Hello, I have a laptop with preinstalled Win10 where I want to side install fedora 30 too. Current layout of partitions on disk is this one, if I start from an usb live:
# fdisk -l Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 477 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: .....
Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 534527 532480 260M EFI System /dev/nvme0n1p2 534528 567295 32768 16M Microsoft reserved /dev/nvme0n1p3 567296 998574734 998007439 475.9G Microsoft basic data /dev/nvme0n1p4 998576128 1000214527 1638400 800M Windows recovery environment
Any suggestion on how to proceed? Thanks in advance
Gianluca
On 5/9/19 3:35 PM, Gianluca Cecchi wrote:
Hello, I have a laptop with preinstalled Win10 where I want to side install fedora 30 too. Current layout of partitions on disk is this one, if I start from an usb live:
Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 534527 532480 260M EFI System /dev/nvme0n1p2 534528 567295 32768 16M Microsoft reserved /dev/nvme0n1p3 567296 998574734 998007439 475.9G Microsoft basic data /dev/nvme0n1p4 998576128 1000214527 1638400 800M Windows recovery environment
My preferred method is to install gparted on the live image and use it to shrink the big Windows partition by at least half. Then do the install into that space.
On Fri, May 10, 2019 at 2:59 AM Samuel Sieb samuel@sieb.net wrote:
On 5/9/19 3:35 PM, Gianluca Cecchi wrote:
Hello, I have a laptop with preinstalled Win10 where I want to side install fedora 30 too.
/dev/nvme0n1p3 567296 998574734 998007439 475.9G Microsoft basic data /dev/nvme0n1p4 998576128 1000214527 1638400 800M Windows recovery environment
My preferred method is to install gparted on the live image and use it to shrink the big Windows partition by at least half. Then do the install into that space.
Thanks for the tip. One further info is that the disk is seen marked as gpt from fdisk. Having searched around in the mean time I found some further info, as I have not been quite familiar with gpt disks until now... It seems gparted doesn't work well with gpt and many advise to use gdisk/sgdisk utilities instead, if I have understood correctly More, if disk is gpt I'm no more limited with 4 primary partitions, so in theory I think I could shrink the 45Gb partition and then create 2 more partitions for / fs (comprising /boot directory inside it) and swap partition (just to manage possible events of shortage of memory, even if I have 16Gb of ram on the laptop...)
I have doubt about numbering, because p3 will become smaller and if I create in the middle of p3 and p4 two more partitions, what will happen? And could I still use the Windows Recovery one...?
I also found some references that now you can shrink from Windows itself the partition where it is running, so perhaps I could shrink from within it and also create two more partitions then... and finally reboot and install Fedora? Making a simulation from within windows, without confirming, it says that it would be able to shrink from about half the size at about 242000 MBytes...
Thanks for further advices guys... this UEFI, secure boot, gpt things are not so familiar for me.... I needed about 20 minutes before being able to boot from usb key... ;-)
Gianluca
On 5/10/19 4:37 AM, Gianluca Cecchi wrote:
One further info is that the disk is seen marked as gpt from fdisk.
Yes, that is required for UEFI.
Having searched around in the mean time I found some further info, as I have not been quite familiar with gpt disks until now... It seems gparted doesn't work well with gpt and many advise to use gdisk/sgdisk utilities instead, if I have understood correctly
You must be seeing really old info, because I've been using it for years with no problem.
More, if disk is gpt I'm no more limited with 4 primary partitions, so in theory I think I could shrink the 45Gb partition and then create 2 more partitions for / fs (comprising /boot directory inside it) and swap partition (just to manage possible events of shortage of memory, even if I have 16Gb of ram on the laptop...)
That's correct. (I assume you mean the 475GB partition though.) Usually you will also want a /home partition as well.
I have doubt about numbering, because p3 will become smaller and if I create in the middle of p3 and p4 two more partitions, what will happen? And could I still use the Windows Recovery one...?
Yes, it's all fine.
I also found some references that now you can shrink from Windows itself the partition where it is running, so perhaps I could shrink from within it and also create two more partitions then... and finally reboot and install Fedora? Making a simulation from within windows, without confirming, it says that it would be able to shrink from about half the size at about 242000 MBytes...
