Partition Concerns - Installing Ubuntu 12.04 on New Laptop

Question

I plan to install Ubuntu 12.04 on my new Samsung NP540 laptop. I do, however, have two concerns.

The first issue is that Samsung have decided that it is necessary to manipulate the BIOS in order to boot from USB or CD. The "OS Mode" has to be changed from UEFI OS to CSM OS in order to allow the USB to load.

I would like to keep Windows 8 and thus have a menu that allows me to boot into Windows or Ubuntu as I choose.

At "Installation Type" (when running the installation USB) the screen shows: "This computer currently has no detected operating systems" even though Windows 8 does exist. This presumably happens because I have selected the CSM OS.

The second point is about my partitions. I haven't needed to play around with partitions for some years and don't want to mess up the hard drive.

My partitions are:

/dev/sda 500GB [ATA hard drive]

partition type space used function

/sda1 ntfs 523MB 356MB recovery

/sda2 fat32 314MB 33MB EFI

/sda3 ? 134MB unknown ?

/sda4 ntfs 471834MB 35984MB c:\ drive (with Windows 8)

/sda5 ntfs 26226MB 25364MB recovery

/sda6 fat32 1073MB 740MB recovery

/dev/sdb 24GB [SSD drive]

[...]

What should I do? Do I reduce the size of /sda4? Also, I have six partitions. Isn't that the maximum permitted?

The options for modifying each partition are:

New partition size in megabytes (e.g. expand / reduce). Use as (e.g. ext2, ext3, ext4). Format the partition (check box or leave blank). Mount point (e.g. /).

I would appreciate some advice as to the best solution.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You will need to use the 64 bit version of current versions of Ubuntu and from the UEFI menu boot the flash drive in UEFI mode. That way it will install in UEFI mode. Systems need Windows fast start up (hibernation) and UEFI/BIOS fast boot quick boot UEFI settings. Vital for some systems. Use Windows Disk Tools to shrink Windows main partition, but not to create any new partitions, if installing on same drive. Reboot after shrink so it can run its repairs to its new size. Backup efi(ESP) partition and Windows partition before Install of Ubuntu. Only one efi partition per hard drive.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI

Installing on a Pre-Installed Windows 8 System (UEFI Supported)

How do I install Ubuntu alongside a pre-installed Windows with UEFI?

Only MBR(msdos) partitioning has the 4 primary partition limit, but allows additional logical partitions in one primary that is an extended partition.

With UEFI you have gpt(GUID) partitioning which has a initial limit of 128 partitions (but you can even add more).

Edit: Did not know specs on your specific system, but with the 24GB SSD, you probably have an Ultrabook. That uses Intel SRT with RAID. You have to undo the RAID to let Ubuntu install and can then re-implement it. You also have dual video which may also give video issues after the install until you install bumblebee. Can you set to boot with just nVidia or just Intel video?

Other users have posted this:

[QUOTE]Disable the RAID, it was using the Intel rapid management thingy and telling it to disable the acceleration or the use of the SSD. If you have a different system, just disable the RAID system then install Ubuntu. Once installed you can then re-enable it. sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sda sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sdb[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]You will need to use the dmraid command prior to running the Ubuntu Installer so that it will be able to see the partitions on the drive because otherwise with the raid metadata in place it will see the drive as part of a raid set and ignore its partitions.[/QUOTE]