Before I start - From Mint to Kubuntu

[AnthonyL]

So are you back on Mint, or were you successful with Kubuntu, or neither?

I'm back on Mint as I was before I made the first post, just the worst for wear and uncertain as to which direction to now take.

[Don B. Cilly]

Well, the way to go next seems to be to try and install Kubuntu in "legacy" mode.
Apparently, if you can tell your BIOS to boot from the DVD in legacy mode, the installer will not require an EFI partition.

I say apparently, because:
With my BIOS, if I try to boot from USB in UEFI mode, it does not boot.
If I boot in non-UEFI mode - which I assume is legacy, the options are: "UEFI: USB" and "USB", it boots just fine, but the installer still demands an EFI partition.

Now, there may be a way to install it without the ESP. But
- I couldn't find it and
- All I can google says, boot in legacy mode and there you go.

Now, in the Boot section of your BIOS, what options do you have for booting from DVD?

[jglen490]

So are you back on Mint, or were you successful with Kubuntu, or neither?

[AnthonyL]

It is an HP Elitebook 8440p notebook. I don't know where the idea of USB has come from - no USB is involved. It originally came with Win7 Pro on a smaller disk, I cloned that onto a larger disk, all fine. I burned a KDE Mint 64bit DVD and installed from that, but my have used GParted first. Booting up then gave me a selection and that has worked fine until recently. I burned a Kubuntu 18.043 LTS DVD the other day and installed from that specifiying the SDA3 partition to reformat and use and despite choosing options that I believe would not change the boot I lost the boot altogether. I've used the KDE Mint DVD to reinstall - that is fine and boots up - initially straight into Linux but whilst writing this I went into the BIOS to check one or two things and without knowingly having changed anything I'm now fully working as before with Dual Boot and the other options (Memory test, Recovery etc).

So, there was and is no USB involved. I don't know why it is now working, I don't know why it wasn't working and I guess I don't know which way to go next.

[claydoh]

No, Kubuintui does not require EFI, it can boot to either, ther OP likely has to see about booting the USB in the 'legacy' or 'bios' mode/

We never did ask what model of laptop it was.....

i have in my hand an HP elitebook from my brother, I am replacing a drive on, an older unit (2570p), and it definitely has a hybrid option, though it is set to Legacy. it definitely is running the Kubuntu installer I am using in legacy mode, installing to an external drive as a test.

It will be worth looking at the bios settings for this

I think we forget that Mint KDE is a 16.04 based distro, and if a Mint-specific tool from 2016 was used to create the USB disk, the tool there might not be able to properly create the 'hybrid' installer.

[Don B. Cilly]

Well, the last dual-boot I had with Windows in it was with Win7 - some 10 years ago or so.
It was with Ubuntu 10.04. I then moved to Kubuntu 12.04, 14.04 (which I really loved), and no Windows whatsoever by then) and 16.04, without having to use UEFI.

Then I tried 18.04 and it started bugging me with the UEFI stuff.
Which I solved, but I had no Windows to worry about, only older Kubuntus to dual-boot.

So, your Win7 doesn't use UEFI.
Kubuntu 18+ seems to require it.
I guess the Mint you re-installed was an oldish one which did not require it. Which, if that is the case, is not-all-that-good.

So it seems to me the possible solutions are:
- Find a way to (dual)boot Win7 with UEFI. If you can, just make a little EFI partition and Bob's your uncle.
- Find a way to (dual)boot a recent version of Kubuntu without UEFI. If you can, Bob's your uncle with no further partitioning.

Otherwise...
------------- CILLY MODE ON ---------------------
Get an Arch Linux ISO and install that.
Fun for all the family.
It's like playing a text-mode adventure game from the '80s.
If you manage to get to the installed-system level, any other installation will look like shooting fish in a barrel with an UZI.
------------- CILLY MODE OFF ---------------------

[jglen490]

I wish I could have helped you more, but I don't do dual boot and I'd hate to completely screw up your Windows installation. Kubuntu by itself, is an easy install (my PC uses UEFI and the installed OS has an ESP) and has never failed to be an easy install - except when I screw something up, but I've gotten most of that out of way

[AnthonyL]

[QUOTE=jglen490;429791 I see that /dev/sda2 is indicated as having the boot flag set), so you would select in the drop down what is shown as having the boot flag already set.
[/QUOTE]

I missed the significance of that * on sda2 which is the Win7 partitioin (sda1 having ended up as the Windows Recovery). I don't recall having any confusions when I first added Mint KDE to the Win7 installation. I've just re-installed Mint and despite having just about identical install instructions it boots up but a df -h does not show anything other than sda3.

Not an enjoyable process. Might have to try Win7 repair and see if I can go forward from there but not happy with what Kubuntu has done.

[jglen490]

**** no efi system partition was found ****

So I'm half way through the install, manual when it came to drives and chose to format sda3 below after copying off various files I thought might be useful.
There was no option to format the swap partition.
There seems no option to create an efi partition and the system was dual booting fine before, ie I got a selection of partitions to boot from including KDE and Windows - shouldn't these remain the same?

