Solus installing into Legacy BIOS with GPT formatting

BuzzPCSOS

From the Solus Help Centre "Note: Legacy (BIOS) must use MBR partition table while Unified EFI (UEFI) must use GPT partition table."
Why does the Solus installer choose GPT formatting when it has detected a BIOS only PC?
I might have missed a very critical point here, I experimented with some other Distros on a Bios only laptop and found that many of the big names also formatted the hard drive to GPT causing the install to subsequently fail on reboot.
A set-up guide to partition sizes, flags and names to enable legacy MBR boot would be a useful resource for older hardware users. Perhaps this could be added to the help centre or as an entry in Known Issues on the forum.

brent

BuzzPCSOS A set-up guide to partition sizes, flags and names to enable legacy MBR boot would be a useful resource for older hardware users. Perhaps this could be added to the help centre or as an entry in Known Issues on the forum.

I'd concur with this. And an exploration (do's and don'ts) of grub in Solus.

That said, I wonder if a workaround to your observations above are to create MBR and legacy-friendly partitions in gparted (or something) and lead Solus there with 'custom install'? Spitballing. Would that finally make the Installer recognize a bios-only (legacy) install I wonder?

also in help:
"Solus uses clr-boot-manager from the Clear Linux project to handle all boot configuration. This tool automatically configures the appropriate boot loader based on your system type:

Legacy BIOS systems: GRUB2
Modern UEFI systems: systemd-boot

Because clr-boot-manager manages these configurations, any boot customizations must go through this tool rather than manual edits. If you try to modify the configurations manually, clr-boot-manager will overwrite your changes during the next system update."

Emphasis mine. Seems like it's being deferred to the clr-boot-manager tool...a conundrum.
I wonder if others' experiences (forced GPT when it shouldn't) with bare metal or VM installs are similar?

BuzzPCSOS

brent I wonder if a workaround to your observations above are to create MBR and legacy-friendly partitions in gparted (or something) and lead Solus there with 'custom install'?

That is pretty much what has to happen as far as I can see. Manual setup works but internet partitioning guides are not always relevant. Previously I have had success with these settings but it would be nice to have an official guide.

SSDs should have 4Mb unformatted padding at beginning and 8Mb at end.

boot
Flag "boot"
set to 1024mib fat32
Hide in running OS

swap
Flag "swap"
set to 8,192mib linuxswap
Activate swap in running OS. P
Swap =to amount of RAM or more if hibernate is used.

root
set to 25,600mib ext4
mount point /

home
set to rest of drive ext4
Non-Root Partition
mount point /home. Mount as /home again in running OS. P

BuzzPCSOS

I spent a little more time on this. I hope it might help anyone who wants to install Solus onto a BIOS only PC.
Typically any PC produced before 2010 is likely to use BIOS.
The default Solus install options (erase everything) will detect BIOS but then install as UEFI which means your PC will not start when it is rebooted. If anyone has a BIOS only PC that boots like this then I would be interested to hear. The stock install does not add the 8MB unformatted partition (see below)
The only option for BIOS only is to set the drive to a new partition table as DOS/MBR and manually partition your drive using the 'Manual Partition' option in setup.
When you start this procedure there will be a pop-up that tells you

"A GPT partition table is the best option for all systems. This installer supports such a setup for BIOS systems too.
To configure a GPT partition table on BIOS (if not done so already) go back and set the partition table to GPT, next create a 8MB unformatted partition with the bios-grub flag enabled.
An unformatted 8MB partition is necessary to start Solus on a BIOS system with GPT"

This system working depends on your PC, update status of BIOS and probably other factors. It does not work on every computer. It is worth a try because GPT formatting is superior to MBR.
If you have the time, knowledge and patience to go through all these steps and your PC still does not boot after install the only way forward is to set the partition table to MBR and perform a legacy installation.

Axios

Dell optiplex 780 8g ram dell constellation 500g drive intel video.
Installed Solus 4.7 using whole disk. (GPT)
Rebooted worked fine booted with grub.
Prob end my journey with that it works for my machine.
As you stated all machines are not the same so thats the big unknown.

Rearranging stuff today (Drives) found neat util for windows (on my Pe disk) it was just a disk setup util
and it setup all the partitions ect that windows needed.
It took like 10secs and done.
To bad Linux didnt have something like that but prob to distro oriented tho.
(Just thinking)