Are there TWO ways to boot the newer UEFI machines?

[Taildragger]

Are there now two ways to boot in the newer computers (UEFI)?
I have dual booted all my older computers Windows/Mint, but none were UEFI.
I see some say to make a Linux Boot partition, and most say to make the boot file the one with EFI.
My post from last November:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=182900
ended up doing it in the EFI partition, /dev/sda2
I have a new Asus x550j, my first 64 bit machine, also my first UEFI machine, came with Win 8.1, upgraded to Win 10, terabyte drive is divided into C: ~450gb, D: 524gb (data). I want to install Mint 17.2 along side 10 on the C: drive, leave D: for data. I have changed bios to Secure Boot disabled, and FAst Boot disabled, have no idea what CSM is.
I have the iso burnt, and loads well, just really need to know what to put in the "Device for Bootloader Installation" area, I think. (I did this wrong on another install for a friend, don't want to do that again, see previous post. Thanks in advance.

[Mute Ant]

"terabyte drive is divided into C: ~450gb, D: 524gb (data). I want to install Mint 17.2 along side 10 on the C: drive, leave D: for data."
One day this confusion will bite you, so to clear it up now....C: and D: are "volumes" (partitions) on a physical "drive" (lump of hardware). Typically Mint will see the drive as /dev/sda and the partitions as /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2...but an EFI drive may well have other partitions that Windows keeps hidden. A screen-dump while running gparted on the drive is helpful.

"Are there TWO ways to boot the newer UEFI machines?" Yes, they can simulate the older MBR boot if you switch it on before an operating system is installed. With Windows installed first, you have to leave the BIOS settings alone and make Mint conform to what's already there. In this case I would use Windows to shrink C: by 32GB, leaving an unallocated gap into which Mint can be installed.

[Derek_S]

Hello Taildragger - Yes, there are two ways of booting a machine with UEFI BIOS, either using UEFI boot or Legacy/CSM boot. The determining factor is whether the disk you're trying to boot has a GPT partition table or a MBR partition table installed on it. Here's are quick summary to help you understand:

In order to use UEFI boot:
1.) BIOS settings: UEFI boot is enabled; Legacy/CSM boot is disabled
2.) Partition table on disk: GPT
3.) Device for bootloader installation: the EFI System Partition(ESP); this partition is formatted FAT32 and is usually located at or near the beginning of the disk; for example, if the ESP is the second partition on the disk, you would specify /dev/sda2 as the device for bootloader installation

In order to use Legacy/CSM boot:
1.) BIOS settings: Legacy/CSM boot is enabled; UEFI boot is disabled
2.) Partition table on disk: MBR (Gparted refers to this as "ms-dos"; they are really the same thing)
3.) Device for bootloader installation: the master boot record(MBR), which is the first 512 bytes on the disk and lies outside of the partitioned area; basically grub writes a small bit of code there directing the machine's BIOS to the partition containing root, which in turn contains the rest of grub's boot files; in this case you would specify /dev/sda as the device for bootloader installation - not a numbered partition!

Now, in your case, since you've already installed Windows 10 on the disk, you should install Linux Mint so that it boots using the same boot mode that Windows 10 already uses. What you want to avoid is having one OS using UEFI boot and the other using Legacy/CSM boot, because then you would have to change your BIOS settings every time you switched between using one OS and the other.

Here is a screenshot from my own Windows 10 system. Note that the disk is a GPT type disk and the second partition on the disk is the ESP:
(Click to enlarge)

Screenshot (4).png

[Taildragger]

I am so glad I asked. I have seen both your responses, and will work on them more tomorrow. Mute, Thanks so much for that observation, I have never used a disk separated like that for data. Do you think I should just delete the D: altogether,then resize C: as desired and make a new partition for Mint like I have done in the past? I usually make the Mint partition larger as I do almost everything on Linux rather than Windows.

Derek, I will try to attach an image of my "Disk Manager" from Win 10. Thanks to you both

[Taildragger]

and this from the installation, thanks again

[Taildragger]

Okay, here is the Gparted read out. If I understand all this, it looks like I should reformat the D: partition (during the Mint install process) and install Mint 17.2 there. I have always just done the large partition (/) and a swap twice the size of the installed memory, in this case I have 8gb of ram. I have never made a separate "home" partition. Then make the "Device for bootloader installation" as the /dev/sda/1 because that's where the EFI is. Am I on the right track? Thanks again


By the way, after reading through the following site, I almost want to give up, see especially "Recommendations" about 2/3 of the way down.

https://www.happyassassin.net/2014/01/2 ... work-then/

[Derek_S]

Hello Taildragger - Just to play it safe, if you're going to delete the D: partition (/dev/sda5), you should do it using Windows Disk Management rather than Gparted or some other disk utility. This way Windows is aware of the change and doesn't do odd things afterwards. After doing this, if you're also thinking about resizing the Windows C: system partition either larger or smaller, then now is the time to do it, again using Windows Disk Management. You will not be able to do so after you've created your new Linux partitions.

Once you have created this new unallocated space between the Windows C: partition (/dev/sda4) and the Restore partition (/dev/sda6), you can create your new Linux partitions and install. Instead of me doing a lot of typing here, I'm going to refer you to a good tutorial written by forum member gold_finger. Read it first, and if you have any further questions, then please post back to this thread. Here is the link:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=163126

[Taildragger]

Just an opinion question for either of you. Do you normally make a "home" partition along with the "root" and the "swap? I have always just used root and swap, but is there any advantage to doing all three? Thx

[Derek_S]

Hello Taildragger - Yes, there is an advantage to having a separate partition for home. If you ever have to re-install Linux Mint for any reason, you can use the "Something Else" option to re-install. Then what you need to do is set the filesystem type, mount point , and reformat the root partition. But when setting up the home partition, do not check the box to reformat - only set the filesystem type and mount point for home. Doing this will preserve the files in your home directory during a new installation.

[Taildragger]

Thanks for the help, everything went well and I'm up and running with the fastest processor I've ever had. The Asus Netbook was/is fine, (small, portable, convenient) but this new one with the i7 processor screams. Thanks again