Free partitions not recognized [Laptop dual boot win 8.1Pro UEFI]

[robopoulos]

Kubuntu installed nicely as dual boot on my win 7 desktop but not so on my laptop.

First I get this message when booting from CD: Could not open "\EFI\BOOT\fallback.efi".

When trying to install using the "Manual" option to configure drive space the installation does not
find any partitions and sees the whole HD as one single empty drive entity.

(A year+ or so ago I did, for a short while, have Ubuntu 12.04 installed in the same laptop.
That was before I upgraded from win8 Home to Win 8.1 Pro though).

Any suggestions?

Kubuntu 14.04, Asus X75A Laptop.

Thanks
Rob

[robopoulos]

Answering my own Q,

seems that I'm facing a dynamic vs basic HD configuration problem which I have to fix before installing Kubuntu.

Rob

[Shabakthanai]

When installing, did you click on 'manual' before setting your partitions? If not, your installation was set to put everything on the one drive or partition. You may have lost your data.

Put your liveDVD or liveUSB in the appropriate hardware and allow your liveSession to boot up. Click on "Install" without the quotes and make the normal selections. When it comes to the part where it askes you if you want to let the system install or make a manual installation, select "manual". If you have more than one partition it will show here. If it shows only one drive or partition, I am not positive, but you may have lost your data. If all your partitions are showing, you are probably OK. At this point, you are going to want to make sure your partitions are usable. Leave those that relate to Windows file systems alone, but select each of your Linux partitions one at a time. When one is highlighted click on the file system menu and after it asks if you want to use this partition, choose, ext4 (fastest and best). Where it shows Mount: type in the name of what the partition was called previously, ie. /home, /robsstuff?? or whatever. Then go to the next partition and do the same. Any partition that you want to keep the data, DO NOT check the box that is for "format", obviously a disaster, because it wipes all the data.

If you are installing the kubuntu OS for the first time and have the space you will want to create a partition to contain the operating system. 20GB is about right. You must set the file system as ext4 or even ext2, but I prefer ext4. Where is says Mount, make a forward slash (/). That tells your computer where to install the new system. next choose an amount equal to 1 and 1/2 times the size of your RAM and select swap or linux swap. No need to set a mount point. It doesn't use one. And finally, and unless you have a lot of drive space and want to make several large partitions, make one that has the mount point /home. You computer was designed to use this one for your best technical stuff, like configuration, etc. You can then make partitions for your special uses, like /personalstuff or /games or Back-up, whatever. If you did not have to create partitions then...

When you come to the Linux partition that contained the old operating system, do the same, only this time check the box for 'format'. Then click on Install and you are good to go.

Hope this is what you needed

Kubuntu installed nicely as dual boot on my win 7 desktop but not so on my laptop.

First I get this message when booting from CD: Could not open "\EFI\BOOT\fallback.efi". Does your laptop have EFI capability?

When trying to install using the "Manual" option to configure drive space the installation does not
find any partitions and sees the whole HD as one single empty drive entity.

(A year+ or so ago I did, for a short while, have Ubuntu 12.04 installed in the same laptop.
That was before I upgraded from win8 Home to Win 8.1 Pro though). It's partitions probably still exist and you can use them if you want. The one with the / as a mount point is where you should put your OS. If it is now too small, resize it. Previous data may still be in other partitions, but the largest of them is probably /home from the previous installation. By the way, if you give yourself a chance to learn how to use Kubuntu properly, you can forget about ever buying a Windows OS again. It is sooooo inferior to Kubuntu you will soon stop using the ones you have, unless there are business reasons demanding you do so. Cudos!

Any suggestions?

Kubuntu 14.04, Asus X75A Laptop.

Thanks
Rob

[robopoulos]

Thanks, but this is actually a dynamic vs basic HD configuration issue.

When more than 4 partions are created under Windows 7/8 on one disk it automatically converts the disk into dynamic configuration (w/o giving any warnings). I don't know if any Linux OS can handle dynamic disks, except pehaps some of the commerical versions. There are a couple of commercial SW that can convert a dynamic disk back to basic configuration, don't know of any pd ones. For now I solved this issue by installing Kubuntu on an external usb HD.

Regards
Rob

[anika200]

Thanks, but this is actually a dynamic vs basic HD configuration issue.

When more than 4 partions are created under Windows 7/8 on one disk it automatically converts the disk into dynamic configuration (w/o giving any warnings). I don't know if any Linux OS can handle dynamic disks, except pehaps some of the commerical versions. There are a couple of commercial SW that can convert a dynamic disk back to basic configuration, don't know of any pd ones. For now I solved this issue by installing Kubuntu on an external usb HD.

Regards
Rob

Interesting, when you refer to "dynamic configuration" do you mean it is now a gpt partition format?

[vinnywright]

Thanks, but this is actually a dynamic vs basic HD configuration issue.

When more than 4 partions are created under Windows 7/8 on one disk it automatically converts the disk into dynamic configuration (w/o giving any warnings). I don't know if any Linux OS can handle dynamic disks, except pehaps some of the commerical versions. There are a couple of commercial SW that can convert a dynamic disk back to basic configuration, don't know of any pd ones. For now I solved this issue by installing Kubuntu on an external usb HD.

Regards
Rob

yes interesting ,,,,,,could you lode the live DVD/USB and open a terminal and post the output of

sudo parted -l

VINNY

[robopoulos]

I'm not an expert on the subject, so I can't answer any questions. There is plenty of information in the net of this issue, just use linux and dynamic disk for search keywords. This is one: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/diy...-dynamic-disk/.

[Quote:
The question, can I get Linux to install into a dynamic disk on a partition, and get the boot menu like the good old days?

A: The simple answer to this is "no." With the creation of dynamic disks, Microsoft is basically saying "There can be only one!" As far as I know, Linux does not in any way support the dynamic disk structure. Because of that you can always convert from dynamic to basic..... ]

When I have the time I will probably make a fresh install of both Win and Kubuntu to get back to basic configuration.

Cheers
Rob

[vinnywright]

I'm not an expert on the subject, so I can't answer any questions. There is plenty of information in the net of this issue, just use linux and dynamic disk for search keywords. This is one: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/diy...-dynamic-disk/.

[Quote:
The question, can I get Linux to install into a dynamic disk on a partition, and get the boot menu like the good old days?

A: The simple answer to this is "no." With the creation of dynamic disks, Microsoft is basically saying "There can be only one!" As far as I know, Linux does not in any way support the dynamic disk structure. Because of that you can always convert from dynamic to basic..... ]

When I have the time I will probably make a fresh install of both Win and Kubuntu to get back to basic configuration.

Cheers
Rob

A ya ,,,,I still wanted to see how parted would see the disk !!

VINNY