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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.

  1. 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 ?

  2. 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?)?

  3. 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.

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    Thank you for welcoming me. I want to split my questions to parts but they are really depended on each other, hoping all to be assumed as a plot summary for my main concern in title. Sure I will ask one at a time from now on, if I should fragment this post to several single posted question, I will proceed doin so upon your further request. Thank you.
    – BunHat
    Mar 21, 2014 at 1:11

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First, I think you're overestimating the problems and dangers of EFI. The bricking problem was most prominent with certain Samsung laptops, although I've heard claims that some other EFIs were also affected. In any event, fixes rapidly made their way into Linux kernels, so I doubt if you'll run into such problems with a modern version of Ubuntu. More broadly speaking, although there are lots of buggy EFI implementations, most of them work reasonably well.

Second, be aware of the difference between a boot loader and a boot manager. A boot loader loads an OS kernel into memory and kicks off control to it. A boot manager enables the user to choose which OS to boot, typically via a menu. Many programs, including GRUB, combine both functions into one program; but many others don't, and in fact splitting them up is much more common in EFI than in BIOS. Most EFIs, in fact, provide a primitive boot manager. The Windows boot program is mostly a boot loader, not a boot manager; although it does have boot management capabilities, I have yet to see a coherent description of how to actually configure it to chainload another boot program in EFI mode. (Getting it to do so in BIOS mode is relatively well-documented, by contrast.) In any event, you'll need boot loaders for both OSes. Given all the factors, IMHO it's unwise to attempt to use the Windows boot program as a multi-OS boot manager, at least under EFI. Instead, use GRUB, rEFInd, gummiboot, or even the EFI's built-in boot manager for this job. (See my page on EFI boot loaders and boot managers for my thoughts on several options.)

The main new issues for partitioning for EFI and GPT are that GPT supports up to 128 partitions with no distinction drawn between primary, extended, and logical; and you need an EFI System Partition (ESP) to hold boot loaders. The first of these is an advantage and simplification, not a drawback. The second is a fairly simple new wrinkle on the overall partitioning task. Issues like partition sizing and placement are the same for GPT and MBR, aside from the need to place the ESP on the disk.

Beyond this, I recommend you read up on EFI. Three specific sites I recommend are:

Any one of those will help you understand EFI and navigate the EFI waters. Reading all three will help a lot, although you'll glean less new knowledge from each subsequent one you read. The first two are likely to help the most in terms of conveying practical knowledge.

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  • I feel myself very fortunate to be addressed by an expert whose work covers everything on multitude of matters that I can imagine. I will proceed as you have referred. Thank you for bringing me to focus.
    – BunHat
    Mar 21, 2014 at 10:31

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