Can I add a 128gb SSD with Kubuntu 12.10 already installed to my current desktop?

[SteveRiley]

We're all here to learn from each other.

UEFI is a learning curve for all of us, but the more I get to know it, the more I become convinced that it is superior to BIOS is many ways. But it's so new and different that it can be scary. And all the "sky is falling!" coverage about it being some evil plot by Microsoft doesn't help.

You can take a look at what's in your UEFI NVRAM variables with this comand:

sudo efibootmgr -v

If you receive an error about missing modules, first run:

sudo modprobe efivars

Variables that point to a boot loader will contain a file name, always starting with \EFI. The other variables point to locations in your UEFI that provide firmware services exposed in the firmware's menu structure.

For example, here's mine, from my T520. I'm now using rEFInd to manage booting, so rather than listing each of my installed operating systems, I have only a single NVRAM variable for a boot loader: the one that starts rEFInd.

teve@t520:~$ [B]sudo efibootmgr -v[/B]
BootCurrent: 0019
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0019,0006,000C,0007,000A,0008,000D,000E,000F,000B,0009,0011,0012,0010,0013
Boot0000  Setup
Boot0001  Boot Menu
Boot0002  Diagnostic Splash Screen
Boot0003  Startup Interrupt Menu
Boot0004  ME Configuration Menu
Boot0005  Rescue and Recovery
Boot0006* USB CD        030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b86701296aa5a7848b66cd49dd3ba6a55
Boot0007* USB FDD       030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b6ff015a28830b543a8b8641009461e49
Boot0008* ATAPI CD0     030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25baea2090adfde214e8b3a5e471856a35401
Boot0009  ATA HDD2      030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f602
Boot000A* ATA HDD0      030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f600
Boot000B  ATA HDD1      030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f601
Boot000C* USB HDD       030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b33e821aaaf33bc4789bd419f88c50803
Boot000D* PCI LAN       030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b78a84aaf2b2afc4ea79cf5cc8f3d3803
Boot000E  ATAPI CD1     030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25baea2090adfde214e8b3a5e471856a35403
Boot000F  ATAPI CD2     030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25baea2090adfde214e8b3a5e471856a35404
Boot0010  Other CD      030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25baea2090adfde214e8b3a5e471856a35406
Boot0011  ATA HDD3      030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f603
Boot0012  ATA HDD4      030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f604
Boot0013  Other HDD     030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f606
Boot0014* IDER BOOT CDROM       ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(16,2)ATAPI(0,1,0)
Boot0015* IDER BOOT Floppy      ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(16,2)ATAPI(0,0,0)
Boot0016* ATA HDD       030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f6
Boot0017* ATAPI CD:     030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25baea2090adfde214e8b3a5e471856a354
Boot0018* PCI LAN       030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b78a84aaf2b2afc4ea79cf5cc8f3d3803
Boot0019* rEFInd Boot Manager   HD(1,28,100000,35a3de7a-7015-4855-b882-1c8e9432b8fe)File(\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi)

[mhumm2]

Wow, I thought UEFI is a new kind of BIOS that prevents dual-booting from a single drive. My HDD switch only powers one of my 3 boot drives at startup so the computer can only see the drive I want to boot with a single OS installed. Of course all drives have to be bootable and the OSs had to be installed one-by-one, but apparently, I'm missing some other infamous attibutes of UEFI. My mobo is only a year old and I don't have any issues. I think it's time I do some research myself on this subject. I apologize for my ignorance -- I'm glad you appreciated the effort though and for all your kind words.

On a side note, this is something I really like about this forum; it creates a safe place for linux users/developers/gurus alike. Again thank you for all your kind words you've motivated me to "get smart" on this issue and help some others when I can. Maybe next time, I'll be armed for the discussion.

[Shabakthanai]

Thanks friend.

You can't "bypass" UEFI with this approach. Each operating system registers the name and location of its EFI bootloader into an NVRAM variable stored on the motherboard. You can't escape this.


Sounds like a good idea!

