creation of ext4 filesystem takes 20+ hours???

[Liam Proven]

On Fri, 28 Oct 2022 at 14:36, Marco Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> wrote:
>
> Hi Liam, and thanks for stepping in. Now, I understand what you wrote but, for example, I have no idea of whether I was using MBR or GPT. So, could you or anybody else
> please spend a few more minutes  listing what to do, and in what order?
>
> AFAICT from your post and some quick googling, I should:
>
> 1) quit the install, turn off the computer

Sure.

> 2) play with the BIOS to make it boot from /dev/sdb

*After* installing.

> 3) restart, retry the installation

No.

1, 3, then 2.


> am I missing something?

Yes.

It is not stage 1, 3, 2. This is 3 operations and you are missing at least one.

It is not:

3) restart, retry the installation

It should be:

3) restart
4) retry the installation


> And in any case, can you please detail how to proceed/what to look for or change in step 2, or good references to read?

You are missing Colin's advice. Read it.

Work out your desired partitioning. *On paper.*

Work out how much in GiB you have on the bigger drive. Work out how
much physical RAM you have. Double it. Write this down.


3) Restart
4) Boot from a live medium
5) Run Gparted, remove all existing partitions, make new ones
according to your written plan.
6) Once the new partitions are in place, do a custom install, and select them.

IIUC you have:

sda: 320 GB, ~305 GiB
sdb: 64 GB

You need to make 2 new MBR partition tables, once for each drive.

My suggestion is:

On sda...

1 extended partition, /dev/sda1
In that, 1 logical partition, /dev/sda5, type ext4

On sdb...

1 500MiB FAT32 partition, marked type ESP, bootable
/dev/sdb1

*NOTE: MB NOT GB!* That is 0.5 GiB.

1 primary partition, type ext4, all the rest of the space *minus
(physical RAM x 2)*
/dev/sdb2

1 extended partition taking the rest of the space.
/dev/sdb3

In that, 1 logical partition, size 2x RAM, type Linux-Swap.
/dev/sdb5

*Now* Reboot again.

Pick "try Ubuntu". Connect to your Wifi if you are not using a cable to connect.

THEN run the installer. Do a full install. Pick custom partitioning --
"do something else" or words to that effect.

Pick /dev/sda1 and click Edit
Type ext4
Do not format
Mount point:
/home

Pick /dev/sdb1
Type FAT32
Do not format
Mount point:
/boot/efi

Pick /dev/sdb2
Type ext4
Do not format
Mount point:
/

Pick /dev/sdb5
Type swap
Do not format
Mount point: (swap)

Then continue with the installation.

-- 
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