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I am currently trying to install Lubuntu 20.04.2 LTS on a low-spec laptop (2 GB RAM, 30 GB SSD). I am finding the partition stage quite tricky to get it to work, as it keeps complaining about the EFI partition. The instructions in the Lubuntu installation manual are lacking in detail and all of the Q's & A's on this site and elsewhere on the web do not tell me what I need to know to get it working. After some trial and error, I came up with the following, which allowed me to get Lubuntu installed but is still wrong because /boot is FAT32 so fails on kernel upgrades:

Type Size Mount point Flags
linuxswap 2 GB n/a swap
FAT32 512 MB /boot boot
FAT32 512 MB /boot/efi boot, bios-grub
ext4 the rest /

As I say, the above installed but then failed on kernel upgrade.

I am currently trying the same as above but with /boot as ext4. But I'm still asking this question as it may or may not work and even the above might help some people.

So, questions:

  1. The above is done with MBR partition table rather than GPT. Is that OK?

  2. Is it necessary to have separate /boot, /boot/efi and / partitions? I would happily just have swap and / but the installer complains about efi so fair enough I can add /boot/efi but do I really need /boot as well? From trial and error it looks like maybe yes but I would rather do without it if possible.

  3. Are the above file system types and flags correct (with /boot changed to ext4)? Just because the trial and error feedback loop is slow.

Thanks

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    I've written an answer on ESP (uEFI partition) & Manual Partitioning here - askubuntu.com/questions/1273421/… I wouldn't use a /boot partition, and I'd consider a swapfile myself (and have more than 2GB; swapfiles are documented discourse.lubuntu.me/t/…) I would opt for a default install (it's easier). Is your box uEFI, as I'd forget the EFI partition if it's booting in BIOS/legacy/MBR mode anyway (on 2GB of RAM I'm guessing it's old & not uEFI)
    – guiverc
    Mar 3, 2021 at 13:10
  • /boot should not be fat32, it should be a POSIX compatible file-system such as ext4/xfs/btrfs/... (or another Lubuntu is tested with). myself I'd use ext4 but as in prior comment, I'd not bother with /boot/ MBR is not an issue
    – guiverc
    Mar 3, 2021 at 13:16

2 Answers 2

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I was also in the same question and I have installed Ubuntu 20.04 in GPT. I choosed the install Ubuntu alongside Windows and the partitions were handled by itself. I was also confused about swap. Now I have 4GB ram and 2GB swap. I just gave 200GB and let it do handle its partition size.

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Yes, the above table with /boot as ext4 works in so far an it installs and can upgrade kernels.

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    Don't forget given you've created a /boot partition (with a small amount of space), you need to maintain it & keep enough space for upgrades... By not using it, it'll use disk space available on / ... 512MB is fine, as long as you don't forget your maintenance...
    – guiverc
    Mar 3, 2021 at 13:20

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