LM 21.1 Cinnamon Installer not happy with W10 as MBR/NTFS

[rivvedup]

Hello LM people!

Here's a good one for those of you maybe having issues installing LM 21.1 Cinnamon to dual-boot with Windows 10. In this case, the computer refurbisher installed Win 10 64 bit Pro as an MBR partition setup (NOT GPT), and even the W10 boot partition was formatted as NTFS (NOT Fat32) So the LM installer never 'sees' the Windows partitions unless and until you click "Something else" to see the current partitioning. This is not a good thing.


Now, how does this cause an issue? Well, I never get to see the installation options saying "hey, let's coexist on the hard drive with Win10; it's cool." Instead LM either wants me to nuke an existing Ext4 partition, or click on "something else" and spend time in Partition Purgatory doing everything manually. The existing Ext4 partition is the system's boot partition (Sparky Linux 7, FYI), and both W10 and Sparky boot just fine in this configuration. I'd give up on Sparky and install LM.....

...but it gets worse, because MBR partitioning is limited to FOUR total partitions, whether logical or physical, and GParted so kindly reminded me of this fact when I was kicking around ideas on getting around this mess. So I cannot split the Ext4 to make a swap partition because "4 means 4 and no more".

Please note this is NOT a slap at whoever wrote the current installer version; maybe they forgot such a nightmare installation environment could exist anymore. I don't recall having this issue in LM 19.x, when I dual-booted Win10 as well, so if the current LM installer was never written to cope with an MBR/NTFS nightmare like this, it cannot "see" anything but the Ext4 partition, and so b) asks the only question it can ask, being "Hey, do you want me to use that Ext4 partition I see?" But if the installer can't see the W10 partitions before the install, well....anybody know how the installer works? Is it looking for a FAT32 boot partition with (or without) a boot flag for dual-boot install purposes? If so, it will never find the Windows partition for auto-partitioning on an install like mine.

And before anyone says it, NO, I am not going to try converting from MBR to GPT, because my luck is bad enough as it is.

As Mr. O. from South Main Auto Repair says "Leave your questions, comments, criticisms and concerns down below".

[zcot]

It is a fact that if you boot the live session in UEFI mode and have an existing system installed in BIOS mode, then there will not be a recognition.

Also, if you boot the live session in BIOS mode and have an existing system installed in UEFI mode, then there will not be a recognition.

During a session, if you check terminal command: efibootmgr this is just a quick and easy way to see what mode you are using. Booting in BIOS(or "legacy") mode will say the command is not even found, -otherwise it just spits out some boot entry info.

Also, Mint will default to using a /swapfile which is just a FILE instead of a separated partition, that's easier for management and the current de-facto method, no need to go with any specific separated /swap partition.

Also, you can have any huge amount of logical partitions under an extended partition(and it resides in Mint's system base partition on the / tree). -but in no case can you pull off partition management under extended or on extended, with any partition mounted on or within that extended/logical scheme. Well, you can't screw with some other partition when it's mounted either!

Maybe, lament, sure, we can get all get down in the quagmire, or maybe just lead off with your actual real question instead, then we all move forward.

So a "GParTed" pic, show sudo parted -l info, show lsblk -f, show a screenshot of the "Disks" interface, show the inxi system info report, even any one of those things is useful for us all getting to the same page of getting you stuck in.

[red-striped-zebra]

It is a fact that if you boot the live session in UEFI mode and have an existing system installed in BIOS mode, then there will not be a recognition.

Also, if you boot the live session in BIOS mode and have an existing system installed in UEFI mode, then there will not be a recognition.

I have a related question if you don't mind:

My laptop has a 1TB HD with Windows 8 on it. It has a GPT partition scheme, and has UEFI base (hope I am phrasing it rightly). I am looking to create a dual boot with Mint on it.

the USB stick currently has MBR+fat32. Should the USB drive firstly be formatted, then scheme changed to GPT, and then only load the LM Cinnamon ISO? Or is it wise to go ahead with MBR scheme for the install on the UEFI laptop?

(Sorry if this off-topic is bothering you; you seem to know this stuff)

[Petermint]

LM has Gparted on the live boot. That is about 3,000 parsecs better than all those distributions where you have to learn dd or something.

When I stalled Windows 10, it created 5 partitions by the time it finished with those funny backup things. I installed about ten different downloads of Windows 10 to get one that worked with MS Office. They all did weird stuff. I am surprised MBR worked.

Can you get a working W10 license or backup and reinstall W10?

[AndyMH]

Without a gparted screenshot or the output from sudo parted --list no advice can be offered. Is this just a rant?

Legacy install changed with LM20 and changed again with LM21. The "install alongside" now tries to create an EFI partition (not needed for legacy) as a primary partition and put / in a logical partition inside an extended partition. In LM20 the EFI partition was unpopulated, with LM21 it now has boot files (so should be capable of booting in UEFI mode).

As you have found, if all primary partitions have been used... You are going to have to delete one so you can create an extended partition and install mint with the "something else" option.

Background:
viewtopic.php?p=1855497&hilit=Lm20+eras ... l#p1855497