Decreasing windows partition's size and increasing kubuntu partition's size

[oshunluvr]

Here's my comments/best guesses:

The ACPI errors come from your BIOS either being old or poorly written. They can generally be ignored, but some ACPI functionality may not work properly. This is possibly fixable with a kernel command line entry.

The "nouveau" error indicates you have two graphics cards - nvidia and intel? This can also be worked out later after install. Generally, adding "nouveau.modeset=0" to the boot line will fix this, but you may be installing the nvidia driver (which replaces the nouveau driver) or not using that video card at all. If you're getting to the desktop with the live USB, this can be ignored.

The lack of delay you see on the boot up selection screen is probably because the timer is running while the above error messages are being displayed. This is also not a problem, just run the installer. The icon for it is on the desktop of the live session. It will either be labeled "Install Kubuntu" or "Ubiquity".

[oshunluvr]

Hello everyone,

I followed the indications of oshunluvr in his post #94 and it seemed to work. When I shut down my computer, removed the live key, and restarted it, Windows booted (without giving me the choice to choose ubuntu). So I shut it down, when it the bios, and put ubuntu as the priority in the startup menu, then pressed f10 -> yes. But then this grub terminal that I mentioned before reappeared.

Does anyone have an idea what is the next step?

With this action you are attempt to boot your previous install which is no longer there. Boot to the USB and re-install.

[mr_raider]

Hello mr_raider.

The ouput of sudo parted -l is

[CODE]
Model: ATA SAMSUNG MZ7LN512 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 274MB 273MB fat32 EFI system partition boot, hidden, esp
2 274MB 290MB 16.8MB Microsoft reserved partition msftres
3 290MB 287GB 286GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata
5 287GB 313GB 26.2GB ext4
6 313GB 486GB 173GB ext4
7 486GB 490GB 4295MB linux-swap(v1)
8 490GB 511GB 21.2GB ext4
4 511GB 512GB 1049MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag

That looks good.

I want you to do two things:

a) Look very carefully at these two pictures:





The first is an EFI boot screen. The 2nd is a legacy boot screen. When you boot your Live USB, you MUST see the first screen. Other wise your whole install will not work.

b) Boot your live USB again (whatever way you can)

You will enter the following commands, with enter each time

sudo -i

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

cd /mnt/EFI

ls -la

cd ubuntu

ls -la

paste the output of the two ls commands.

We need to see if grub was properly installed to the EFI partition. I suspect not.

[Robert24]

Thanks to both of you for your answers.

@oshunluvr

The ACPI errors come from your BIOS either being old or poorly written. They can generally be ignored, but some ACPI functionality may not work properly. This is possibly fixable with a kernel command line entry.

From what I understand the BIOS is a software very close to the machine on which one can "put an os" which is already at a higher level of abstraction. But my knowledge about it stops here. My computer is quite recent (2016) and supposed to be a good one so I would be surprise if the BIOS which was put on it is very old. But very honestly I have no idea. I never touched it (previous to this increase of partition size). Someone installed linux on my machine when windows was already installed on it, but this was in an event organized by an association which promotes the use of linux, so I don't think that this person did something very fancy.

The "nouveau" error indicates you have two graphics cards - nvidia and intel? This can also be worked out later after install. Generally, adding "nouveau.modeset=0" to the boot line will fix this, but you may be installing the nvidia driver (which replaces the nouveau driver) or not using that video card at all. If you're getting to the desktop with the live USB, this can be ignored.

I have indeed two graphic card. One intel which is good when I want to spare my battery, and one nvidia which is good for some tasks involving graphical computation. As a matter of fact I need to use the nvidia one for what I do. I remember that there was a GUI tool already installed in Kubuntu to switch from one to the other. I also remember that I had some nvidia driver. Someone installed them for me. I don't remember how though.

The lack of delay you see on the boot up selection screen is probably because the timer is running while the above error messages are being displayed. This is also not a problem, just run the installer. The icon for it is on the desktop of the live session. It will either be labeled "Install Kubuntu" or "Ubiquity".

I'm not sure to understand what you mean by "boot up selection screen". Is it the first screen in the message #108 of mr_raider? If yes, I don't see this screen anymore, since I tried to move my old linux partition. After that I got only this Grub terminal. Then I changed the priorities in the startup section to have the usb live key first, and now when I boot the computer with the live key in, I see the things I described in my message #105, and in particular, not the screen which appears in the message of mr_raider. Concerning the installation, I had already done it when I posted my message #105. I used this icon on the desktop after having formated the partition with KDE partition manager. At the end it looked like everything was fine so I shut up my computer, removed the live key, but when I tried to turn it on again, I arrived in Windows (without being given any choice). I thought it was because I had put windows as the top priority in the bios so I changed it and selected ubuntu as first priority in 'boot' but then when I restarted I got (to my despair) this grub terminal.

With this action you are attempt to boot your previous install which is no longer there. Boot to the USB and re-install.

Really? I should reinstall linux one more time? I just did, and even if I changed the priorities in the bios, I have difficulty believing it erased this installation. Or did I missed something?

