[Bug 1037351] Re: dual booting with UEFI (EFI) and windows and gpt partitions and grub is a real struggle

[Evertjan Garretsen]

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1037351

Title:
  dual booting with UEFI (EFI) and windows and gpt partitions and grub
  is a real struggle

Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I finally managed to get a working dualboot with Ubuntu 12.04 and
  Windows 7. This has been a real struggle unfortunately. This process
  should be improved and in my opinion this bug should be critical for
  many PC's are shipped with windows installed on gpt partitions and
  UEFI defaults to on in BIOS.

  How i finally managed to install was:

  - Problem 1

  I donwloaded the 32-bit version of Ubuntu which does not support UEFI
  install. I always install 32-bit due to better support for some
  applications. The website does not tell that for UEFI i have to
  download the 64 bit version.

  - Problem 2

  The installation medium (in my case USB) has to be started with the
  UEFI prefix.

  - Problem 3

  Could not install Ubuntu for the installer did not see my windows installation and existing gpt partitions. It wanted to install on the full hard drive space! By doing so, i would have destroyed both my windows installation and recovery partition! This is very serious for inexperienced users! I had to find a way to let the installer see windows. After a lot of searching forums i found a (not ideal) solution: Removing the recovery partition of windows. Apparantly the last X blocks of a hard drive should be available for Ubuntu to see windows installed. After i removed the recovery partition, in the windows partitioner, Ubuntu installed just fine on a partition i wanted to use.
   
  - Problem 4

  Grub was installed and this is nice, but windows did not start up. I
  got the message 'invalid EFI path'. After searching the forums i
  downloaded an application called "boot-repair". This application took
  care of all the, very complex, details of setting up the grub
  bootloader. I now enjoy a dualboot with windows and Ubuntu. Both are
  working just fine.

  It's a pity that installing Ubuntu next to windows is such a struggle.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
  Package: ubiquity (not installed)
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-10.10-generic 3.5.1
  Uname: Linux 3.5.0-10-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu12
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Thu Aug 16 01:30:40 2012
  EcryptfsInUse: Yes
  InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash --
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: ubiquity
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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