Linux fedora installation beside my window 7 (dual boot) [ Edited ]

[arsaman]

Hi,

I am facing a problem while installing fedora on my Z580 windows 7 laptop.

i had shrunk the C drive to get 100 gb free unallocated space where i could install the linux os.but while installing i am facing error: ERROR PARTITIONING "Could not allocate requested partitions :not enough free space on discs.

after going thru some forums i discoverd issue could be with partition limitation of harddisk drive which is 4.

and lenovo laptop is already having 4 partitions.and additional partitions for / and /home etc for linux , this problem is happening.

Please advice me how can i resolve this issue.

thanks 

Also what if i remove the lenovo tool drive (ofcourse after a DVD backup) and merge it with C drive.That woud make it3 primary drive and i can install linux then????

[dhdurgee]

Linux has no problems installing to a logical partition.  You will need to create two logicals for linux, the root partition and a swap partition, for the install.

Dave

[jpou]

You don't really need a swap partition if you have >=4 GB of ram. 

[MFserver]

However, to create logical partitions, you have to remove one of the primary partitions and create a container for the logical partitions. Read up a little on partitioning here, for example. Also, I suggest you to use the Gparted live CD (or similar software) to edit the partitioning scheme, as I have had problems both with the windows partitioner and the fdisk utility that comes with Archlinux during installation. Maybe fedora uses Gparted though, I haven't tried it

Needing swap or not is very individual, I have a 256M server as well as a 2G laptop both running without swap, and the laptop could use a swap partition while I am editing multiple large images, but hardly needs one otherwise. However, if you have an SSD, always avoid placing the swap on it as it will shorten the life span of the SSD considerably.

[arsaman · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

Thanks for the responces.

I was able to install fedora 17 beside my win7 os.

I had to delete the Lenovo drive(having setup files for drivers) after taking a DVD backup.

However these two days had been very tough..and had a bad experience.

i changed the grub configuration and installed nvidia package(was just experimenting ).after i did the restart.it just wont get into the linux system.Although Win 7 was fine.

i got lil frustrated , being a novice and decided to reinstall the linux by replacing the old linux.

now again the curse of maximum 4 primary partition comes into picture, whenver i tried to use USB or Live CD

it would show me errors.Then i felt i had to delete the linux partition from Win disk manager tool.but ..thinking .Grub overrride on MBR could pose some issue when i would have booted to get into Win7, since it would have been got deleted as well with linux partition.So i went to EasyBCD and used a option(i didnt have any idea if it would work or not. took the risk) and run the option to place the win vista/7 booting files on MBR,(thinking it might delete the GRUB overwrite).

Then i restarted and boom.I was lost as soon as i saw the message of boot failing.(i didnt have any bootable Win7)

But there comes the rescue..One key recovery saved me in 15 min it did the recovery .and i was able recover the default factory settings ,althogh i lost some files not very important.

Then i deleted the linux partition from Win disk manager , and again reinstalled.

now both the systems are working fine.

Conclusion: 1.Linux cant be installed in a system with already 4 primary partition existing(i might be wrong here)

                       2.Its safe to delete the lenovo drive(containing the driver set up files), once you have the back up.

                       3.you must avoid changing any cofiguration to grub bootloader(unless you are an expert)

                       4.for my case, normal Live CD didnt work.I had to create a live USB(using fedora live usb creator) and i had to

                          remove files with extension .efi(someone from some fedora forum suggested doing it), before i booted from it.

Thats it

thanks

[arsaman]

Yea i deleted Lenovo drive(with driver files on it)Window partitioner could allow me to unallocate the 100 gb space for linux.
while installing fedora with live usb, it automatically did the parttition on unallocated 100 GB Swap got 5GB..(is it similar to virtul memory in XP, not sure ) mine doesnt have SSD so no woory on that part.

[Lokesh_agarwal]

I too have the same problem.

My window 7 is working fine but when i installed Ubuntu then it is perfectly installed.

Now when i reboot the system, it directly starts windows 7. it won't enter in ubuntu or give a option of Os selection.

i have tried many times but same problem repeats again.

kindly help me out, if somebody has solution kindly mail me at *****@live.com.

it is urgent.

Moderator note: email address obscured to keep it away from the spambots.

[trilby]

I'm having the same issue with the P580, booting directly to Windows instead of displaying GRUB's boot menu.  I haven't dug very much into it yet, but from what I've been able to gather it might be that UEFI is bypassing the MBR and using the EFI file for Windows (the only thing I'm a little sceptical about is I've set UEFI to "Disabled" in the Boot tab of the BIOS and it hasn't had any effect).  It may be a matter of live-booting and using efibootmgr to fix things.

I'll let you know if I get it working; otherwise, this laptop is going back in the box and being taken back to the store before the return period expires.

[trilby]

Alright, looks like I must have not tried the combination I thought I had.  To get it dual booting:

1. Disable UEFI in the BIOS.

2. Install your Linux distro.

If UEFI is enabled, the installer assumes you're using it (even though the partition table is MBR and Windows is therefore not booting via EFI) and sets things up for UEFI.  Once it's disabled, the installer sets up GRUB on the MBR as expected.

[abvasili]

Your first conclusion is partially true

that is not a linux limitation... even windows can't do that. The limitation of 4 primary partitions is coming from the partition table. An MBR partition table has the limitation of 4 primary partitions.

A GPT partition table does not have that limitation.... With a gpt formated disk you can have as many primary partition as you like and linux has no trouble at all installing to one of them.

For some of the users who has the problem of not seeing linux even after a succesfull installation, please see this simple guide that can bee of help...

Q/a linux installation

Regards

nebrA