Ubuntu – Dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 10 with GPT

bootdual-bootsystem-installationuefi

I am having a problem when I'm going to install Ubuntu 16.04. At the beginning of the installation process an error message appear telling me that I don't have enough space on my disk, these are a couple of image of the error.

Error message 1

Error message 2

If you see the images are very similar, the only difference is in the ubi-partman error code, I reviewed the /var/log/syslog file and the error is that I don't have space on the disk. After some research, some people has had this error but during the update process. I was reading that this error can happen when you hard drive is not in IDE mode, my hard drive is a SATA drive in AHCI mode and I can't change it.

My laptop is an Asus x555u and has Windows 10(Windows came already installed in the laptop) I don't want to get rid off Windows, I want to install Ubuntu alongside it. Another important information are that the table partition scheme is GPT and the Laptop boot in UEFI mode and doesn't have an option to change it to legacy, only appear an option called "Secure boot" which I already turned off, I turned off as well the windows fast start up and the hibernation option.

I run the following commands to get more information:

sudo parted -l  

    Model: ATA HGST HTS721010A9 (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
    Partition Table: gpt
    Disk Flags: 

    Number  Start   End    Size    File system  Name                          Flags
     1      1049kB  274MB  273MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot, esp
     2      274MB   290MB  16.8MB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
     3      290MB   400GB  399GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
     4      400GB   400GB  523MB   ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
     5      400GB   895GB  495GB   ntfs                                       msftdata


    Model: SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sdb: 30.8GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: msdos
    Disk Flags: 

sudo blkid  


    /dev/sda1: LABEL="SYSTEM" UUID="BEBD-7545" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system  partition" PARTUUID="1f364185-8aa6-42d7-8264-c8d3e155f811"
    /dev/sda3: LABEL="OS" UUID="CC36C02436C0117E" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="f439206f-04b3-454a-86ac-818ebb06f46f"
    /dev/sda4: LABEL="RECOVERY" UUID="60BE0EB5BE0E83AE" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="9060aa3c-6684-492c-8bc1-8fd8e5536576"
    /dev/sda5: LABEL="DATA" UUID="40DEE5E2DEE5D068" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="3ec2c7f3-672f-4d19-9c64-df665286916b"
    /dev/sdb1: LABEL="UUI" UUID="B80D-4B13" TYPE="vfat"
    /dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
    /dev/sda2: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="8d67c444-ab75-47e1-8aec-0b452989df53"

Before began the process of installation I separate 100 GB for Linux in this moment this space is unassigned. So if somebody can help me with this I will be very grateful.

Best Answer

First of all, your sda has a GPT partition table and your sdb has an msdos/MBR partition table. That's an incompatibility. For GRUB (Ubuntu's bootloader) to install correctly, you need to have both devices (sda and sdb) with the same type of partition table (either both MBR, either both GPT). Since GPT is more advanced than msdos/MBR, it's clever to use GPT for both.

Boot into Win10 and use Rufus to create a GPT partition table for your USB device, then create a new FAT partition on USB, and write the Ubuntu ISO file again on the new FAT partition of the USB device.

Reboot and start Ubuntu from the USB in live mode. Open GParted, create a ext partition after the Win10 partition. Create a swap partition after the ext partition. Apply changes, close GParted and click on the Install Ubuntu icon.

Ubuntu installer will offer several install schemes, choose Install Ubuntu alongside Win10, and point to the ext partition as the installation partition. When asked about GRUB installation location, choose /sda (the root of your internal disk). Make sure it's not any particular partition like /sda1, /sda5, /sdb1, etc. Ubuntu installer should automatically recognize the EFI partition. If not, it might ask you where to boot from. You should indicate to /boot/efi for that. That's about it. Wait for the installer to finish and you'll have a dual-boot.

P.S. If you never had a dual-boot before, you should expect GRUB to pop-up at startup instead of Windows bootloader (winboot). That's perfectly normal, since GRUB can recognize winboot, but winboot can't recognize GRUB (that's a microsoft manufacturing defect). There can be no dual-boot without GRUB.

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