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 24578047 24576000 11.7G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 24578048 625139711 600561664 286.4G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 625139712 1211076607 585936896 279.4G 83 Linux <============ formatted as Ext4
/dev/sda4 1211076608 1953523711 742447104 354G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1252040704 1953523711 701483008 334.5G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 1211078656 1252040703 40962048 19.5G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Remained unchanged. Option to review after formatting wasn't presented.

In my experience after selecting the "Something else" option has been that you are allowed to change or leave alone as many partitions as you want. You highlight the partition, then select the "Change" button which brings up a popup dialog box that allows the user to change any parameters for that partition. So, for instance, with /dev/sda3 - highlight the line with that partition, select the "change" button, click on the check box next to the word "Format", make sure everything else is correct/change the incorrect entries, then click the button in the doalog box to exit and save your changes. From there, you select another partition, if you want to change it. If you are done with the partitions, then you can check the drop down menu near the bottom of the screen that is used to select the location for boot files. With an ms-dos style partitioning scheme, that would generally be the MBR of a bootable partition, but not necessarily (I see that /dev/sda2 is indicated as having the boot flag set), so you would select in the drop down what is shown as having the boot flag already set.

Generally, ms-dos style partitioning does not use an efi setup - it can but it's a pain in the ***. You partition listing does not indicate a separate ESP, which would normally be formatted as fat 32 in a standalone partition fo anywhere from 50MB to 500MB. Nothing like that shows in your listing as something separate.

I hope this info will help you fix your current problem - probably with a re-run at the install procedure.

[AnthonyL]

Probably, at the moment I'm stuck on:

Predictably:

The 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/. Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot.
Installer crashed

Note I get TPM error (HP Elitebook)

Error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found.
Entering rescue mode …

Grub rescue> ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos6) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0m,msdos3) (hd0m,msdos2) (hd0m,msdos1)

Not touching anything now

I've got a gparted dvd but have little idea how to use it properly.

[claydoh]

I don't think your Windows is using efi, as you don't look to have the EFI partition already. The installer would use the existing one.

My guess is you have a hybrid bios that can boot both to the legacy MBR as well as uefi.

I don't know if is safe to install in efi I mode with Windows using an mbr, so sticking with mbr is the safe option here.
You might have to dig up documentation to see how to boot the USB stick in legacy/mbr mode. The USB can be used in either type of system.

I had an old laptop that was a hybrid, I would get two entries for the USB installer in the system's boot device selection menu Hotkey

I think creating a DVD installer from the is will boot in legacy mode if that is an option.





Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk

[AnthonyL]

**** no efi system partition was found ****

So I'm half way through the install, manual when it came to drives and chose to format sda3 below after copying off various files I thought might be useful.
There was no option to format the swap partition.
There seems no option to create an efi partition and the system was dual booting fine before, ie I got a selection of partitions to boot from including KDE and Windows - shouldn't these remain the same?

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 24578047 24576000 11.7G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 24578048 625139711 600561664 286.4G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 625139712 1211076607 585936896 279.4G 83 Linux <============ formatted as Ext4
/dev/sda4 1211076608 1953523711 742447104 354G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1252040704 1953523711 701483008 334.5G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 1211078656 1252040703 40962048 19.5G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Remained unchanged. Option to review after formatting wasn't presented.

[AnthonyL]

Just in case it helps anyone else the actual Knotes themselves on Mint KDE are in:
/home/al/.local/share/notes/new
and each note being a separate file with a name in the form:
1565944651.R729.<user>
and is described by Dolphin as an Email Message but is readily viewable in a text editor eg Kate

I have no idea how the rest of the notes system ties in but at least I have a copy to try and restore in the first instance.

[claydoh]

if you copy your entire /home dir over to the new install, all your data and settings will be restored. I don't think there will be any config file compatibility between whatever Plasma version was in Mint's KDE and Kubuntu.

However, that may be using a hammer to swat a fly if you are not too worried about having all the settings restored. However, it might be simpler
As to where the notes are stored (assuming you are talking about the desktop sticky notes widget thingies?
Info on this is stored in files in the folder /home/<username>/.local/share/plasma_notes/
And desktop widget info i(including the notes) is at /home/<username>/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

A bit complex, to be sure, but not terrible if that is all you want.
Of course, you can ask, and we can help find

[claydoh]

if you copy your entire /home dir over to the new install, all your data and settings will be restored. I don't think there will be any config file compatibility between whatever Plasma version was in Mint's KDE and Kubuntu.

However, that may be using a hammer to swat a fly if you are not too worried about having all the settings restored. However, it might be simpler
As to where the notes are stored (assuming you are talking about the desktop sticky notes widget thingies?
Info on this is stored in files in the folder /home/<username>/.local/share/plasma_notes/
And desktop widget info i(including the notes) is at /home/<username>/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

A bit complex, to be sure, but not terrible if that is all you want.
Of course, you can ask, and we can help find