You can try, but I find it doesn't work as well as gparted. Just make sure you backup anything important from the Windows side. In the very many dual-boot installs I've done, I've only had a couple that Windows wouldn't boot after. No data lost though. Make sure you do a clean restart from Windows before.
top posting here, just to say a big thank you to all who answered, Samuel (the first one so this reply is to his mail message..), Roberto, sixpack13, Dave, Chris (and Cameron while I'm writing...) Ah, guys; this remembers me the old days when I approached for the first time Linux and while trying to install Slackware 3.0 from Yggdrasil on an HP workstation with Matrox card I posted on linux kernel mailing list to ask help to run X Window System environment and in a few hours Alan Cox in person answered giving two possible solutions (one of which to recompile kernel...) that both worked, wow! Six cd set with Slackware 3.0 still here like a relic... ;-) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XCuyJX3-hch4K_U97WhxaBYNChhWm5-D/view?usp=s...
So some help/confirmations still needed, see below
On Fri, May 10, 2019 at 6:57 PM Samuel Sieb samuel@sieb.net wrote:
On 5/10/19 4:37 AM, Gianluca Cecchi wrote:
One further info is that the disk is seen marked as gpt from fdisk.
Yes, that is required for UEFI.
Having searched around in the mean time I found some further info, as I have not been quite familiar with gpt disks until now... It seems gparted doesn't work well with gpt and many advise to use gdisk/sgdisk utilities instead, if I have understood correctly
You must be seeing really old info, because I've been using it for years with no problem.
Probably I had to specify also that in Windows 10 the partition I have to shrink appears as bitlocker encrypted and in some places I found that in this case the only option is to shrink from within Windows. But it could be old info too..
Anyway I was able to shrink the partitions and so I have now an allocated space in the middle.
That's correct. (I assume you mean the 475GB partition though.) Usually you will also want a /home partition as well.
Yes, the "7" key (and others) works no more in a good way in my 7,5 years' old Asus U36SD and this is one of the reasons I bought a new beast... Original 475 became 45... ;-)
I have doubt about numbering, because p3 will become smaller and if I create in the middle of p3 and p4 two more partitions, what will happen? And could I still use the Windows Recovery one...?
Yes, it's all fine.
Ok. Also noticed the info in another answer regarding Windows Media creation tool... and partition numbers independent from their physical position in gpt thanks
You can try, but I find it doesn't work as well as gparted. Just make sure you backup anything important from the Windows side.
I made a dd of the entire disk from a live distro (Slax) via network (but this is another funny story when nothing works as expected when you need it, hello Murphy)
So far so good I created a live usb key from F30 workstation x86_64 UEFI version and I was able to start it and begin the installation. I chose "custom" option in Anaconda for partitioninh and this is the layout seen: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iP7AjSmqeSSIN-NbK9NXrmX_38UFhrzX/view?usp=s...
I have a doubt because the current EFI System Partition is in the below part under the "Unknown" group, while in several links (regarding older Fedora versions) it was in the upper part too as if it had been "recognized" by the installer to be managed by grub in the latest stage.... see eg here: http://linuxbsdos.com/2016/12/01/dual-boot-fedora-25-windows-10-on-a-compute...
where the sda2 partition appears both in the upper side with grayed label "SYSTEM" and in the Unknown group too....
Can you confirm it is safe to proceed and create the partitions for Fedora? Despite suggestions I plan to create only the partition for "/" and a swap partition I don't need very much the /home one. And often I put docs and such inside the ntfs-3g mounted Windows partition so I can access them both from Linux and Windows (even if I have t pay performance/cpu cycles penalty for this). I rarely boot Windows (7) on my current laptop, but for example I had to do just two days ago because I had to connect it to a usb-donkey based projector and no driver for Linux... argh and to have access to the files was a big plus
Cheers, Gianluca
On 11May2019 00:38, Gianluca Cecchi gianluca.cecchi@gmail.com wrote:
On Fri, May 10, 2019 at 6:57 PM Samuel Sieb samuel@sieb.net wrote:
That's correct. (I assume you mean the 475GB partition though.) Usually you will also want a /home partition as well.
