14.04 alongside Win8.1 Problems

[franklin4]

HP Pavillion G4, 500GB HD, 4GB physical memory. Win8.1 and attempting to install Ubuntu 14.04 via USB live drive. Can start and run via live drive just fine. When I attempt to install, it is not recognizing Win8.1 and not offering "install alongside" option. I've read several of the postings that say to disable secure boot, turn off fast start in the power window, etc. and still no luck. I'm down to the "something else" method. I understand how to create the root partition (approx 20GB), the swap (approx 2x physical mem), and the remainder for /home. That's where the advice seems to diverge...I've seen some recommend an additional 100mb partition for EFI? Also, when it offers me the question of what to do with Grub, what do I answer?

I'm trying to return to Ubuntu after a while away and getting really frustrated with this win8 / secure boot garbage! Could sure use some help.

Thanks,
Frank

[Vladlenin5000]

Hi, welcome.

1. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI
2. You need swap of the some size or only a little higher than the RAM you already have. Whenever you read recommendations to the double keep in mind that is way outdated.
3. Back to the beginning, read #1 -> You already have a EFI partitions and you SHOULDN'T touch it!!!!

[franklin4]

Thanks...I read through that and since I get the black screen w/ boot options per the example, that tells me I'm booting in the EFI mode.

(1) If I've got 4GB of physical, is 6GB still too much or should I go with 5 or something just under 5? Please feel free to recommend.

(2) How exactly do I do this: "if you use the manual partitioning ("Something else"), the difference is that you will have to set the /boot/efi mount point to the EFI partition." as I go through the setup process? FYI, I don't get the "alongside" option, so I'm working via 14's "something else" sequence of windows.

I think if I'm clear on these last couple questions, I'm comfortable enough to push the last button to do the install.

[oldfred]

I have 4GB of RAM and never use swap with my use of system. If you have more than 4GB of RAM you may just want to have 2GB of swap just to have some. Only if hibernating which when dual booting is not suggested would you need swap equal to RAM in GiB not GB or about 10% more than RAM in GB.

On the Something Else partitioning screen at the bottom is the combo box on where to install the grub boot loader. With UEFI it will install correctly to the efi partition, I think no matter what you select. The only time you really need to use it is, if you have more than one drive or install to an external drive and then you want to specify that drive. The choice of partitions whether a UEFI or BIOS install in boot loader choice is almost always wrong.

You might want to consider another NTFS partition for shared data. Windows does not like writing into its system partition. But I think the Windows 8 does not let you unmount the data partition either so you have to make sure hibernation (fast boot) is always off.

UEFI install,windows 8 with Something Else screen shots
http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2014/05/install-ubuntu-1404-alongside-windows.html
http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2013/09/install-ubuntu-linux-alongside-windows.html
But I suggest using Windows to shink Windows and reboot Windows first. But do not create any partitions with Windows disk tools.
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/dual-boot-windows-8-ubuntu.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DiskSpace

[franklin4]

Ok, I'm typing this from within Ubuntu after install...whew! Only a couple small (I hope) issues:

On power up, system goes straight to windows and not grub
To boot into Ubuntu, have to bio boot manager, which gives two options for Ubuntu (one doesn't work, the other does)
When select the one that does work, then it takes me to grub, which allows boot into Ubuntu

How do I fix it so I don't have to active boot manager via bios and have it go to grub instead?

Thanks!

[oldfred]

Do you have secure boot on?
Both entries should work if secure boot is off. One is grub and the other shim for secure boot.

Some systems will let you set Ubuntu as default with with UEFI menu boot order or directly with efibootmgr.
But Windows 8 now seems to always reset itself to be first in UEFI boot order.
Some users find one time boot key, often f12 or f10 works.

Many will let you set hard drive as choice and not change that. So for those systems we copy grub/shim into /efi/Boot and rename bootx64.efi. Then hard drive entry boots grub.

Several of the alternatives users have used. Some work better with certain systems than others, so you may just have to experiment.

Users who manually moved efi files around see post #6
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2101840
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2219452
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2221498&p=13012109#post13012109