Dear Maintainer,

Situation: performing a fresh install using 13.1 netinst on amd64.

I want to keep the existing partition table and one partition
containing data, but reformat the root and EFI partitions.

Problem: When manual partitioning during install, the installer always
marks an EFI partition as "K" meaning keep exsisting data, even if
there is no filesystem in the partition.  This means it cannot mount
the partition and installation cannot proceed.  The system is left
unbootable.

There is no menu option to format the partition presented, as there
would be for any other type of partition.

There is an "erase data on this partition" option.  If this is selected
and confirmed then it is obviously essential to format the partition,
but it is not possible to do so.

Expected behaviour:

Once "Erase data on this partition" has been selected and confirmed, the
partition must always be formatted (FAT32) if "use as" is set to "EFI
partition".

Even if "Erase data on this partition" has not been selected there
should still be the option to (re-)format an EFI partition.

I understand that some buggy BIOSes don't like you to reformat the EFI
partition, but if I have chosen the adavanced installer and after that
chosen manual partitioning so you must allow me to make my own choices.
Put a warning on the confirmation dialog by all means, but put it on
the erase dialog too!

As it is this allows a user to erase the EFI partition and then refuses
to format it.

Many thanks,
Tom

I can confirm this bug still exists in debian-13.3.0-amd-netinst.iso.

However, I have seen older installation videos using debian-13.x
(unknown major revision) using the graphical installer which did not
show this behavior. It might be this bug is only in the text based
installer.

The workaround is to leave the partitioner and perform a manual format
in FAT on the EFI partition and return to the installation process. I am
not sure if this is possible by entering the Ash shell provided by the
installer.

I just aborted the installation, booted from a live USB, formatted the
EFI partition and restarted the installer. This enabled the mounting
during the installation process and further installation went smooth.

jlinkels

How do you know the EFI system partition did not already contain a FAT
filesystem in these videos ?

By "graphical installer", do you mean the debian-installer graphical
front end launched in the boot menu or the Calamares installer launched
in a Debian live session ?

Debian-installer works the same with the text and graphical front ends.
Calamares is a totally different tool.
You can also set the partition "use as: FAT32 filesystem", commit, then
set it "use as: EFI system partition".

Hi Pascal,

Thanks for answering.
I did not know. I did not make a statement about it either.
I mean the Debian installer graphical front end. I never use the
graphical front end myself. But it seems every blogger or Youtuber uses
it to write installation reports. Until this installation I assumed the
installer was the same only the front end differs. However, a user
choice (format/no format) getting thru to the partitioner could be a
user interface issue. I just don't know, I have never seen the source
code of the installer. I just reported what I saw and what I experienced.

Thanks for confirming the availability of mkfs.fat. I will test that in
the next installation. It would be the easiest option. I know the
installer throws an error when there is no EFI partition. So I did not
try to use as: FAT32. Would be another workaround.

Kind regards

jlinkels