[Shabakthanai]

Here's another option that totally by-passes the UEFI issue. Buy or fabricate a HDD power switch. The last one I made fits in the 5.25" slot of my computer. Basically, it has a rotary switch that switches the +5vdc and +12vdc hard drive voltages between 3 disk drives that I select before boot-up. When the computer boots, it only "sees" the boot drive I selected from the rotary switch. It works great.

I made mine for about $65, but I etched my own double-sided PC board and installed amber LEDs to display which drive is active. You can also buy a boot drive switch like I described, but the least amount I've seen was $140. (just google computer hard drive switch)

I know it's a "hard-core" option for most users, but I work as an electronics tech so it was the right option for me. Since UEFI is a fact of life, I thought such an "old-school" solution would be the most elegant. BTW using the switch, I boot between Kubuntu 12.04, Kubuntu 13.04, and M$ Windoze XP Pro. Come to think of it, I don't think I've booted the Windoze drive for over a year. Hmmm... maybe I'll install 13.10 to that drive.

Another reason I never liked dual boot is safety. If a drive goes out or I sudo the crap out of my booted Kubuntu distro, I just shutdown and boot up another drive. Such a catastrophic failure doesn't take out both or all three operating systems. Well, two operating systems and Windoze (grin).

If you're interested, I can come up with a schematic, PN for the switch I used and photos of everything. If you just want to dual boot, just wire in a toggle switch. Up for Linux and down for Windoze. Good luck.

Thanks for taking time to help, however, I think this is more than I am either able or want to do. I have so much stuff attached to the outer portions of my computer right now, I want to keep it as minimalized as possible. Additionally, the extra expense is difficult right now. I am very grateful for your effort though. You are terrific.

[Shabakthanai]

Thx friend.

[Shabakthanai]

It can be easily done, but it's not really like the system would convert to dual-boot. You have to do that part

Actually, the easiest form of dual-booting is a dual drive setup. Simply boot to the non-windows drive by default and then select Windows from the grub boot menu when desired.

If I understand you correctly, I can install the 128gb SSD so that another drive contains Kubuntu. If so, how do I make that drive "default".

However - this does not circumvent the UEFI. Regardless of which method you choose to dual-boot you're still going to have to deal with UEFI. For that, I suggest you search the forum (there is at least one detailed thread here) and the internet and figure that one out. From my understanding, it's a PITA to set up but you only have to do that once.

Will my computer boot to the 128GB SSD prior to resolving the UEFI problem. I do not mind UEFI when using Windows 7, in fact I will hardly ever use Windows 7, just for a couple of things. But if I have to resolve the UEFI problem to succeed, I don't see any benefit by installing the 128GB SSD, other than to use it, and I have sufficient space on my 256GB SSD drive to handle the normal dual-boot situation for both OSs once the UEFI problem is solved.

My main problem is that I am seriously not as smart as you guys, and setting up a problematic UEFI fix may be more than I can understand and do. Nonetheless, if that is what I must do, that is what I will do.

In theory, you could boot from the Windows boot manager into Kubuntu - but as I neither use Windows nor have a UEFI computer (yet) I have no help to offer. Good Luck!

Do you think this would be easier or more difficult to than the above solutions? Thanks for your ongoing patience with me. You guys are so great.

[SteveRiley]

Here's another option that totally by-passes the UEFI issue. Buy or fabricate a HDD power switch. The last one I made fits in the 5.25" slot of my computer. Basically, it has a rotary switch that switches the +5vdc and +12vdc hard drive voltages between 3 disk drives that I select before boot-up. When the computer boots, it only "sees" the boot drive I selected from the rotary switch. It works great. ... Since UEFI is a fact of life, I thought such an "old-school" solution would be the most elegant.

You can't "bypass" UEFI with this approach. Each operating system registers the name and location of its EFI bootloader into an NVRAM variable stored on the motherboard. You can't escape this.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've booted the Windoze drive for over a year. Hmmm... maybe I'll install 13.10 to that drive.

Sounds like a good idea!

