Seeking hints & tips for new PC setup

[oshunluvr]

3 x 20GB partitions for multiple parallel installs does sound interesting; I take it the idea for that is e.g. 12.04 on one partition, then when 12.10 is released I put that on the 2nd, then 13.04 on the third, then wipe the 1st and put 13.10 on it when that is released, and so forth. Or am I way off base there?

No. that's about right.

Personally, I use my 3 this way: One "Main" install, one backup of the main install, one for testing (other installs, filesystems, or whatever). I wipe my testing install to do a new upgrade install when it's time to do that.

If you keep a separate /home for your main install, you could leave /home within the other two to prevent accidently messing up your main install. You could then symlink from the other /home(s) to the main /home for any data folders you want access to; like Documents, Music, whatever.

The way I would setup this computer (but I'm not your Mom, so do it the way you want and my feelings won't be hurt );

SSD:
/dev/sda1 60GB Win7
/dev/sda2 8GB linux-swap
/dev/sda3 26GB main install
/dev/sda4 26GB testing install

HDD:
/dev/sdb1 100GB Windows expansion
/dev/sdb2 26GB backup install
/dev/sdb3 504GB media (or /home)
/dev/sdb4 120GB SSD image (backup)

[HalationEffect]

Colour me pleasantly surprised, but the new PC arrived today, 6 days sooner than the 5 working days I was expecting. However the SSD + SATA cable + 2.5" -> 3.5" adapter haven't yet showed up - the supplier has told me to expect that parcel tomorrow.

Anyhoo, the motherboard in the PC is a Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2PV which features UEFI firmware and (an additional pleasant surprise) support for Ivybridge CPUs, which will be nice for when the day comes that I'm in a position to upgrade the processor.

[SteveRiley]

Anyhoo, the motherboard in the PC is a Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2PV which features UEFI firmware and (an additional pleasant surprise) support for Ivybridge CPUs, which will be nice for when the day comes that I'm in a position to upgrade the processor.

Uh oh. How adventuresome do you feel?

Do yourself a favor and at least make sure that the secure boot feature is disabled. It probably is, but double-check.

[HalationEffect]

Uh oh. How adventuresome do you feel?

Do yourself a favor and at least make sure that the secure boot feature is disabled. It probably is, but double-check.

While I'm tinkering in the firmware setup ensuring that secure boot is disabled and setting the system date & time etc., is there anything else I should be checking / setting? I've read some stuff about making sure that AHCI mode is enabled for the SSD (and perhaps also the HDD?), but that's yet another new-fangled technology with which I'm entirely unfamiliar.

Another new-to-me technology is this GUID Partition Table (GPT) malarkey. From what I've read on an MS FAQ page, 64 bit editions of Win7 can boot from a GPT partitioned disk as long as it is on a UEFI system, and I'm led to believe that Kubuntu 12.04 x86_64 shouldn't have any problems under that scenario either. Is there any reason that I might not want to use GPT partitioning on either of the drives in the new PC?

[whatthefunk]

I dont know if this has been discussed already, but I would definitely put /home on a separate partition. If you have OS problems down the line, you can reinstall and keep your home partition. Its saved me once already.

[HalationEffect]

Ahhh, I might have known it... actually, I kinda should have anticipated this... I had the forethought to order a SATA cable and a 2.5" to 3.5" mounting adapter to go with the SSD, but I neglected to consider that I might need a molex-to-SATA power adapter lol. The PSU in the machine provides 2 SATA power connectors, which are already in use by the HDD and DVD-RW drive. Oh well, I believe I know a place within about 10 minutes of where I live that should have them. Hehe, it could be worse: at least the one item I need to complete my build is a very cheap one

BTW, anyone have any advice on the AHCI & GPT questions I asked in my previous post?

[james147]

BTW, anyone have any advice on the AHCI & GPT questions I asked in my previous post?

I tend to enable AHCI for my computers, if it works then I don't see any reason not to use it. But I found that when I tried to enable it on an computer with windows7 already on it it refused to boot. Don't know if that applies to a new install or not though it might with worth a try.

[HalationEffect]

I tend to enable AHCI for my computers, if it works then I don't see any reason not to use it. But I found that when I tried to enable it on an computer with windows7 already on it it refused to boot. Don't know if that applies to a new install or not though it might with worth a try.

