Legacy support: MBR with Grub

[Torxed]

Currently, one of the bigger limitations are that the installer/guided templates only support UEFI with Systemd-boot as the default bootloader.

We'll need to add archinstall.MBR as an alternative to:

with archinstall.Filesystem(harddrive, archinstall.GPT) as fs:
    ...

And installation.add_bootloader() should probably take a parameter for which bootloader to install. Currently it doesn't take any arguments, so adding one won't brake anything. Suggestion: installation.add_bootloader("grub")

[klausenbusk]

We'll need to add archinstall.MBR as an alternative to:

with archinstall.Filesystem(harddrive, archinstall.GPT) as fs:

MBR partitioning isn't required for "legacy boot", most BIOS works just fine with a GPT partitioned disk. A BIOS boot partition is required though, more info here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#GUID_Partition_Table_(GPT)_specific_instructions

[grazzolini]

I don't recommend creating a frankenstein BIOS/GPT installation. Also, some firmware might not be able to boot GPT (although they are rare). So, go for UEFI/GPT or BIOS/MBR.

Advanced users might want to do the partitioning themselves.

[Torxed]

I've been trying to investigate a clean way of getting GPT with "lgacy boot", and I haven't come across any really good writeups about it. Most seam to either stick to GPT and use systemd-bootctl or grub (even grub ones seam overly complicated in comparison to systemd-bootctl).

So I'm with you on this one @grazzolini, perhaps advanced users will settle for manual work, and perhaps the installer could be run after the fact and simply select a disk - detect there's a partition scheme going on - and install on a existing partition platform (or simply, advanced users skip archinstall all together).

I won't exclude this feature request tho, if the need for this becomes bigger I'll bring focus to it again, but for now it'll remain dormant until it's a priority if that sounds good :)

[grazzolini]

Yes, this is something I've been thinking about proposing. The partitioning and filesystem can be done prior to running archinstall and in that case it would take whatever the user created and go with it. That way things are even more flexible and users have more choice.

[Torxed]

Yes, this is something I've been thinking about proposing. The partitioning and filesystem can be done prior to running archinstall and in that case it would take whatever the user created and go with it. That way things are even more flexible and users have more choice.

I think that settles it, this is the way forward for this feature request.
It'll be prioritized after #56 is in place and some other features. But this part should be very easy to implement.

[grazzolini]

Thanks. Having a way to run archinstall from any given point is a killer feature, because one could mix the current way to install arch with archinstall and vice versa. For example, one could use archinstall for partitioning only and then do the pacstrap manually.

[Lunarequest]

I've started to work on this, its still pretty early but I think I might have a working implementation by the end of this week

[omeringen]

Sorry if this is a bit off topic but i am using arch on my USB stick. Since this setup works on multiple computers, i both have a 10MB partition for GRUB/BIOS (i used --removable option for grub-install) and 500MB partition for systemd-boot/UEFI. Rest is for root. Works fine.
It would be nice to have this kind of option on installer.