Can't install elementary os 6 on a 4k native ssd

[ghost]

The installer assume sector size is 512 bytes, so EFI system partition is 300 MB / 4 and it won't let me proceed with the install.

[patx]

harrisonerd@harrisonerd-macbook:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for harrisonerd:
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 233.76 GiB, 251000193024 bytes, 61279344 sectors
Disk model: APPLE SSD AP0256J
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 02DE67F8-5794-4B6A-AC5C-4767CBAC3BDA

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 256 131327 131072 512M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 131328 61279231 61147904 233.3G Linux filesystem

Disk /dev/nvme0n2: 8 KiB, 8192 bytes, 2 sectors
Disk model: APPLE SSD AP0256J
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
harrisonerd@harrisonerd-macbook:~$

This also keeps us from installing on Macbooks with a 4k sector size. This is really bad bug that needs to be fixed ASAP or at least offer a back up installer (like calamares or something else that actually works).

[tamara-schmitz]

I think I just hit this bug as well but on 8.0.2. My fdisk -l output is the same that is, my NVMe's namespace is formatted to 4k logical sectors rather more common 512 bytes.
I attempt to run a standard install with an encryption password and I get a failure.

Had to use journalctl to be able to copy this log:

Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:crates/disk-ops/src/parted.rs:8] getting device at /dev/nvme0n1
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:crates/disks/src/config/disk.rs:164] obtaining disk information from /dev/nvme0n1
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:crates/disks/src/serial.rs:14] obtaining serial model from /dev/nvme0n1
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:crates/disk-ops/src/parted.rs:31] opening disk at /dev/nvme0n1
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: Error: /dev/nvme0n1: unrecognised disk label
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:crates/disk-ops/src/parted.rs:37] unable to open disk; creating new table on it
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:crates/disks/src/config/disk.rs:348] specifying to write new table on /dev/nvme0n1
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:crates/disks/src/config/disk.rs:278] unmount all partitions on /dev/nvme0n1
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:crates/disks/src/config/disk_trait.rs:118] checking if 512:67870 overlaps
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:crates/disks/src/config/disk_trait.rs:118] checking if 67871:317870 overlaps
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:crates/disks/src/config/disk_trait.rs:118] checking if 317871:62514261 overlaps
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/nvme0n1"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: Logical device of data is "/dev/mapper/data"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:ffi/src/lvm.rs:55] getting logical device named 'data'
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/data"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/data"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/data"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/data"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/data"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/data"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/data"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [DEBUG distinst:crates/disk-types/src/sector.rs:17] get block size for "/sys/class/block/data"
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [ERROR distinst:ffi/src/lib.rs:49] libdistinst: pointer in FFI is null
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [ERROR distinst:ffi/src/lib.rs:49] libdistinst: pointer in FFI is null
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [ERROR distinst:ffi/src/lib.rs:49] libdistinst: pointer in FFI is null
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [ERROR distinst:src/installer/mod.rs:300] errored while installing system: partition validation: the ESP partition must be at least 256 MiB in size
Nov 10 11:40:47 elementary io.elementary.installer-daemon[1464]: [INFO distinst:ffi/src/installer.rs:190] Install error: partition validation: the ESP partition must be at least 256 MiB in size

[tamara-schmitz]

Okay I tracked down more issues for this:
The bug also exists in distint upstream from popOS!: pop-os/distinst#177

And in 2021 someone opened a PR for elementary's installer to address this very issue: PR #621
But that never got merged.

Also this issue is a duplicate of #448

[tamara-schmitz]

Okay tracing the log along with the distint source code, I found the ESP partition check: https://github.com/pop-os/distinst/blob/69dac84f672cde577fa4e14a5b61348449adbea0/crates/disks/src/config/disks.rs#L1007

checking if 512:67870 overlaps is the overlap performed when adding a partition. This tells us the size of the ESP partition: (67870−512)×4096÷1024÷10245=263.117187MiB
That is bigger than 256MiB.
In daemon/DistinstBackend.vala, the ESP size is specified in Megabytes and the crate disk-types correctly detects the 4096 sector size on my machine. But the other code in distinst has hardcoded 512 bytes as the sector size...
vjr tried to fix this in distinst in 2021/22 but the issues was ignored: pop-os/distinst#278

I only found one hard coded assumption of 512 bytes sector size in the Elementary installer in PartitionView, when doing a manual installation. I am addressing this in this PR: #911

But it seems that fixing this in distinst is a bigger can of worms...