I'm guessing it's not much of a risk. For me, the main thing is that Kubuntu works well with however I choose to set things up; if Windows works slightly less well, then I'll live with that. Not too worried about having to restore GRUB when I get around to putting Windows on; the instructions on the Ubuntu wiki are reassuringly uncomplicated.

I now have the molex-to-SATA adapter that I needed, and I'm hoping that I'll have sufficient physical & mental energy to actually start setting the PC up tomorrow

[SteveRiley]

Another new-to-me technology is this GUID Partition Table (GPT) malarkey. From what I've read on an MS FAQ page, 64 bit editions of Win7 can boot from a GPT partitioned disk as long as it is on a UEFI system, and I'm led to believe that Kubuntu 12.04 x86_64 shouldn't have any problems under that scenario either. Is there any reason that I might not want to use GPT partitioning on either of the drives in the new PC?

Windows strictly enforces a relationship between firmware and partition type. If you have a machine with a UEFI and you want to run it in UEFI mode, then you must use GPT disks. If you want to run it in BIOS compatibility mode, then you must use MBR disks.

I can see no presently compelling reason to intentionally use UEFI at this point if you have a choice of using BIOS mode. I'm torturing myself because I want to learn this stuff. Where UEFI in general, and GPT in particular, will be useful is the point where you want to have lots of operating systems and lots of partitions. That's because UEFI and GPT eliminate existing constraints that are mostly artifacts of design assumptions.

[HalationEffect]

Windows strictly enforces a relationship between firmware and partition type. If you have a machine with a UEFI and you want to run it in UEFI mode, then you must use GPT disks. If you want to run it in BIOS compatibility mode, then you must use MBR disks.

I can see no presently compelling reason to intentionally use UEFI at this point if you have a choice of using BIOS mode.

Hmm... if I use BIOS mode, forcing the use of MBR rather than GPT, does that have any impact on my wish to have my drives operating in AHCI mode?

[SteveRiley]

Hmm... if I use BIOS mode, forcing the use of MBR rather than GPT, does that have any impact on my wish to have my drives operating in AHCI mode?

Not at all.

[HalationEffect]

Looks like things have decided not to go smoothly with my Precise x64 install.

Everything went pretty fine* at first - Went into the motherboard firmware and set the date & time, enabled AHCI, and set the boot order (CD, then SSD). Used a GParted LiveCD to set up my partitions, installed Kubuntu 12.04, and all was going swimmingly until the install completed and it was "remove the CD and reboot" time. Upon rebooting, after the BIOS splash logo screen all I get is a black screen with a flashing cursor.

So, I've booted into the Precise LiveCD, selected "Try Kubuntu" and done some googling... found a recommendation to edit /etc/default/grub and add nomodeset to the boot options, but I've done that and it has made no difference whatsoever.

*However, I coudn't find any option in my system's firmware settings for secure boot or for disabling UEFI, and believe me I looked hard.

(EDIT) Although I've now realised that I didn't issue a 'sudo update-grub' command after editing the file... not sure if I need to do anything special to update grub when I'm in a LiveCD environment. Advice welcome!

[verndog]

I'd put /var on the HDD. No sense in writing and erasing all those logs on your SSD.

Also, am I the only one who used gdisk to partition my SSD?

OK, color me stupid, but I missed the SSD part of the sentence. I installed gdisk. Have seen it commented from time to time, but I have never used it before. Always use fdisk with my standard SATA MBR. In reading the man page I wouldn't see any benefits for me. So I guess its use for SSD's.

[james147]

Everything went pretty fine* at first - Went into the motherboard firmware and set the date & time, enabled AHCI, and set the boot order (CD, then SSD). Used a GParted LiveCD to set up my partitions, installed Kubuntu 12.04, and all was going swimmingly until the install completed and it was "remove the CD and reboot" time. Upon rebooting, after the BIOS splash logo screen all I get is a black screen with a flashing cursor.

That sounds like you are booting a disk with out a boot loader on it to me. Try booting off the other disk, you should be able to bring up a list of devices you can boot from by hitting a key during the BIOS splash logo (common keys are F8 or ESC but can vary allot) or you can change the disk boot priority in the BIOS.

[oshunluvr]

James has a good point - what "Device for boot loader installation" did you select when you installed? It should have defaulted to /dev/sda.

If this turns out to be the problem, you can fix this from a live CD/USB.