12.04 Install on separate HD from 10.10

[Ditchdoc7893]

Hey guys. I want to ask a question that I should know the answer to, but I want to ask for opinions before I follow through with it.

I have a massive machine (specs below) and I want to do a little more customization. I'm not ready to trash my 10.10 install just yet as I spent a lot of time getting it just how I wanted it. As I said, I have 10.10 installed on its own HD. I also have Windows 7 installed on its own HD (yes I mentioned the enemy; I wouldn't have it at all except that I've gone back to school and the school requires that I use Windows for class work). In addition, I am wanting to try to install 12.04 on a separate 2 TB HD.

Is it possible to install 12.04 on a completely separate HD from the other OS's? If so, can anyone offer problems (and solutions) that I may run into in the process? I will be installing from a CD.

Thanks guys!

Ryan

Basic Machine Specs:

Mobo: Asus ROG Maximus IV Extreme-Z
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 550
HDD: Seagate 2 TB SATA 6G HDD x 2, Seagate 250 GB HDD, Seagate 80 GB HDD

[ajgreeny]

As long as you make sure you choose the correct disk when installing, that is the safest way to do a dual/multi boot.

If you choose "Something Else" at the disk preparation stage you can also put the bootloader (grub) on the same disk, rather than /dev/sda, which is the default. Then when you boot you can choose the disk or device to boot from the boot priority menu, accessed with a key press (usually F2 or F12, but look in MB manual).

This way you will have two separate grub systems, one on sda (10.10) and the second on the disk where you have 12.04, both of which should keep up to date by running

sudo update-grub

[oldfred]

Most i5 motherboard have UEFI, but will boot in legacy BIOS mode. Are you booting in UEFI or BIOS mode?

Also when Ubuntu installs to an empty drive somewhat over 1TB it will use gpt rather than MBR(msdos). You only have to have gpt if drive is over 2.2TB or 2TiB, but gpt is newer and has some advantages. If drive is only Linux never booting Windows, it can be gpt whether UEFI or BIOS boot. Windows has to have gpt if UEFI boot and will not boot for gpt in BIOS mode.

But with gpt you need an extra partition(s) and if in the future may use UEFI best just to create efi partition now as it has to be the first one. And if using BIOS mode you need a tiny 1MB bios_grub partition.

If using UEFI you have to partition in advance, and I always partition in advance so I have not had some issues. There was (is?) a bug in grub/Ubuntu that if root partition is very large it cannot always find its boot files. I normally suggest smaller / (root) partitions anyway so that is not normally an issue. Just make the larger partitions /home or data partitions.

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.

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

A smaller system (/) makes a slight performance improvement as drive heads do not have to search a large partition for most often used files.

If you're using UEFI mode to boot, you don't need a BIOS Boot Partition with gpt partitions (only for BIOS), but you do need an EFI System Partition (ESP). This is entirely different; it should be a 200-300 MiB FAT32 partition that's flagged as an ESP and must be the first partition. In libparted-based tools, you'd give it a "boot" flag (which is entirely unrelated to the MBR boot/active flag, although libparted makes them look the same). In gdisk, you'd give it a type code of EF00.
An EFI System Partition EF00 (~100 to -256MiB, FAT32) for UEFI, a BIOS Boot Partition EF02 (~1MiB, no filesystem) for BIOS, and whatever partitions you want for Linux. You must set the partition type codes correctly, but how you do this depends on the utility you use to create them. Also, you should be sure to create a GUID Partition Table (GPT) on the disk, not a Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table. In BIOS mode, Ubuntu's installer defaults to creating MBR partitions, at least on sub-1TB disks, so you may need to use another utility to do the partitioning. You do not need both but it does not hurt as both are small, and then you can configure easily to boot with either UEFI or BIOS. You can boot via bios AND efi (after setting up your efi boot entry using efibootmgr or via efi shell and running the efi binary)
AsRock calls BIOS mode AHCI.

[Ditchdoc7893]

Thanks you guys for your insight. Just got off work and will be trying to look into your suggestions/answers/questions about my question shortly after I get a little sleep (night shift sucks). Wanted to acknowledge and thank you for your help in advance!

[Ditchdoc7893]

The problem I'm running into now baffles me. I've never had an install give me this kind of trouble. I have tried to run a live session from a boot disc multiple times, but only comes up to a completely blank screen. Also, thinking that maybe I had a bad burn on the disc itself, I created a bootable USB key (I also downloaded a fresh copy just in case something was corrupted). The same result occurred. Blank screen. Does anyone have any ideas about what is going on?

Also, I will look to be sure, but I think I am booting in UEFI mode if that helps anyone. I'm not completely sure how to change it to legacy BIOS.

[oldfred]

If you are in UEFI mode, you probably do not want to change it as then you may not be able to boot other drives.

What video do you have, since (or maybe with?) 10.10 I have had to use nomodeset with my nVidia card.

Some new (and older) systems also require additional boot parameters.

How to set NOMODESET and other kernel boot options in grub2
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

Natty or later Video issues. MAFoElffen
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1743535

If you can get it to boot or can download the full CD version of this and get it to boot run the Boot-Info report as that will give info on your current configuration.

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.

I had to do this with my Nvidia 9600GT:
To install Ubuntu, boot from the cd press any key at accessibility circle and keyboard, press F6 and then select the nomodeset option.
USB boot - At the menu press tab on the first option to edit the boot options and replaced the 'splash' option with 'nomodeset'.
then
On first boot after install, press e on getting the GRUB bootloader.
Hold shift from BIOS boot to get menu if only one system installed.
Using arrow keys navigate to and delete quiet and splash and type the word nomodeset in their place
Press Ctrl and X to boot (low graphics mode)

[Ditchdoc7893]

Oldfred, you were right on the money. Had to use the nomodeset option. I had honestly forgotten about that, as I had to do the same thing when I installed 10.04 LTS on this particular machine originally. I'm in the process of completing the install now. Also, I seem to remember once I had the install complete, as you said I would have to boot in low graphics mode and then install the NVIDIA software.

[oldfred]

I do not have UEFI, and hope to soon, so I am following those issues. Are you in UEFI mode or BIOS.

I also use gpt but with BIOS mode as I do not have Windows on the gpt drives.

Several have posted that with UEFI you have to boot with the UEFI mode and both the Windows install DVD and Ubuntu liveCD boot in UEFI mode so install is ok. Those with Ubuntu have formated in advance to get UEFI to work. If you boot in BIOS mode then you have a standard BIOS install, but grub does not install correctly in gpt drives unless you have a small 1MB bios_grub partition.

[Ditchdoc7893]

I looked through my BIOS screens (which THANK YOU ASUS!!! You are awesome for making them so user friendly), best I can tell I'm in UEFI. That said, I managed to solve my prior issue of the blank screen using nomodeset. Now I have run into a problem that, honestly I'm not sure what is happening. I am about 7/8 of having the install complete and its like the installation is stuck. It has done this 3 times before. It gets to a spot in the install and the last line of the terminal box that you can expand to see what's going on reads:

**Message: console message: undefined @0: TypeError: 'undefined' is not a function

Its been stuck there for 30-45 minutes. The mouse works. If I click on one of the links on the install screen, a browser window comes up, so the system itself is not frozen. I thought originally that it was just slow in downloading whatever it has to download, but this is the point that it keeps sticking at. I'm gonna start the install process one more time and see what happens.

Anybody have any ideas?

[Ditchdoc7893]

Score one for the home team! Apparently what happened was that somehow, my installation disc was bad. I downloaded a new copy of the .iso, burned another disc and everything installed. Will post if additional issues arise!