Sfdwhf

Below is what I've tried, but any solution is welcome.

I'm doing this in VirtualBox-6.0 (static size VHDs) before doing it live which may be a factor.

I've edited an ISO with cubic, removing packages and running apt install f2fs* -f -y so I'd be able to format partitions into F2FS from live CD. Kubuntu, the OS I want to use, uses Ubiquity to install the system which isn't able to read F2FS. A solution could be to find an installer that can read F2FS but I don't know any.

So what I've done instead is made a 512mb EFI boot partition and two separate ext4 partitions for root and home, intending to convert home to F2FS. The root/home separation was because I believe less things would break.

I installed as ext4, confirmed system running, then used Clonezilla to copy home to a separate partition. I then rebooted into a live CD to format the home partition to F2FS then copy over the folders located in home.

Now the problem: it shows the splash but systemctl --failed | grep not-found outputs:

tmp.mount

auditd.service

connman.service

console-screen.service

-screen.service

kbd.service

systemd-sysusers.service

systemd-update-done.service

update-done.service

systemd-vconsole-setup.service

-vconsole-setup.service

all.target

syslog.target

And notable output from journalctl -xb is MODSIGN: Couldn't get UEFI db list.

I went back into live CD, chrooted and updated. Errors were encountered while processing:

ca-certificates-java

grub-pc

openjdk-11-jre-headless:amd64 

grub-efi-amd-signed

openjdk-11-jre:amd64

shim-sgned

friendly-recovery

linux-image-4.15.0-45-generic

Probably because:

update-initramfs: Generating (the kernel)

Warning:couldn't identify filesystem type for fsck hook, ignoring

Attempting install returns E: Internal Error. No file name for [the packages I checked]. I am assuming F2FS is only supported for data storage with this line

I took the shotgun approach + ended up choosing a distribution that uses Calamares as its installer. I partitioned the /usr as ext4 because GRUB's files are located there and I kept running into issues with /usr as F2FS (didn't retain permissions if copied to F2FS part, unreadable by system, couldn't boot, f2fs-tools is located in /usr)

/boot/efi - FAT32

/usr - ext4

/ - F2FS

apt commands in the extracted ISO. Installed F2FS libraries so the system could read itself, gparted for convenience and to set ESP flag for boot partition

apt install f2fs* libf2fs* gparted

I tried using kvpm to create logical volumes (and used mkfs.f2fs to format them as f2fs) but installation would fail.

List of modules loaded in /etc/initramfs-tools/modules

crct10dif_pclmul

crc32_pclmul

libcrc32c

f2fs

Post installation:

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi

mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev

. . .

chroot /mnt 

apt install refind

refind-install

cp /usr/share/refind/refind/drivers_x64 /boot/efi

curl -a http://efi.akeo.ie/downloads/efifs-1.3/x64/f2fs_x64.efi -o /boot/efi/EFI/refind/drivers_x64/f2fs_x64.efi

For the sake of information, GRUB 2.04 is right around the corner. I now understand why there is little discussion on F2FS installations for Ubuntu. Things that failed:

• Running the whole drive as F2FS with a FAT32 boot partition failed to load OS




• Copying an ext partition to F2FS failed. GRUB 2.02 can't read F2FS UUIDs properly. Editing /boot/grub/grub.cfg to change labels to UUIDs did not help.




• Built the current branch of GRUB 2.03 and was hit with a fail when running make check TESTS='f2fs_test'; the list of dependencies is incomplete for novices (me).




• Partitioning root as ext4, then the rest as F2FS. GRUB's files are located in /usr.




• Tried formatting boot as NTFS to retain the ability to dual boot Windows and symlink GRUB's needed files (FAT32 can't). This did not work because NTFS is not respected as a ESP partition, flags irregardless.

References:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2326934&p=13705533#post13705533

https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/issues/4436

http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/

http://efi.akeo.ie/

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GRUB-Now-Supports-F2FS