Ubuntu 12.04 UEFI boot

Insomniac0des

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Jun 10, 2012
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Hey Everyone,


I am back with yet another question. Since I am making a new system and given that my Motherboard has UEFI BIOS, it has come to my notice that there exists some problem with installing Linux with UEFI bios. My choice of distro is Ubuntu 12.04, and I suppose they have that fixed or not ? I have no idea.



My question is: If I boot from UEFI using a LIVE CD, will I run into any problem ? Or will it install Ubuntu without any hassle ?


Btw, I plan on installing ubuntu on a 120 GB SSD and it'll be the only OS on my system.


Here the specs for my machine:

MoBo: ASUS M5A97
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE
gfx Card: Sapphire RADEON HD 6850 1 GB DDR5 256 Bit
Mem: 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws x Series 1600 (8 x 2)


Thank You.
 

powerhouse32

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Jun 3, 2012
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Just replied to your other thread, but I see you are now set.

To be very honest, UEFI boot is still in its diapers. Though I have successfully installed Fedora 17, Linux Mint 13 Maya and LMDE, and Ubuntu 12.04 using UEFI boot, I eventually scrapped the whole UEFI boot for MBR boot for several reasons:

1. Grub2, the bootloader in Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, and many other Linux distros, has still some issues booting UEFI. You can get it to work and boot UEFI style, but later on if you decide to install a new kernel, or add the Xen hypervisor, I haven't manage to make it work smoothly. I did manage to install Linux Mint LMDE with Xen hypervisor and UEFI boot, but don't ask me to provide a how-to - I'm not sure I'll ever manage to do that again.

2. Have a look at Rod's webpage on his rEFInd bootloader http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/. I trust his advice and he's no great fan of grub. Be aware that his rEFInd bootloader does not entirely solve the UEFI boot problems, since his bootloader requires another bootloader (such as grub or elilo) to start Linux. His website is quite exhaustive with many links for further info.

3. I successfully installed Linux Mint 13 Maya with UEFI boot, but it doesn't work when I install the Xen hypervisor. Go figure - it did somehow work with Linux Mint LMDE.

If you still want to use UEFI boot, download the Ubuntu ISO and put it on USB (I think unetbootin should work). Check your USB stick to see that it got an /EFI or /efi folder! If yes, you should be able to boot in UEFI mode.

To boot in UEFI mode, boot the PC and press F8 or whatever key to enter the BIOS boot menu. Select the USB option that says "UEFI..." and boot.

Note: You need to boot the installation media in UEFI mode, else it's a nightmare to make it work.

Check that you have grub-efi installed on your boot media (use synaptic to see if it's there). If not, install it (of course you need a working Internet connection).

Install Ubuntu. Reboot and see if it works.

If not, boot again into the live Ubuntu USB stick. Run efibootmgr to see your UEFI boot entries (if it isn't on the live media, install it). If there is no Ubuntu entry, there are some more steps required which I can share if needed.

If I remember correctly, Ubuntu should install UEFI style as long as you boot the install (live) media in UEFI mode. If not and you're desperate about UEFI, I may be able to give some hints (I'm 2000 miles from my Linux boxes but I hope I can find the instructions).
 

Insomniac0des

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Jun 10, 2012
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@powerhouse32 : Thanks for your reply. I started the same thread on UbuntuForums and Ubuntu 12.04 should work hassle free (since it's the only OS on my box). If you're interested here's the link to it:


Even they suggested me to steer away from the LVM installation, and I guess I can live with that. Since all I have is a 120 GB SSD and 2 TB HDD. Given my specs, I was also told to not allot any swap memory, unless I really really want to 'Hibernate'.

So here's what I'm going to do, mount /home on my 2TB HDD and the /(root) on my SSD.

Btw, I read your installation guide on the Linux Mint forum; very well written and informative.

P.S :- I have decided to go with the 16 GB for now. I read somewhere that AMD's memory controller doesn't perform very well with 4xDIMM at 1600 mhz, and defaults to 1333. If need be, I might get the identical 16 GB, and if it doesn't work, I will use it for my next build. Apparently my motherboard claims to support 4 x DIMM @ 2100 (OC-ed), but I am still waiting on the SSD to arrive.

Once, I have successfully installed Ubuntu and got it working, I will update the thread.
 

powerhouse32

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Jun 3, 2012
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It's good to hear that Ubuntu 12.04 works with UEFI, and the advice you got on the Ubuntu forum is spot on.

The only thing i would change is the size of the EFI partition (fat32) - I would give it 512 MB. The reason is that later on you might want to add additional systems and/or a different boot loader like rEFInd and sometimes the boot loader requires the kernel images to reside in the EFI partition. Even on a "small" SSD 512 MB is next to nothing and this way you (hopefully) never have to worry about running out of disk space on the EFI partition.

Ubuntu 12.04 should ship with a 3.2 kernel, but newer 3.3 and 3.4 kernels come with integrated UEFI support (which may need to be activated during compilation). Also, I read that the grub development team is working on fixes for UEFI problems (usually with notebooks) and that grub2 2.0 and newer will provide improvements. If I'm not mistaken, Ubuntu 12.04 ships with grub2 1.99. As they said, it should work too with your hardware.

Just follow their advise and you should get your new build up and running in no time.

LVM is not needed if you have only one HDD for data (/home partition). I have somewhere around 5-6 TB of data, and it's growing rapidly. In my case LVM and/or RAID are a must. I can live without RAID since I have regular backups and LVM allows me to concatenate drives and partitions in a flexible way. Last not least Xen shows substantial performance improvements with LVM. Your needs are different, so don't worry about that.

Good luck with your build and let us know how it worked out.
 

Insomniac0des

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Jun 10, 2012
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I downloaded the Ubuntu 12.04 ISO, and its source tree does actually have /efi/boot . So I am guessing it supports UEFI booting. As for the Kernel, I guess I will install the ubuntu-stable 3.4 kernel, once I have the machine running. Thank you for your help.
 

nehaljwani

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Oct 9, 2012
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You don't necessarily need to dual boot Windows and Linux on UEFI. Follow the guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEou2dIcMSE to convert your UEFI to MBR-BIOS without loss of data.

This guide has been made by me. Also, the referred blog will never be taken down. Although I have used it like 10 times without any loss of data, I would recommend you to backup your data before using my procedure.
 

nehaljwani

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Oct 9, 2012
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You don't necessarily need to dual boot Windows and Linux on UEFI. Follow the guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEou2dIcMSE to convert your UEFI to MBR-BIOS without loss of data.

This guide has been made by me. Also, the referred blog will never be taken down. Although I have used it like 10 times without any loss of data, I would recommend you to backup your data before using my procedure.
 

nehaljwani

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Oct 9, 2012
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You don't necessarily need to dual boot Windows and Linux on UEFI. Follow the guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEou2dIcMSE to convert your UEFI to MBR-BIOS without loss of data.

This guide has been made by me. Also, the referred blog will never be taken down. Although I have used it like 10 times without any loss of data, I would recommend you to backup your data before using my procedure.