14.04 custom partition install not booting

[ilpiero]

Hi all,

I was trying to do a fresh install of xubuntu 14.04 lts.
Usually i create a partition for \boot one for \ and one for \home, so that i can reformat the drive when i need to change distro and keep my home data unotuched.
This has worked flawlessly until 14.04, now after my partitioning i am asked to creare a grub boot partition, i do it, and at the reboot i got the message that the disk is not bootable.
Tried to move the disk on two other machines, one works, the other gives the same error.
If i leave the installer do the default partitioning the system boots correctly everywhere.

Something apparently has chenged on the bootloader, i read some articles about uefi and legacy boot, but i don't see how that would explain why the default partitioning works.
Any clues anybody?

Thanks

[sudodus]

It could be a conflict depending on different versions of grub. You can probably keep a separate /home partition, but you should definitely have different /boot partitions* for different distros/versions (because grub can be different). In the long run you will also get problems because of different versions of the software that are storing data in dot (hidden) files and subdirectories in the home directory.

I let the different installed systems have individual /home directories inside their root partitions (/). Instead I keep my data files in a separate data partition. Particularly multimedia files, iso files and other big compressed files are better backed up separately (without compression once more), and the root partitions will remain rather small.
*) Edit: Simply keep /boot inside the root partition of each installed system instead of separate partitions

[ilpiero]

Yes thanks, in case of a reinstall i'll keep only the /home and i'll take care of the different configurations.
My question is just: why custom partitioning does not boot in 14.04? What am I doing wrong? We are talking about a fresh install.

[sudodus]

I thought that your fresh install is into a drive with several installed systems, and where you have a common /boot and a common /home partition. If that is not the case, I have misunderstood the situation :-( Please describe how you made the fresh install with more details :-)

[ilpiero]

Thanks sudodus
i wish i cold give you a screenshoot ;)
Anyway since i'm used to this schema i recall it by heart:

\boot ext4 2 Gbytes
swap 8 Gbytes
\ ext4 10 Gbytes
\home ext4 rest of the disk

the new thing with 14.04, is that i'm asked to create anoter boot partition (for legacy grub or uefi)
that was FAT32 around 100 Mbytes big at the beginning of the system
the bootloader is installed on the one and only HDD connected.

Did it, and on some systems (i moved the hard drive to different computers) the install was not bootable... using the default schema solves the problem (but i cannot partition the disk :mad: )

[sudodus]

A FAT32 partition around 100 MB indicates that you boot in UEFI mode, and that Ubuntu wants to create an EFI partition. I suggest that you make it 200 MB or 300 MB, otherwise you might get problems that there will not be enough room for new files in the future.

I suggest that you do not use a separate /boot partition. (By the way, Windows uses \ (backslash) in path expressions while linux uses / (slash)). Linux uses \ to escape special characters (so that they are interpreted as characters to be printed, not as special characters).

I think the balance between swap and root '/' is strange. I would add some more space for root, maybe 16 or 20 GB, and use less for swap unless you intend to hibernate (when you need as much swap in Gibibytes as you have RAM). If you have 8 GB RAM and want to hibernate you need 8 GiB or 8.6 GB swap.

[oldfred]

Also understand installing in UEFI mode converts drive to gpt partitioning and in effect erases it. So have good backups or boot installer in BIOS mode, if that is what you want.

Backup efi partition and Windows partition before Install of Ubuntu.
Shows install with screen shots for both BIOS(purple) & UEFI(grub menu), so you know which you are using.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI


GPT Advantages (older but still valid) see post#2 by srs5694:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1457901
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GUID_Partition_Table#Advantages_of_GPT
UEFI Advantages
http://askubuntu.com/questions/446968/legacy-vs-uefi-help

[ilpiero]

ok, i will not separate boot form / , thanks for the suggestion about the partition split.
My question stays unanswered, when i'm asked to create a boot partition i shuld just say "no"? Will the system bee bootable?

[sudodus]

Hi all,

I was trying to do a fresh install of xubuntu 14.04 lts.
Usually i create a partition for \boot one for \ and one for \home, so that i can reformat the drive when i need to change distro and keep my home data unotuched.
This has worked flawlessly until 14.04, now after my partitioning i am asked to creare a grub boot partition, i do it, and at the reboot i got the message that the disk is not bootable.
Tried to move the disk on two other machines, one works, the other gives the same error.
If i leave the installer do the default partitioning the system boots correctly everywhere.

Something apparently has chenged on the bootloader, i read some articles about uefi and legacy boot, but i don't see how that would explain why the default partitioning works.
Any clues anybody?

Thanks


ok, i will not separate boot form / , thanks for the suggestion about the partition split.
My question stays unanswered, when i'm asked to create a boot partition i shuld just say "no"? Will the system bee bootable?

My question: Do you intend to get a dual boot system with Windows or a single boot system with Xubuntu?

My answer to your question: If you install Xubuntu from a boot DVD/USB drive, it will guide you to a bootable system :-) This is true with single boot as well as dual boot systems (but easier in a single boot system).

-o-

Save whatever needs saving (backup) from the internal hard disk drive.

For a single boot system, I suggest that you set the computer in BIOS alias CSM mode. Boot into the 'boot DVD/USB drive' and use gparted to create a new partition table. It is easier to use an MSDOS partition table (default choice in gparted).

In dual boot you should select Something else at the partitioning window, and the bottom of that window, you can select where to put the bootloader. It should be put to the beginning of the drive (not into a partition) so for example /dev/sda for the first or only internal drive.