@mr_raider

The first is an EFI boot screen. The 2nd is a legacy boot screen. When you boot your Live USB, you MUST see the first screen. Other wise your whole install will not work.

I didn't see the first screen since I tried to move my old linux partition. Actually if I remember well (see my post #19, when I tried to do this move of partition at first, after having created the live key, I couldn't boot the live key if I was only choosing among the options presented in this start up screen (the first one that you indicate in your post #108). So I had to go in the bios (or maybe "UEFI mode" is more accurate) is and change the priorities as I indicated in my post #30. But then I didn't see this screen which let me choose what I want between windows or ubuntu: this "live session" opened and I thought it was what we wanted.

Concerning the commands I followed your instructions. I will also copy the commands I entered just to be sure:

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo -i
root@kubuntu:~# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
root@kubuntu:~# cd /mnt/EFI
root@kubuntu:/mnt/EFI# ls -la
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Oct 13  2016 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Jan  1  1970 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 22  2016 Boot
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Sep 22  2016 Microsoft
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Sep 21 19:45 ubuntu
root@kubuntu:/mnt/EFI# cd ubuntu
root@kubuntu:/mnt/EFI/ubuntu# ls -la
total 3476
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root    4096 Sep 21 19:45 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root    4096 Oct 13  2016 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    4096 Oct 13  2016 fw
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   64352 Sep 21 19:45 fwupx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     126 Jan  3 14:23 grub.cfg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1133944 Jan  3 14:23 grubx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1168464 Jan  3 14:23 mmx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1169992 Jan  3 14:23 shimx64.efi

Again, thank you very much for the help.

[Qqmike]

@mr_raider re Post #109: Even if it appears his EFI grub boot files are in ESP, maybe the .cfg is pointing wrong now? Which would imply a re-install of GRUB might clear it up. Or, there is Boot Repair, as you know.

[oshunluvr]

Robert24, you said:

3) There is indeed a screen with plenty of colors which gives me the possibility to choose between test and install.

But the thing is this last screen doesn't last long. Maybe one second, and then the live kubuntu session opens itself without me having selected anything.

This indicates to me that you booted to the live USB. You only get a "test and install" option if Kubuntu is not installed.

Then you said:

Really? I should reinstall linux one more time? I just did, and even if I changed the priorities in the bios, I have difficulty believing it erased this installation. Or did I missed something?

So did you install Kubuntu after the re-partitioning and formatting or not? Clearly, I missed something.

As far as the ACPI and BIOS errors; "old" is a relative term. A BIOS from 2016, assuming it's a 2016 model laptop is not new. In my experience, when I new computer is released there's usually 3-4 BIOS updates release in the first year or two for bug fixes and feature or compatibility updates. Once the computers get 3 years old or more the BIOS updates stop. If it's a Lenovo laptop, go to the Lenovo website and see if there's a newer BIOS for your model. HOWEVER, I wouldn't advise messing with your BIOS just yet. Once you have Kubuntu installed and configured, THEN look at the boot messages and functionality and see if something is causing a problem then. If they are no issues, there's no reason to update the bios.

[mr_raider]

@mr_raider re Post #109: Even if it appears his EFI grub boot files are in ESP, maybe the .cfg is pointing wrong now? Which would imply a re-install of GRUB might clear it up. Or, there is Boot Repair, as you know.

That's easy to fix.

Robert can you navigate to the Ubuntu directory using the commands I gave you.

Then output

cat grub.cfg

Look at the UUID and compare to

sudo blkid

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[mr_raider]

Just to clarify robert, here is what I think happened:

1. Your friend installed your Kubuntu properly in EFI mode

2. The partition containing kubuntu was accidentally hosed during the resize.

3. You re-installed a 2nd time yourself, but in legacy(BIOS) mode, this is highly likely since everything you tell me says you are booting your USB key in legacy (BIOS) mode.

4. You're old efi bootloader is still living in the efi partition.

We are going to try to revive the old efi bootloader by fixing it.

[Robert24]

Thank you for your answers.

@oshunluvr

So did you install Kubuntu after the re-partitioning and formatting or not? Clearly, I missed something.

I did the repartitioning and then I installed Kubuntu by following the steps that I was indicated.

@mr_raider
I entered the commands you gave me and here is the output (there's a lot):

