for the first system on a machine and then run "update-grub" on that system once I've installed each additional system.
Debian installer formats swap, which changes the UUID, and not formatting is not an option. After installing Debian it's necessary to edit any other fstabs and update the swap UUIDs. Life would be better if there was an option to not format swap.
There is an option to not install swap.The problem when installing an additional Debian system, the installer wants to use the existing swap partition (if any). The workaround is to to explicitly tell the installer to not use that partition for anything. If the new install requires swap, then you must edit /etc/fstab .