GUIDE: (U)EFI installation

[niglas]

Good to hear that it worked out for you jruden. The essence of installing the matching OS with the system arcitecture appears to be even more clear here, thanks!

I'm happy it worked out for you too guys kolinab & apprayo.

[SuperFreak]

Hi,

I am building a computer with an Asrock Motherboard ( Z77 Extreme4-M) and intel 520 SSD for root and home and Regular 2 TB Hard Drive for data. Reading your previous post niglas, it appears I don't have to do much more than set partition table to GPT in GParted, the installation USB does the rest.

The only thing you need to do in gparted is to set the partition table type to GPT. The partitioning can be done during the installation and when you choose one of the partitions as "EFI start partition" the GPT boot flag will automatically be added. (Choose configure partiton table manually during the installation.)

My question is, do I set both the SSD and the mechanical HD as GPT in GParted?

[niglas]

The GPT partition table is only critical for the boot partition, in other words you can choose what ever partition table you'd like for the other disk.

[Lancro]

Hi, I have EFI on my computer, and ubuntu installer doesnt detects my windows 7 installation, so I cant continue, I have looked your guide, and I dont know if its my bad english or my lack of experience but I dont understand it... Is there any chance of installing ubuntu alongside windows from the installer, wich is the simplest way?.

Thanks.

[oldfred]

@Lancro
Just because you have UEFI, you may still be in BIOS mode. Most Windows installs are BIOS/MBR and then you are into the 4 partition limit or other issues.

May be best to start your own thread and post the Boot info

Boot Repair:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
You can repair many boot issues with this or Create BootInfo report & post the link to a run of boot info script so we can see your exact configuration.

[SuperFreak]

The GPT partition table is only critical for the boot partition, in other words you can choose what ever partition table you'd like for the other disk.

Just so I am clear on this, I would boot into the live usb of 12.04 and set up EFI, Root and Home partitions on the SSD using GPT as the format type? I am afraid I am a novice at this and your instructions seem to be the best available, but I still need a little clarification. Am I correct that setting up GPT as the partition table is the same as formating the partitions?

edit: I see by looking at your screenshots that it is only one partition EFI that gets formated GPT. It was a little confusing because the screenshots were in a foreign language to English

When I start to install Ubuntu that boot partition will be recognized by the install program and automatically fill the partition?

[oldfred]

gpt is the partitioning scheme instead of the default ancient MBR(msdos). I just use gparted or you can use gdisk if you like command line, sometimes good to have anyway.

I have BIOS but use gpt. I have created my gpt partitions with gparted. Under device, create partition table, advanced, choose gpt not the default msdos (MBR) partitioning. My partitioning shows a bios_grub but if just UEFI you do not need that.

gdisk is in the repository so you can easily download it
GPT fdisk Tutorial -srs5694 in forums
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1439794
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/

Some useful links:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GPT
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub2

[SuperFreak]

Much clearer. Thanks to both of you OldFred and niglas

[SuperFreak]

OK,

I set partition table to GPT and clicked apply. Nothing happened and it said 0 operations pending. Forgive my ignorance but the disk is unallocated does it have to be formatted to FAT 16 first for the GPT to take effect?

[oldfred]

gpt or MBR(msdos) are just the type of partitioning used. You still should create partitions in advance.

Some have only gotten efi to work by first installing in BIOS mode, so I usually suggest both efi & bios_grub partition. Let grub decide, but if you boot USB in UEFI mode it should install in UEFI mode. If also installing Windows you need to review what partitions they may want.

For the Total space you want for Ubuntu:
Ubuntu's standard install is just / (root) & swap, but it is better to add another partition for /home:
If gpt(not MBR) partitioning include these first - all partitions with gpt are primary
250 MB efi FAT32
1 MB bios_grub no format
Ubuntu partitions - smaller root only where hard drive space is limited
1. 10-25 GB Mountpoint / primary or logical beginning ext4(or ext3)
2. all but 2 GB Mountpoint /home logical beginning ext4(or ext3)
3. 2 GB Mountpoint swap logical

Depending on how much memory you have you may not absolutely need swap but having some is still recommended. I do not hibernate (boots fast enough for me) but if hibernating then you need swap equal to RAM in GiB not GB. And if dual booting with windows a shared NTFS partition is also recommended. But you usually cannot create that as part of the install, just leave some space. Or partition in advance (recommended).
One advantage of partitioning in advance is that the installer will use the swap space to speed up the install. Thanks Herman for the tip.

I like to leave some unallocated, so you can add test installs or experiment with other systems. I also have separate data partitions.