root@kubuntu:/mnt/EFI/ubuntu# cat grub.cfg
search.fs_uuid 5d8ad238-353b-48bb-afe9-36bfb5ac9c24 root hd0,gpt6 
set prefix=($root)'/boot/grub'
configfile $prefix/grub.cfg
root@kubuntu:/mnt/EFI/ubuntu# sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="SYSTEM" UUID="D83C-5AC4" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="5e5b7e94-15a4-4725-90dc-0c296482f51b"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="Windows" UUID="96943F91943F733B" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="6da06a2a-190c-482a-bdcc-6a781a194a47"
/dev/sda4: LABEL="WinRE_DRV" UUID="5C2C3FDF2C3FB33E" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="ac1edaa8-4584-4838-a8f7-5c71a82bccd0"
/dev/sda5: LABEL="kubunturoot" UUID="4a54f916-961d-4c8e-97c5-7b319442e029" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="3424cf60-49af-40bb-b4e5-a09cb00e2917"
/dev/sda6: LABEL="kubuntuhome" UUID="fc753961-5c59-4f78-a656-dfcf6b4d2c83" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="42089ef5-12b1-455f-9285-357cb23d4703"
/dev/sda8: LABEL="backup" UUID="302f611e-26af-483d-aa59-81f160509a14" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="efb39c31-f908-4f9f-a84e-fe2a479ac158"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda2: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="e47194b9-c558-448a-9a0c-15acd2bc2b08"
/dev/sda7: UUID="00072d64-416d-4566-8c59-0a3b469c6524" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="5066c90c-1518-49fe-a661-e84cf0ba16e9"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="2017-08-01-12-29-51-00" LABEL="Kubuntu 16.04.3 LTS amd64" TYPE="iso9660" PTUUID="626b608f" PTTYPE="dos" PARTUUID="626b608f-01"
/dev/sdb2: SEC_TYPE="msdos" UUID="398E-230F" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="626b608f-02"

I don't really know how to interpret this.

[mr_raider]

The first file tell grub where the root system is located:

search.fs_uuid 5d8ad238-353b-48bb-afe9-36bfb5ac9c24 root hd0,gpt6

Note that the UUID does not match with the output from blkid:

/dev/sda5: LABEL="kubunturoot" UUID="4a54f916-961d-4c8e-97c5-7b319442e029" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="3424cf60-49af-40bb-b4e5-a09cb00e2917"

I would try editing the file grub.cfg in your EFI/ubuntu directory and change the line as such:

search.fs_uuid 4a54f916-961d-4c8e-97c5-7b319442e029 root hd0,gpt6

You can also try leaving the last entry at hd0,gpt5. GPT partition numbering is not always consistent, and redundant to UUIDs.

If all that fails we need to re-install kubuntu, and this time we will make 1000% sure you installed in EFI mode.

I suggest you read this as background:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

[Robert24]

Thank your for your answer!
I read the page and even if I didn't get everything I learned some terminology.

Concerning the Legacy/EFI question, I'm sure that I saw the second screen so it looks like I did this installation in Legacy mode. I used to have the EFI screen the first, but after I changed the boot option in the bios to have my usb key as the priority it seems that this EFI screen never showed up again.

I also remember that in my bios in the boot section, I had "Boot mode" equal to "both" which means according to the page you sent me a link to, that it "boots in UEFI mode when possible, then in Legacy mode if no UEFI files are detected". So I guess I have no UEFI files.

I edited the file grub.cfg in nano following your instructions:



but I don't understand what you mean by

You can also try leaving the last entry at hd0,gpt5. GPT partition numbering is not always consistent, and redundant to UUIDs.

I will restart my computer and see if it works.

[Robert24]

Hello Everyone!

As incredible as it seems, I'm writing to you from my new Kubuntu session!!!


When I restarted my computer (after having removed the live key), I went inside the bios (like each time I was in windows following these indications):
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/a...ios-windows-10

Then I noticed that legacy seemed to have the priority over UEFI mode as you can see on this picture:



I changed that. Then I put the priority of Ubuntu before the one of Linux, and pressed f10 to save and exit the bios... and I arrived in a fresh install of kubuntu.
Here is a picture of my kde partition manager:



So it looks ok to me.

Now there is one big difference with the setting I had before I started this partition extension: I don't get this UEFI screen where I can choose between windows and linux. Now it is automatically linux. It's not a big deal for me because I can always go in the bios and change the priority but I would like to know if it can create a problem later.

If everything seem fine to you, I will reinstall my data and try to do the various adjustments necessary to be able to use my computer properly. One big issue for me is to be able to use my NVidia card and for this I guess I need to install some packages and drivers. I read in the page the mr_raider linked me to, that there might be issues with the NVidia card (See ``Converting Ubuntu into Legacy mode").

Finally I ran this command in the terminal to be sure that it had been installed in EFI mode and I think that it is the case from the output that I see:

~$ [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "Installed in UEFI mode" || echo "Installed in Legacy mode"
Installed in UEFI mode

I know that I'm maybe not over yet but I would like to say a HUGE THANKS to everyone who helped me on this forum! Without you I would be crying over my dead Ubuntu and I would have had to go back to Windows.

[Snowhog]

Congrats!! You stayed the course, and you arrived!! Woot, woot. I think this thread may be a record here in KFN for the longest on a support question. Name another support forum that can say that?!

[mr_raider]

Good job

1. Run the command

sudo update-grub

to update grub properly and make sure your bootloader is functioning. Reboot a few times and check.

2. Run all the updates to your OS before doing anything else.

3. You are probably running off Intel graphics. Nvidia/Intel switching is possible in Linux. You need to install the nvidia driver using the driver manager or the command line:

sudo apt install nvidia-384 nvidia-prime

Good luck

http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/...-ubuntu-16-04/

[Rod J]

Good job Robert, good news indeed!

I think this thread may be a record here in KFN for the longest on a support question.

No, I think this marathon thread started by logan01 would take some beating! 49 pages!! https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...Kubuntu-Please