Why is there no partitioner preinstalled on any live ISO (KDE Plasma, full and minimal)?

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Why is there no partitioner preinstalled on any live ISO (KDE Plasma, full and minimal)?

It’s pretty stupid if you want to prepare your partitions before an installation in live mode and there is no partition tool available. Or I want to change my partitions afterwards in live mode etc … This can then only be installed if all outstanding updates are also made in this context, which is quite nonsense in live mode. In addition, a restart is then also required, which is of course completely pointless. Is there another Manjaro-DE apart from KDE, where e.g. Gparted is already available in live mode? You could at least put it on the Ventoy stick as well.

Why take something so important out of the live ISO?

If I have overlooked something here, please accept my apologies :innocent: .

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there are a bunch iso’s for preparing a system with a boot-stick if you want to partition something before installation. rescuezilla, systemrescue …
also, you can partition and manage it manually while installation.

yes you overlooked it

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I think you might have.

If GParted isn’t available in the Live Environment by default, you can still install it into memory, and use it. The main caveat is that it won’t survive a reboot; you would need to install it again.

If GParted is on the ISO you boot with from Ventoy, it will be available, otherwise, install it as I already mentioned. Some claim that GParted is available on the full ISO but not on the minimal ISO. That’s something to also keep in mind, if that’s the case; I never use a minimal ISO, so can’t confirm or deny.

You might also check whether parted is available via the terminal.

My personal favourite is the commandline gdisk for preparing my disks and partitions.

Cheers.

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There is. Gparted is available.

If you are looking for KDE partition manager - it is not there due to incompatibility with the installer.

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It is not, I have tried it also.

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gparted is on all Live ISO

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Hm …, when I search for “part” in the live session, I am only offered a link to Pamac, where I can then install GParted. So it is not there.

I think I’ll have to put an ISO of Mint or something similar on the stick for this case. Too bad …

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@linux-aarhus it seems the current profile of Plasma doesn’t ship with gparted, cos it had partitioner before: https://gitlab.manjaro.org/profiles-and-settings/iso-profiles/-/commit/daebb6092c5af0f1f3e1881139e274418be1f357. Will check that when I update the ISOs.

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thanks @philm :+1:

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Then the iso-profile changed with a short notice - or the ISO is build from another branch or repo.

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At least on cinnamon the Live-Packages are not from a share should they be?
Are there other d.e.'s where this is true? It appears to be only for plasma with calamares5

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There is fdisk.

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Well as I make my own ROM’s I already include gparted

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Well, for the sake of additional confirmation, GParted does not exist in the manjaro-kde-24.0-240513-linux69.iso Live environment.

Both parted and fdisk, however, exist as alternatives; possibly not as obvious, being commandline tools.

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Package lists for 24.0.2 ISOs show parted is included with all 3 DEs, but gparted’ is included on Xfce ISOs only

$ grep parted *pkgs
manjaro-gnome-24.0.2-240611-linux69.iso.pkgs:parted 3.6-1
manjaro-gnome-24.0.2-minimal-240611-linux69.iso.pkgs:parted 3.6-1
manjaro-kde-24.0.2-240611-linux69.iso.pkgs:parted 3.6-1
manjaro-kde-24.0.2-minimal-240611-linux66.iso.pkgs:parted 3.6-1
manjaro-xfce-24.0.2-240611-linux69.iso.pkgs:gparted 1.6.0-1
manjaro-xfce-24.0.2-240611-linux69.iso.pkgs:parted 3.6-1
manjaro-xfce-24.0.2-minimal-240611-linux69.iso.pkgs:gparted 1.6.0-1
manjaro-xfce-24.0.2-minimal-240611-linux69.iso.pkgs:parted 3.6-1
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I think you are all talking about the final installation.

The final installation may or may not include a GUI partition manager.

However - the Live ISO - the packages ONLY available when you boot the ISO has contained the package gparted for as long as I can remember.

The Packages-Live has historically been a symlink to iso-profiles/shared/Packages-Live.

You can verify that by looking at the relevant profiles on gitlab.

So we have two situations here

  1. the live ISO
    • gparted
    • clonezilla
    • … tools
  2. the result of the installation
    • which unpacks
      • desktopfs.sfs
      • rootfs.sfs
    • to the designated partition layout

The first entry - has contained gparted since I began as ISO maintainer back in - I think between 2017 and 2018, I cannot remember - and it has not changed since since around 1 year.

The second entry - may or may not contain a GUI partition management tool - depending on what the maintainer deem necessary.

@nikgnomic the result is expected - because that file only contains what is contained in the rootfs.sfs and desktop.sfs - and since the livefs.sfs is ONLY live - your result is expected - otherwise the packagelist would be incorrect.

Please see the profiles

The Packages-LIve in the profile folder is a symlinkt to shared/Packages-Live · master · Profiles & Settings / iso-profiles · GitLab

However - it is entirely possible that - for some unexplainable reason the release manager has chosen to modify the profiles locally - and without publishing the changes back to the repo - this would have unpredicable results.

The presence of calamares5 indicates that a ISO build using a profile with local change is most unlikely.

Please note history of - Packages-Live - I just did - it looks like my memory is bad - gparted was mentioned in 1 year ago - in a gnome update commit.

By all reference in the repos and the files used to construct the ISO - gparted package should be installed - I downloaded the current manjaro-kde-24.0.1-minimal-240529-linux69.iso to double check

@nikgnomic
I stand corrected - the release manager did indeed change the Packages-Live file.

That happens when one does not remember that Packages-Live is a symlink - if you change Packages-Live in XFCE you change ALL - @philm - you should know - :grin: - you architected the system - right?

My deepest apologies for being so stubborn - not counting in the human factor :grinning:

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Could this be the problem?

It is definitely NOT included in the live session, period!

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“Disks,” is in the repositories. Makes short work of such endeavors.

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If those endeavours were limited to automatic mounting of volumes; formatting volumes; and backing up and restoring disk images; I’d be forced to agree.

A very handy package; disks (gnome-disk-utility) does exist in the Official Repositories, however, it is not a partitioning utility.

I’ve noticed this confusion from time to time; I suppose we might place the blame on Redhat for overly simplified; even ambiguous; naming schemes.

I don’t think so;
certainly he has a longer memory than some in this thread.

However, it’s easy to make the presumption that gparted would be included in the live session of a Manjaro ISO, especially considering that until recently, it was, as I understand it. In the current XFCE ISO, for example, gparted still exists (I’m looking at it now, for confirmation).

I too would have expected that gparted should have existed in the KDE ISO live session. Thanks for bringing attention to the fact that it doesn’t.

Of course, being in the live session is only a matter of convenience; as mentioned earlier, there is an easy workaround if gparted is needed before installation:

This works as easily as having installed it via your user environment.

I think each user is responsible for whatever they might include on their Ventoy stick. However, it’s an interesting idea; to have a few tools available before actually booting any of the ISO’s stored on the Ventoy USB.

Cheers.

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