[oshunluvr]

Dude, that's totally cool old school.

But how does that by-pass UEFI? You still have to be able to boot the drive via the BIOS, which in this case is UEFI. It would be functionally the same to boot into BIOS, select the boot device (most modern BIOS's allow this), and boot to it. You could - during this trip into BIOS land - reset your UEFI to legacy mode to boot Kubuntu and back again to boot Windows. That seems like a ton of extra steps. You really have to set up GRUB to work with UEFI if you're going to dual boot with Windows. Removing Windows altogether and setting legacy mode for good is another solution.

My defense against drive-crapping is to install GRUB and a working Linux install (no Windows here) to more than one drive. Thus, if a death occurs, a single trip to BIOS to re-order the boot devices and I'm running again.

[mhumm2]

Here's another option that totally by-passes the UEFI issue. Buy or fabricate a HDD power switch. The last one I made fits in the 5.25" slot of my computer. Basically, it has a rotary switch that switches the +5vdc and +12vdc hard drive voltages between 3 disk drives that I select before boot-up. When the computer boots, it only "sees" the boot drive I selected from the rotary switch. It works great.

I made mine for about $65, but I etched my own double-sided PC board and installed amber LEDs to display which drive is active. You can also buy a boot drive switch like I described, but the least amount I've seen was $140. (just google computer hard drive switch)

I know it's a "hard-core" option for most users, but I work as an electronics tech so it was the right option for me. Since UEFI is a fact of life, I thought such an "old-school" solution would be the most elegant. BTW using the switch, I boot between Kubuntu 12.04, Kubuntu 13.04, and M$ Windoze XP Pro. Come to think of it, I don't think I've booted the Windoze drive for over a year. Hmmm... maybe I'll install 13.10 to that drive.

Another reason I never liked dual boot is safety. If a drive goes out or I sudo the crap out of my booted Kubuntu distro, I just shutdown and boot up another drive. Such a catastrophic failure doesn't take out both or all three operating systems. Well, two operating systems and Windoze (grin).

If you're interested, I can come up with a schematic, PN for the switch I used and photos of everything. If you just want to dual boot, just wire in a toggle switch. Up for Linux and down for Windoze. Good luck.

[oshunluvr]

It can be easily done, but it's not really like the system would convert to dual-boot. You have to do that part

Actually, the easiest form of dual-booting is a dual drive setup. Simply boot to the non-windows drive by default and then select Windows from the grub boot menu when desired.

However - this does not circumvent the UEFI. Regardless of which method you choose to dual-boot you're still going to have to deal with UEFI. For that, I suggest you search the forum (there is at least one detailed thread here) and the internet and figure that one out. From my understanding, it's a PITA to set up but you only have to do that once.

In theory, you could boot from the Windows boot manager into Kubuntu - but as I neither use Windows nor have a UEFI computer (yet) I have no help to offer. Good Luck!

[Shabakthanai]

Thanks to all, however, apparently Ubuntu has overcome this problem. I downloaded to USB the ISO for Kubuntu 13.04. Just for the heck of it, I attempted install on my new build as it currently is. The installation was fast and, so far, flawless. I cannot provide what was done, onlly that I am able to dual boot.

Mostly a curiosity, but I currently have a new computer with Windows 7 Professional installed on a 256gb SSD. The UEFI problems with dual-boot Kubuntu have made me unable to install Kubuntu.

Probably a stupid question, but I have a 128gb SSD that has Kubuntu 12.10 64bit already installed. What would happen if I added the preinstalled SSD to my current Desktop Computer? Would the system convert to dual-boot? Is there any chance the system would accept the installation. I have added HDD's that contain data before with success, but I have never tried to add a drive that contained an OS.

I really like my new system but prefer Kubuntu to Windows 7 for an operating system. My new build is much faster than the old, and I guess my impatience is showing while I wait for Kubuntu developers to solve the UEFI conflict. Thanks for any input and wisdom. If it cannot be done, would you please give a brief reason why? Thanks!