Storage

The storage page is one screen, designed to fit without scrolling. At the top, the Destination disk group lists every disk Sirius found as a selectable row (model, device path, size, and partition-table type) with a radio button on each. Disks currently in use (like the live boot media) are filtered out, so you won’t accidentally point the installer at the USB drive you’re booted from.

Once a disk is selected, the Partitioning group appears below it with two radio options, Automatic partitioning and Manual partitioning, each with a one-line description of what it does.

Nothing described below writes anything to disk until you confirm the install and reach the progress page. Everything on this screen, automatic or manual, is staged first.

Automatic partitioning

This is the default. With Automatic partitioning selected, Sirius erases the selected disk and partitions it for you, following the layout defined by the distro’s repart.d config (see Adapting Sirius if you’re setting that up). An inline warning under the options reminds you that all data on the disk will be erased.

An Encryption group offers two switches on top of that:

• Full-disk encryption (LUKS): the whole partitioned layout is encrypted.
• TPM binding: binds the encryption key to the machine’s TPM, so a trusted boot chain unlocks the disk automatically. No passphrase prompt on every boot. Only available when LUKS encryption is on.

Manual partitioning

Select Manual partitioning and the page offers a Volumes and partitions row that opens the partition editor, a dedicated dialog with two views of the selected disk:

• Disk-usage map: a colored bar showing the disk’s layout, each segment sized proportionally and colored by filesystem (EFI, ext4, btrfs, XFS, swap, NTFS, and unallocated space all get distinct colors), so neighboring partitions stay visually separate. Segments queued for deletion are dimmed.
• Volumes and partitions list: every partition on the disk with its device, filesystem, mount point, and size, with round edit and delete buttons next to each one. Free space shows up as its own row, with a button to create a new partition inside it. Partitions you’ve staged show up highlighted.

Plan validation errors (for example, a missing root partition) appear right above the list, so you can’t miss them. The same validation also gates the installer’s Next button on the main page once you close the editor.

A Discard changes button appears in the editor’s header area whenever you have staged edits, resetting the plan back to the disk’s actual current layout in case you want to start over before confirming.

Current limitation

Manual mode supports creating, formatting, and deleting partitions, but not resizing or moving existing ones. If you need to shrink an existing partition to make room, do that with another tool first (for example from a separate live session) before running Sirius. This is a known gap, tracked in the Sirius repository’s docs/GAPS.md.