Ubuntu – Dual boot Install of Trusty Ubuntu on an HP with Windows 8 (64 bit) pre-installed (UEFI supported)

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Yes, I have read, many times, "Installing Ubuntu on a Pre-Installed Windows 8 (64-bit) System (UEFI Supported)," and I have read the "UEFI" piece with the subtitle "Installing Ubuntu Quickly and Easily via Trial and Error." I have learned much from these pieces, but I'm still too much of a newbie to make it all work.

I have an HP15 Notebook with Windows 8.1 (64 bit) pre-installed. The chip is Intel Pentium CPU N3520 @ 2.16 GHz. Ram is 4GB. I wish to keep Windows 8.1 and have Ubuntu 14.04 dual boot with it.

The steps I've taken:

  1. I changed the boot order in BIOS to enable booting to the USB.

  2. I have Ubuntu on a USB, and I have toured it on that device. When I tried to install Ubuntu on the HD, I did not get the option of installing it along with Windows.

  3. I turned off fast startup in Win8.

  4. I disalbed hibernation in Win8.

  5. In Win8 Disk Management I noticed that the partitions are these:
    400 MB (Recovery Partition)
    260 MB (EFI System Partition)
    678.58 GB NTFS Windows (C:)
    19.28 GB NTFS Recovery (D:) (OEM Partition)

  6. Shut down.

  7. In Win 8's Disk Management I created 300 GB unalloated partition by shrinking C:. The partition is GPT. The other partitions seem to be MS-DOS. Based on my understanding of the above articles, I leave UEFI enabled/installed, and I leave Secure Boot enabled.

  8. On this machine ESC F10 gets one into BIOS. (ESC F2 gets one into UEFI.)

8 Booted up in the USB, using the try ubuntu without installing.

  1. Set up internet connection.

  2. tried to install Ubuntu on HD. Did not get the option to install alongside Windows.

  3. At this point I guess I'm supposed to use the "something else" option, but unless it takes me through step-by-step, I'm afraid of screwing things up.

  4. Here is what the BIOS currently has:
    Legacy Support is disabled
    Secure Boot is enabled
    UEFI boot order is USB Diskette then OS Boot Manager, then other options

(Many years ago I did this with MEPIS and had no trouble (:-).)

Many thanks.

Best Answer

I have Ubuntu on a USB, and I have toured it on that device. When I tried to install Ubuntu on the HD, I did not get the option of installing it along with Windows.

The "Install Alongside" option is (almost?) always missing when doing an EFI-mode install of Ubuntu. You'll have to either use the "Something Else" option or completely wipe Windows from the computer. There are numerous descriptions of how to use the "Something Else" option, both on this site and elsewhere, such as:

In Win 8's Disk Management I created 300 GB unalloated partition by shrinking C:. The partition is GPT. The other partitions seem to be MS-DOS. Based on my understanding of the above articles, I leave UEFI enabled/installed, and I leave Secure Boot enabled.

You're confusing two things. The GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a data structure that describes the entire disk. On a GPT disk, every partition is a GPT partition -- but these partitions can belong to different OSes or be used for different purposes by a single OS, just like partitions on a Master Boot Record (MBR) disk.

The term "MS-DOS," applied to disk, can refer either to an entire disk that uses the MBR partition scheme or to a single partition that uses the FAT filesystem. Given your context, I suspect you mean the latter, although if you've got two physical disks, it could be that you've got one GPT and one MBR disk. A GPT disk can certainly hold FAT partitions, and in fact, one special FAT partition, known as the EFI System Partition (ESP), holds boot loaders that enable the computer to boot. If you need more help interpreting your disk layout, you must provide more details, such as a screen shot of a GUI partitioning tool or cut-and-pasted output showing your partitions from a text-mode tool like parted or gdisk.

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