USB installation of kubuntu 22.04: how to replace ubuntu in its own partition

[pglpm]

I have a Thinkpad X1 Carbon 9 that came with Ubuntu 20.04 (no other OS) preinstalled. Having tried KDE with the package `kubuntu-standard` and being quite happy with it, I'd like to clean-replace my Ubuntu 20.04 installation with Kubuntu 22.04.

I have downloaded the iso image of Kubuntu 22.04 and prepared a bootable USB with usb-creator-gtk. Managed to boot from the USB and just try Kubuntu, everything seems fine. So I'd like to properly install it.

So I restarted and booted from the USB and chose the `Install` option. The steps from Language to Software went fine. Now I'm at Disk Setup, and here's my question:

My SSD `nvme0n1` has three partitions. Here are the relevant lines from `sudo fdisk -l`:


Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 34 1050781 1050748 513.1M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 1050782 9768967 8718186 4.2G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p3 9771008 2000408575 1990637568 949.2G Linux filesystem


I imagine that the first two are the boot partition and a recovery-disk/factory-state partition (why does it mention "Microsoft"?), and the third is where Ubuntu is. I imagine the first partition should not be touched, and the second can be useful to keep in case I mess things up. So I would like to install Kubuntu in the third partition, without touching the first two.

However, the Istallation type section in the installation USB only give me these four options + a manual one:

* Guided - resize /dev/nvme0n1p3 and use freed space
* Guided - use entire disk
* Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM
* Guided - use entire disk and set up encrypted LVM
* Manual

If I choose the first option, I see that the 3rd partition is divided equally between Ubuntu and Kubuntu. I see I can move the division line do reduce the Ubuntu size, but not to zero.

The second option seems to eliminate the other two partitions, so it doesn't look right.

The "manual" option leads me to a screen where I can add, change, delete partitions. I find it a little scary because I'm very ignorant about partitions, filesystems, mount points, and such. I have read the DiskSpace pages at helpubuntu, but I am not sure I understand it fully.

So how can I install Kubuntu 22.04 in place of Ubuntu 22.04?

Cheers!

[claydoh]

if you don't care about the recovery partition, you can probably just use the entire disk - it will create a new EFI for booting,.
You might see what is invovled in using that recovery partition, or if you can create a separate recovery stick, if desired.

The "Microsoft' is just the very general file system type fat/Exfat or NTFS. Same idea for "Linux"

Now, if you want to keep the recovery partition, the partitioning is not going to be hard, but it can be confusing, for sure.
Gimme a bit, and I will find some pics, or whip some up that demonstrate.

[pglpm]

Thank you for the explanation! The recovery partition can be useful for a novice like me, so if I'd prefer not to touch it.

I'm curious about what you said on "creating a new EFI". I thought that was something tailor-made by the manufacturer; so that's not the case? Still a lot to learn...

Thank you for the proposed help, I'd appreciate that! Many help pages online seem outdated. No hurry, take your time.

Greetings to Wooster!

[claydoh]

I'm curious about what you said on "creating a new EFI". I thought that was something tailor-made by the manufacturer; so that's not the case? Still a lot to learn...

Nope, the EFI is a standard way of booting computers, in the way that BIOS booting was in the 'olden' times. One can use the same EFI partition to boot multiple OSs, or one can choose to have multiple ones, if one has multiple drives (or still use just the one)
While pages may seem outdated, they probably aren't, for installing. The process hasn't changed much in many years. however, many do the basic, easy steps.

[claydoh]

Ignore the tiny Free Space entries here. I did not match up the sizes here to your setup, for obvious reasons

VDA1 is the EFI, your /dev/nvme0n1p1
VDA2 is the "Microsoft" partition (/dev/nvme0n1p2), yours probably will show up as fat32, though it could be different.
VDA3 is the actual Ubuntu install (/dev/nvme0n1p3)

First, check the EFI partition. It should look like this:



No changes should be necessary.

You can ignore VDA2 altogether
Move on to the Ubuntu partition. You want to hit Change and set things as shown



No other changes should be necessary,
When finished, it should look similar to this:


You can proceed with the installation now.

However, since we are doing a bit of manual work, it is very useful to split the free space into two, one for root (the OS itself) and /home (your personal directories with user files and settings stored here). This is not necessary, but is an extremely common setup, as one can reinstall the OS, and not wipe out any of your files and desktop/application settings.

So, instead:
Delete the Ubuntu partition:


Select the free space at the end, and click Add


Use a size from 20-30Gb (20,000 to 30,000), make sure that the Format option is checked, and set the mount point to "/" as shown.

Go back, and select the remaining free space, and click Add one more time, and set the remaining space to be EXT4, and the mount point to /home
Things should look similar to this (the layout at least):

In the future, if you need or want to reinstall, you'd do almost the exact same steps, except you need to make sure that the Format option for /home is UN-CHECKED
image widget

[pglpm]

Fantastic, thank you so much for the detailed instructions, explanations, and extra advice! (I didn't know of the possibility of separating home and os.)
I hope other people will find your instructions too. On askubuntu there were questions similar to mine, but no clear answers.

[pglpm]

Actually, do you mind if I ask one more thing? I'd like to keep open the possibily of using hibernation in the future. I've been reading about it, apparently it could be possible with a swap file. Should I reserve the space for it (around 36GB in my case) in the OS partition or in the home partition?
Cheers!

[claydoh]

Actually, do you mind if I ask one more thing? I'd like to keep open the possibily of using hibernation in the future. I've been reading about it, apparently it could be possible with a swap file. Should I reserve the space for it (around 36GB in my case) in the OS partition or in the home partition?
Cheers!

Sure, if you want to. You need a swap partition, though, not a file. Adding it at the end of /home is easiest. If you go ahead and create that space, you might as well use it Just go in and assign it as swap while you are in there setting up your partitions. The process is the same sort of thing you have been doing.. Doing so iirc keeps the installer from creating its usual swap file, which isn't compatible with hibernation at all.

If you decide to create this space later, you can always boot to the live OS, open Partition Manager, and use that to resize /home from there. It will take some extra manual steps setting it up for the OS to use, and there are how-tos out there. most of which are still valid as this is something that is a general Linux operation as opposed to anything distro-specific. .
Or Just Ask

[pglpm]

Superb. Thank you again for all precious advice!

[pglpm]

Almost a year later I finally did it: followed your procedure and installed Kubuntu. All went smoothly. Thank you again for the great help.