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For a friend I'm repairing a computer so I have a brand new hard drive lying around. I've found documentation that Linux is capable of booting from a hard drive even if the computer is not UEFI enabled.

So using GParted I've prepared the hard disk for GPT and I've created three BTRFS partitions on it for boot, root and home. The GDisk program indeed detects GPT is available. When I try to install Kubuntu 14.04 I'm getting stuck immediately. The installer complains about not enough space being available on the drive. So somehow it does not find the three partitions.

I've found a few comparable questions on this site and on SuperUser but all involve a dual install and they more or less all suggest zapping GPT in favor of MBR, which is not what I want. I just want a single Kubuntu install.

Apparently the Kubuntu installer has no option to perform action manually.

How can I force the installer to recognize the partitions.

And as a secondary problem: I found an (old) article that advises to create a small bios_grub partition. Is this still necessary? According to GDisk there is a 'protected MBR' on the drive.

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    I do not know about issues with BTRFS. But you do need a bios_grub and it may need to be a bit bigger with BTRFS. The bios_grub partition replaces the space after the MBR where core.img is written. With gpt there is no space after the gpt protective MBR. Normal size of bios_grub is 1MB but it only uses about 32KiB. But some with BTRFS found that old MBR partitions starting at sector 63 did not work, you had to have the newer start at sector 2048. Core.img somehow gets a lot larger with BTRFS.
    – oldfred
    Jun 29, 2015 at 17:51
  • Thank you. So I'll create a bios_grub partition. Will this solve the issue of the installer not being able to find the partitions too or should I delete the partitions and then try to run the installer so the installer can create the partitions.
    – wie5Ooma
    Jun 29, 2015 at 19:14
  • I have only used ext4 with gpt and never had issue of installer not recognizing partitions. I have used gpt since about Maverick 10.10 on at least one drive and all new drives since.
    – oldfred
    Jun 29, 2015 at 21:37
  • If oldfred's suggestion doesn't help, please post the exact error message you're seeing. (Take a digital photo and post it if that would help.) Summarizing error messages results in the loss of details that may seem unimportant but that are absolutely critical in diagnosing and fixing problems. Always post the exact and complete error messages when seeking help!
    – Rod Smith
    Jul 1, 2015 at 13:37
  • @RodSmith Thanks, but there's no error message. The installer first checks two prerequisites. It likes to have an internet connection but accepts it if there's none and it checks for at least 6 GB of free space. It is this test that failed.
    – wie5Ooma
    Jul 1, 2015 at 21:17

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The suggestion of @oldfred was the key. The missing bios_grub partition was the problem and I came across the excellent explanation here: ''EFI boot partition'' and ''biosgrub'' partition given by @RodSmith which also helped. So thanks for your help guys.

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