[...]
Despite suggestions I plan to create only the partition for "/" and a swap partition I don't need very much the /home one. And often I put docs and such inside the ntfs-3g mounted Windows partition so I can access them both from Linux and Windows (even if I have t pay performance/cpu cycles penalty for this).
[...]
Just to express some more opinion without providing more useful technical help, I like to have a /home partition. That way you can scrub the OS (either OS) without having to worry about /home. I entirely agree with having a shared NTFS partition to share data between the OSes, but I'd just keep a convenience symlink to it in my home dir.
Of course having a separate /home brings the pain of deciding how much room to give to the / partition.
Only this morning I bought a 64GB SD card for our home server, since its 4GB boot drive is full (the boot drive is an SD card on the motherboard, very neat). That machine has a separate /home on a separate 500GB SSD; the boot drive is just the OS: the SSD has /tmp and /var.
I've also go one of these:
ORICO USB 3 Transparent 2.5" SATA SSD HDD Hard Disk Drive Enclosure Case https://www.amazon.com.au/Genuine-ORICO-Transparent-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B01M4...
that I'm meaning to make easy to velco to the back of my laptop lid at some point.
Cheers, Cameron Simpson cs@cskk.id.au
On 5/10/19 3:38 PM, Gianluca Cecchi wrote:
Probably I had to specify also that in Windows 10 the partition I have to shrink appears as bitlocker encrypted and in some places I found that in this case the only option is to shrink from within Windows. But it could be old info too..
If your windows partition is encrypted, then yes, you would have to shrink it from within windows.
I have a doubt because the current EFI System Partition is in the below part under the "Unknown" group, while in several links (regarding older Fedora versions) it was in the upper part too as if it had been "recognized" by the installer to be managed by grub in the latest stage.... see eg here: http://linuxbsdos.com/2016/12/01/dual-boot-fedora-25-windows-10-on-a-compute...
You probably need to manually assign that partition to /boot/efi. Make sure it's not set to be formatted.
On Sun, May 12, 2019 at 3:00 AM Samuel Sieb samuel@sieb.net wrote:
I have a doubt because the current EFI System Partition is in the below
part under the "Unknown" group, while in several links (regarding older Fedora versions) it was in the upper part too as if it had been "recognized" by the installer to be managed by grub in the latest
stage....
see eg here:
http://linuxbsdos.com/2016/12/01/dual-boot-fedora-25-windows-10-on-a-compute...
You probably need to manually assign that partition to /boot/efi. Make sure it's not set to be formatted.
I have done as indicated by you and it completed without any problem. I have now the nice boot screen with both Asus logo at the middle center and fedora icon at the bottom center of the screen while booting and I can choose with success Fedora, Windows and even a setup option that sends me to the bios screen I'm just writing this from the Fedora 30 on the new laptop ;-) Thanks to all
On 5/10/19 1:37 PM, Gianluca Cecchi wrote:
I have doubt about numbering, because p3 will become smaller and if I create in the middle of p3 and p4 two more partitions, what will happen?
The new partitions can be called p5 and p6 even if placed between p3 and p4. As far as you don't get confused by this, it will be ok.
If you can do the resizing (and maybe the creation of the new partitions) inside Windows, do it, since it will not break itself (hopefully).
Regards.
On Fri, May 10, 2019 at 5:37 AM Gianluca Cecchi gianluca.cecchi@gmail.com wrote:
It seems gparted doesn't work well with gpt and many advise to use gdisk/sgdisk utilities instead, if I have understood correctly
gparted uses parted, and parted has supported GPT for a long time. Whereas gdisk/sgdisk are much more user friendly, with the former being similar in style to fdisk. These days, util-linux fdisk does also support GPT.
More, if disk is gpt I'm no more limited with 4 primary partitions, so in theory I think I could shrink the 45Gb partition and then create 2 more partitions for / fs (comprising /boot directory inside it) and swap partition (just to manage possible events of shortage of memory, even if I have 16Gb of ram on the laptop...)
I have doubt about numbering, because p3 will become smaller and if I create in the middle of p3 and p4 two more partitions, what will happen?
