[LMDE6] Added option to format root partition using btrfs

[pavinjosdev]

Tested ok. Subvolumes designed for easy backup, restoration and grub-btrfs integration.

[clefebvre]

Thanks @pavinjosdev.

I agree with live-installer having support for BTRFS (afaik it already has), but I don't want it to be treated any differently than any other alternative FS out there.

When it comes to automated partitioning, we're defaulting to ext4 and there shouldn't be any option for alternatives in that scenario.

[pavinjosdev]

@clefebvre Thank you for the wonderful distro(s)! Is it possible to tuck the btrfs option inside an "Advanced features" menu like Mint 21 does for ZFS?

I tried if it's possible to use LMDE's default manual partitioning tool but GParted doesn't support encrypted partition or even LVM (I was able to create a PV but could not find any option to create VG/LVs), so even if the user were to use manual partitioning they can't have an encrypted partition with btrfs/swap inside it.

I don't mind putting in some additional work into making this PR suitable for LMDE 6, if you approve of course 😅

[clefebvre]

Hi @pavinjosdev,

It's hard to say no but I'm worried about the multiplication of use case here. I don't want to create another combination of scenarios which won't be used by the vast majority of people and probably end up not being well tested.

Truth be told, I'm not even sure LVM support has its place here. Even though it's a nice technology, I don't think our audience uses it much.

What we can do maybe is:

• add this option but only make it visible in expert mode
• instead of having it use btrfs, we may as well use a combobox here and provide all supported FS types

This won't go in in time for LMDE 6 but we can add it as an update to the repositories.

It will then be available by updating live-installer from the STABLE live-session.

[pavinjosdev]

@clefebvre I have to agree with you, this may not be a feature that the majority of users want and would be one more thing on your plate to maintain going forward.

Also, I don't think it's appropriate to add this to expert installation mode as currently it allows for all sorts of different scenarios. It would be preferable to keep it like that.

In conclusion, feel free to close this PR. I think the expert mode installation as it is would suffice for users who want advanced partitioning/formatting. This was one of the main features that brought me to LMDE in the first place, much easier to work with the expert installer in live mode than say Debian expert installer and its busybox shell.