Dear Ubuntu community members,
I am planning on a fresh multiboot installation environment which initially includes Ubuntu for general open software development, Windows 7 pro and later on maybe other OSes.
Computer model I will be using is a Thinkpad W520 with latest system firmware. My reported disk size is 465,76GB.
Deadlock is: I prefer to have a more reliable GPT based harddisk partitioning scheme instead of MBR. Contrary to other OSes, windows lets GPT partitioning only if the system's firmware is UEFI enabled. Even if I have had before enabled this generically may be buggy UEFI as default firmware and installed windows 7 pro with fresh GPT partition with no big issues, I wasn't certainly able to assure same production environment reliability for any other OSes including Ubuntu. Unspecific reported UEFI Linux installation risks include bricking! system motherboard even on newest generation Thinkpads, and also latest W540 models.
I would be glad if you experienced users can address my interdependent UEFI *nix multiboot installation questions and concerns, which may also hopefully help us to better document the overall experience on these particular Thinkpad systems.
I am planning depending on microsoft bootloader if there is not a established consensus that prevents microsoft from wiping others, does it have any drawbacks on non-MS side, do I have another reliable/surefooted alternative approach ?
I will be reserving only a small (120-160GB) ntfs formatted GPT partition for windows at the end of the disk space, ie. at the innermost physical sectors. 100MB ms reserved partition, ~300GB blank partition left unformatted for ext4 formatting during Ubuntu installation, and lastly if I don't left any extra blank partition for unix lastly a 120-160GB ntfs partition for windows use. Is it safe to use windows setup partitioners, DISKPART,etc. for GPT/MBR partitioning? What about 100MB reserved and 125MB UEFI partition use out of windows, should I salvage them or let stay? and do you have any amendment to partitions/partitioning that may be useful in a multiboot environment, ie. I am beware of more partitions leading to lost space, but also concerned in resulting swap performance and fail safe conditions of not creating a home (I hope through live boot I can any time recover or clean reinstall without deleting some backup folders on a single ext4?)?
I am planning file sharing through lightweight virtual machine shared folders when in windows or *nix. There will be no intermediary partition and almost all files will reside natively on single ext4 partition of Ubuntu. I don't want to have any separate partition for swap or home, would that impact swap file contagiousness and performance on Ubuntu, (though, hopefully surely it will prevent moving files between separate ext4 physical partition locations of OS and home)?
I have intended to keep my questions and setup generic so that its resolution may help millions of other UEFI Linux multiboot use case and especially UEFI bricking prone thinkpad alike mobile computers.
I may just use MBR and BIOS old style, but your replies will be really useful for my installation environment resolution considerations.
Thank you in advance.