Bug 2324913

Summary: Web-UI Share disk with existing Fedora installation re-formats EFI partition
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Paul K <kronenpj>
Component: anacondaAssignee: anaconda-maint
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: rawhideCC: anaconda-maint, awilliam, jkonecny, kkoukiou, mkolman, rvykydal, w
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Regression
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard: f42webuitestday
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
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Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2025-04-23 09:28:29 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description Flags
Screenshot of chosen disk options
none
Screenshot of summary page with disk plan
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Resulting GRUB boot screen none

Description Paul K 2024-11-09 14:58:37 UTC 
The Web-UI installer re-formats the existing EFI System Boot partition instead of retaining and adding to it.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create EFI VM with an existing OS, say Fedora 41
2. Run installer per https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_webui_partitioning_guided_free_space
3. Attempt to boot original OS
Actual Results:  
The Web-UI installer obliterates the existing OS bootloader by reformatting the EFI system partition.

Expected Results:  
The Web-UI installer retains the original operating system and both OS boot correctly.

Possible fix:
An existing EFI boot partition must be retained and added to in order to retain original OS boot capability.
Comment 1 Paul K 2024-11-09 14:59:36 UTC 
Created attachment 2056669 [details]
Screenshot of chosen disk options
Comment 2 Paul K 2024-11-09 15:00:16 UTC 
Created attachment 2056670 [details]
Screenshot of summary page with disk plan
Comment 3 Paul K 2024-11-09 15:00:56 UTC 
Created attachment 2056671 [details]
Resulting GRUB boot screen
Comment 4 Paul K 2024-11-09 15:01:35 UTC 
EFI boot menu shows one option - Fedora, rather than two.
Comment 5 Katerina Koukiou 2024-11-21 13:07:18 UTC 
This is indeed a bug, but present only when the pre-existing OS is also Fedora.
Comment 6 Aoife Moloney 2025-02-26 13:15:28 UTC 
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora Linux 42 development cycle.
Changing version to 42.
Comment 7 Jiri Konecny 2025-04-02 13:01:58 UTC 
This bug is in Anaconda for a long time already. Switching to anaconda component and moving to Rawhide as we are post-freeze deadline so we can't get the fix in anyway.
Comment 8 Jiri Konecny 2025-04-23 09:28:29 UTC 
Hi Paul, we tried to resolve this issue with:
- https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/pull/6210
- https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda-webui/pull/656

however, after a few failing attempts we have reached the grub team for an advice. We have found out that having Fedora next to Fedora is not supported as the /boot/efi/fedora path is hard-coded in RPMs directly. Because of that we are not able to fix it on side of Anaconda. You can resolve this issue by having two different EFI partitions on different disks but unfortunately we are currently not able to support having two Fedora installations next to each other.

Based on the above I'm closing this bug. If you want to have this supported you have to file an RFE on grub component.

However, Anaconda should avoid this situation to happen so we are filing https://issues.redhat.com/browse/INSTALLER-4186 to warn user about potential problems.