[oldfred]

I normally do not suggest a separate /boot partition. Some very old BIOS will not boot past 137GB and then a separate /boot may be required. And /boot partition is required with LVM, LVM with encryption and some other server type installs.
It should not be asking for a separate /boot partition, but must have the / (root) partition. Then swap which is recommended and optional /home.

Lots of detail, screenshots and essential info.14.04 Something Else example
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-14-04-install-guide.html
http://askubuntu.com/questions/343268/how-to-use-manual-partitioning-during-installation

[ilpiero]

Hi guys, thanks for the smart suggestions about filesystem structure.

Anyway i seem to have troubles making myself understood...

this is what I used to do so far:

1) I go to the shop and i buy a brand new unformatted hard drive
2) I put it in my pc, this is the one and only drive of the pc
4) I boot ubuntu 13.04 live usb
3) I do the partitioning scheme as above, taking account also of your suggestion ;)
5) I finish the installation, and reboot, the system boots normally
6) I'm happy and satisfied

let see what happens now with the same exact hardware

1) I go to the shop and i buy a brand new unformatted hard drive
2) I put it in my pc, this is the one and only drive of the pc
4) I boot ubuntu 14.04 live usb
3) I do the partitioning scheme as above, i see a popup that asks me to create a FAT partition for the bootloader... I do it
5) I finish the installation, and reboot, the system tells me that the drive is not bootable
6) I'm not happy and very puzzled
7) I try that drive on a different PC (remove all the other drives and set it as boot device) it works perfectly...
8) i put back the drive on the first PC, and reinstall with the default partition schema
9) the system boots flawlessly
10) I'm less unhappy but still puzzled.

Thank you for your help! :P

[oldfred]

What PC?

The requirement for a FAT32 partition is for UEFI boot.
But from UEFI you get two choices to boot flash drive one is UEFI and the other BIOS. And how you boot installer UEFI or BIOS is how it will install.

Many new systems with Windows in UEFI boot mode have modified UEFI to only boot Windows. So various work arounds are required to get system to boot in UEFI mode with Ubuntu. They actually are breaking the UEFI standard, but I assume Microsoft is giving a discount if they make it difficult t to install anything other than Windows.

[lawrence10]

I just wrote a post on a similar problem. My answer was that the smallish VFAT partition has to be bootable (and probably type EFI instead of Microsoft basic). Seems obvious, but it wasn't the case after Ubuntu 14.10 install finished.

[ilpiero]

What PC?

The requirement for a FAT32 partition is for UEFI boot.
But from UEFI you get two choices to boot flash drive one is UEFI and the other BIOS. And how you boot installer UEFI or BIOS is how it will install.

Many new systems with Windows in UEFI boot mode have modified UEFI to only boot Windows. So various work arounds are required to get system to boot in UEFI mode with Ubuntu. They actually are breaking the UEFI standard, but I assume Microsoft is giving a discount if they make it difficult t to install anything other than Windows.

HP 630 Laptop.

No, it's not an issue due to hardware incompatibility, something has changed for sure in the ubuntu install since i was able to install up to 13.4.

This is the disk that boots... I don't see any fat32 partition, back to my question: perhaps is not needed at all? Is it just for modern systems?

sda 8:16 0 58,7G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:17 0 52,9G 0 part ext4 /
├─sda2 8:18 0 1K 0 part extended
└─sda5 8:21 0 5,8G 0 part linux swap

I tried the boot flag but with no luck... but I added it after the install, maybe is not the same but I doubt it.

[oldfred]

Every HP (all models) we have seen needs a work around. They modify UEFI to check for Windows in the UEFI description.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2234019

(http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2234019)
HP to get into UEFI/BIOS menu - escape then f10 as soon as it starts.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01443329&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=5171079
It seems hp firmware do not allow you to boot anything other than windows. Hence no ubuntu option in the UEFI. To work around it
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2227889
1) press esc key while booting to access start up menu 2) press F9 for boot devices menu.
[SOLVED] Trying to install Ubuntu as dual boot on Windows 8.1 desktop HP500
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2218154

(http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2218154)
HP ProBook 450 G1 Custom UEFI boot or copy to bootx64.efi
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=164076
HP 4545s Secure boot off, manually copy files.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2133796
HP Manually renamed files to make it work.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2131886


From live installer mount the efi partition on hard drive, lines with # are comments only:
#Mount efi partition. check which partition is FAT32 with boot flag. Often sda1 or sda2 but varies.
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
#only if not already existing,
sudo mkdir /mnt/EFI/Boot
sudo cp /mnt/EFI/ubuntu/* /mnt/EFI/Boot
# If new folder created, the bootx64.efi will not exist, skip this command
sudo mv /mnt/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi /mnt/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi.backup
# make grub be hard drive boot entry in UEFI. If not existing, may have to update UEFI also with efibootmgr.
sudo mv /mnt/EFI/Boot/grubx64.efi /mnt/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi



(http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2218154)


(http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2234019)

[ilpiero]

No that laptop was successfully running ubuntu already and was bought with SUSE installed.
I must assume that nobody stumbled into this issue before... so it's probably my fault.
I will try to install without the fat32 boot partition and mark as boot the ex4 / mount point.

[oldfred]

The FAT32 efi partition that has boot flag from gparted or ef00 code from gdisk is a partition setting for UEFI boot.
But that is not a /boot partition for Ubuntu when you install it. And most desktop installs should not use a /boot partition.