arch along win8 with uefi

fib · 2013-12-31 16:25:17

Hello,

Before getting through a new arch installation, I want to ask some advice on the partitioning of my brand new asus laptop.

My aim is to install arch alongside windows 8.

The current partition table as seen from win is so organized:
---------------------------------------------------
300 MB (EFI system partition)
900 MB (Recovery partition)
187 GB (Win8 Os)
258 GB (Data) // completely empty
20 GB (Recovery partition).
---------------------------------------------------

I thought to erase the Data partition and install there arch.

Here are some doubts.

1) The MoBo is uefi, should I reserve something like 512 Mb for the efi boot partition as written in the documentation or can I somehow use the one already present?

2) Assuming I split the Data partition in
-----------------------------
512 Mb (Efi boot)
[what is left] (linux)
-----------------------------
Installing GRUB, are there any issues in finding windows 8?

I already disabled secureboot and fastboot in the bios.

clfarron4 · 2013-12-31 17:17:54

fib wrote:

I already disabled secureboot and fastboot in the bios.

Have you disabled Fast-Boot from within Windows itself?

srs5694 · 2013-12-31 22:50:11

fib wrote:

1) The MoBo is uefi, should I reserve something like 512 Mb for the efi boot partition as written in the documentation or can I somehow use the one already present?

It's best to share the ESP across OSes. This is because the Windows installer misbehaves if it's fed a disk with two ESPs. Of course, you've already got Windows installed, but you may need to re-install it sometime.

In most cases, an ESP smaller than 512MiB (note: Mb = megabits, MB = megabytes, MiB = mebibytes; MiB is the correct unit here) is fine. It's a problem mainly with some (mostly older) EFI implementations that have a buggy FAT driver. That said, if you're concerned about this, you can move/resize your partitions or create a new ESP, either to replace or to supplement the current ESP.

Installing GRUB, are there any issues in finding windows 8?

There can be, especially if you rely on GRUB's auto-configuration scripts (which I believe Arch users often bypass). GRUB tends to be rather finicky when chainloading to the Windows boot loader. There's another active thread on this site in which users are being polled about which boot loaders/managers they use, and in the EFI realm, rEFInd and gummiboot both have a lot of users, with GRUB coming in well behind either of them.

clfarron4 wrote:

fib wrote:
I already disabled secureboot and fastboot in the bios.
Have you disabled Fast-Boot from within Windows itself?

To elaborate, the Windows Fast Startup feature is known to cause filesystem corruption on dual-boot computers, even on the ESP. Thus, it's imperative that this feature be disabled, as described here.

The firmware's own "fast boot" feature is less often a problem. In fact, I got a new laptop yesterday, and it's working fine with the default firmware settings. (I haven't even checked to see if it's got a fast boot feature, but it probably does.) Likewise, I can boot fine with the "fast boot" settings enabled on an ASUS motherboard.

Gulver · 2014-01-01 03:14:04

You will probably see another partition right before main Windows part, do not delete it. Try not to delete anything extra just to make partition scheme look elegant. I also do recommend to preserve your current EFI part, try to preserve your windows efi files, even back them up before installation into a usb or something.

Last edited by Gulver (2014-01-01 03:15:10)

alezost · 2014-01-01 05:56:52

fib wrote:

I thought to erase the Data partition and install there arch.
Here are some doubts.
1) The MoBo is uefi, should I reserve something like 512 Mb for the efi boot partition as written in the documentation or can I somehow use the one already present?
2) Assuming I split the Data partition in
-----------------------------
512 Mb (Efi boot)
[what is left] (linux)
-----------------------------
Installing GRUB, are there any issues in finding windows 8?
I already disabled secureboot and fastboot in the bios.

You already have ESP so don't create another one. I had a similar partition table (except i needed to shrink a partition with Windows8 as there was no empty one). I have a dual boot (Arch/Windows8) with GRUB and no problems with finding/starting OSs. You can do with "Data" partition whatever you want: use the whole or split it into several, just don't forget to create suitable filesystem(s) (i use ext4) on partition(s) for arch.

TheSaint · 2014-01-01 07:54:18

Similar as OP with Asus and Win8 partitioning.
I shrunk win8 to less than an half, I kept Data for sharing between OSs and I putted root and home partition into the gained space.
20 Gb for root and 20 Gb another installation, 50 Gb for /home. My hard disk is bigger than OP one, I got an extra 100 Gb which I used for transitory data.
I repute 20 Gb good enough for the OS, additional data may go somewhere else.
Actually I don't use win8 that much, therefore it has just 35 Gb free space and it remains that.
I spend one word about the second installation. It saves me some trouble after particular updates, which may cause temporary lockout.

fib · 2014-01-03 08:28:48

Thanks for your replies.

I solved creating a new esp partition for arch with gummiboot.
I just realized I can pick a boot partition directly in the bios.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-12-31 16:25:17

arch along win8 with uefi

#2 2013-12-31 17:17:54

Re: arch along win8 with uefi

#3 2013-12-31 22:50:11

Re: arch along win8 with uefi

#4 2014-01-01 03:14:04

Re: arch along win8 with uefi

#5 2014-01-01 05:56:52

Re: arch along win8 with uefi

#6 2014-01-01 07:54:18

Re: arch along win8 with uefi

#7 2014-01-03 08:28:48

Re: arch along win8 with uefi

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