It depends on the tool but the typical case is the existing partition entries, which dictate the partition numbering, remain intact. New partitions, even though they use space "in the middle" of the drive following p3, will have entries 5, 6, 7 ... If you care about this, at least gdisk has an option to resort the partition entries to match up with how the space is carved up. But there is no requirement to do this, it's not better, it's a matter of personal preference. If you have things that refer to partitions by number, e.g. /dev/sda6 for swap, rather than UUID, then resorting the partitions give them a new number and such node referencing will break, whereas UUID method will still work.
And could I still use the Windows Recovery one...?
No you should leave it alone.
I also found some references that now you can shrink from Windows itself the partition where it is running, so perhaps I could shrink from within it and also create two more partitions then... and finally reboot and install Fedora?
Since the main Windows volume is owned by Windows and is a Microsoft file system, I always do file system shrink in Windows. And then I let the Fedora installer install into free space. It just really depends on your comfort level. Having Windows shrink causes free space to be created. And then Fedora's automatic partitioning will simply use it correctly. You don't have to interact with it.
you should backup /dev/nvme0n1p4 (Windows recovery), save the disk layout (fdisk -l...) and maybe save your boot sector too (don't know if this relevant for UEFI) esp. if you got a function key (F2, F?, ..) during boot to recover you disk/windows.
think of the case if you want to sell the laptop in some years or recover a somehow damaged windows (Virus, broken disk, ...)
On 5/10/19 11:36 AM, sixpack13 wrote:
you should backup /dev/nvme0n1p4 (Windows recovery), save the disk layout (fdisk -l...) and maybe save your boot sector too (don't know if this relevant for UEFI) esp. if you got a function key (F2, F?, ..) during boot to recover you disk/windows.
think of the case if you want to sell the laptop in some years or recover a somehow damaged windows (Virus, broken disk, ...)
The easiest method is to use the Windows recovery option to create a recovery image on a USB drive.
On 10 May at 13:43, Samuel Sieb samuel@sieb.net wrote:
The easiest method is to use the Windows recovery option to create a recovery image on a USB drive.
You should do that, of course, but by the time it's ready to move on and maybe become Windows again, that's going to be on VERY old image.
At the time you decide to change it back, just use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool (search for it). If the machine was once licensed for Win10, it's supposed to always be so. (Hopefully, by the time you use this laptop to the point you're ready to get rid of it, it'll be worthless anyway...)
G'luck, -- Dave Ihnat
is this the same as what's in the recovery partition, *the complete configured Win-Installation* (with all vendor driver's/settings and the bloatware, too) ?
don't know, my experiences are somewhat aged and only from win7 netbooks (Samsung).
On 5/10/19 12:39 PM, sixpack13 wrote:
is this the same as what's in the recovery partition, *the complete configured Win-Installation* (with all vendor driver's/settings and the bloatware, too) ?
I've never figured out how to use that partition, but I think that when using the recovery USB, it recreates that partition.
regarding Samsung - and I guess other vendors too - in the recovery partition resides a disk image (like dd..., or the like tools) from /dev/nvme0n1p1 up to p3
with that image you are able to reset the laptop to a state before first use in few minutes, so I guess it's different to an usb recovery stick !
usually there is a - tool to refresh/update the disk images in the recovery partition. - maybe a Function Key shown during boot to start recovering/resetting the laptop to initial configured(!!!) state.
convenient ! re-creating the recovery partition, boot a windows usb stick/CD, starting the recovery tool in the recovery partition and you are fine if something bad happens to windows.
On 10May2019 18:36, sixpack13 sixpack13@online.de wrote:
[...] save the disk layout (fdisk -l...)
I've been rather fond of the sfdisk command for saving layouts. (May not work with GPT partition tables, haven't tried that). It has the advantage (not necessarily relevant just here) that it can read its output. Great for setting up the same partition table again on another drive.
Cheers, Cameron Simpson cs@cskk.id.au
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Cameron Simpson -
Chris Murphy -
Dave Ihnat -
Gianluca Cecchi -
Roberto Ragusa -
Samuel Sieb -
sixpack13