<Solved> Partitioning New SSD Drive (create a boot partition?)

[LamphunLumyai]

I've brought a new SSD drive and I'm installing LM 20.

However, in the past I've installed Mint in a dual-boot configuration with Windows. As such Windows as the first installation automatically created a /boot/efi partition. So I've never thought much about this step.

Reality check:
I want to install LM20 with a separate root (/) root and a home (/home partition). But then I started thinking. There is no boot partition on this new SSD drive. Therefore I need to create one given that I'm using the "something else" option during installation in order to create separate root and home partitions.
So reality check as I have not done this before, i.e, this is a Newbie question: This should be a simple as creating a 200 or 300 MB partition with a mount point of /boot/efi. Is there anything else that needs to be done?

[AndyMH]

gparted is the tool for this.

New bare drive = blank. First thing you need to do is create a partition table on it. As you were talking EFI implying UEFI boot, then choose a GPT partition table. gparted menu, device > create partition table. But worth checking in BIOS to confirm that you are booting in UEFI mode and not legacy.

With gparted create:

• an EFI partition, size = 100MB (small), format fat32 and set the flags esp & boot on it (this is what tells BIOS it is an EFI partition containing your bootloaders).

• an ext4 partition for /, suggest 30-35GiB. Mine is 32GiB and is around 20GiB used (no flatpaks, snaps, etc. but a lot installed).

• remainder of the drive, an ext4 partition for /home.

Depending on the size of the SSD and what you do for timeshift snapshots (best choice is an ext4 partition on another drive), you might want to create a 60GB ext4 partition for timeshift snapshots. What you must NOT DO with a small / partition is use timeshift with the defaults. It will fill up / = no boot.

Run the mint installer, select 'something else', the next screen allows you to point at the partitions you created for / and /home and tell the installer what to use them for.

Note - if you have more than one drive in the system, the mint installer will install grub in the first EFI partition it finds (which might not be your new SSD). The fix is either disconnect the other drive or disable the esp & boot flags on the EFI partition in it before installing mint. Then re-enable them after install.

[farkas]

This is one of my pet peeves with LM install. When you are noob you have two choices, accept default install or select the "Something else option". There is no guide on how to proceed with the something else option.
If there is one will some one point me to it.
First of all obey the Number One rule is to back everything up, or clone to an external drive. A good choice is Foxclone. Just a personal opinion.
https://www.foxclone.com/
Familiarize yourself with GParted a graphic partitioning utility. This is a scary utility that could crash your machine.
You will need to use GParted prior to LM install to have separate / and Home partition.
Read the following tutorial
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=287353
The Advanced Installation in the BIOS Install is a very good guide on how to set up separate boot, / and home partitions.
Make appropriate changes when selecting "Something else option" that point to your boot drive when installing.

[AndyMH]

There is no guide on how to proceed with the something else option.
If there is one will some one point me to it.

I've written it several times in posts, but you know what searching the forum is like

[LamphunLumyai]

gparted is the tool for this.

New bare drive = blank. First thing you need to do is create a partition table on it. As you were talking EFI implying UEFI boot, then choose a GPT partition table. gparted menu, device > create partition table. But worth checking in BIOS to confirm that you are booting in UEFI mode and not legacy.

With gparted create:

• an EFI partition, size = 100MB (small), format fat32 and set the flags esp & boot on it (this is what tells BIOS it is an EFI partition containing your bootloaders).

• an ext4 partition for /, suggest 30-35GiB. Mine is 32GiB and is around 20GiB used (no flatpaks, snaps, etc. but a lot installed).

• remainder of the drive, an ext4 partition for /home.

Yeah, installing a brand new SSD, so got it. Create a GPT partition table and then create a 100MB EFI partition.
Setting up a separate root and home and then running Windows 10 in a Virtual Box VM.

Thanks much!

[AndyMH]

Setting up a separate root and home and then running Windows 10 in a Virtual Box VM.

Best to install VB direct from oracle and not from software manager. You can either download the deb (easy but you don't get updates) or in a terminal, each line, one at a time:

Code: Select all

echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian focal contrib" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list 
wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add - 
sudo apt update 
sudo apt install -y virtualbox-6.1

this way you get updates. Replace focal with bionic if running LM19.

You then need to download the extension pack from oracle:
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
"VirtualBox 6.1.22 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack - all supported platforms". When downloaded, double click on it to install, if it asks tell it virtualbox.

When you install win10, make sure you allocate enough space, suggest 60GB dynamic disk (it only uses the space it needs). Don't save any data in win, use shared folders (appear to win as network drives). Easy to setup in VB.

When you have win installed in VB, run it and install guest additions (it is installed in win not mint). With win running, off the VB devices menu 'insert guest additions CD'.

I run a win7 VM under VB for office 2016 and coreldraw. My win7 VM is 46GB. When I started with mint it was dual boot with win7, dumped that a few years back and for my occasional and limited win needs, run it in a VM.