bad end-to-end user experience when trying to install dual boot UEFI windows7 with gpt partitions

[Evertjan Garretsen]

I finally managed to get a working dualboot with Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7. This has been a real struggle unfortunately. This process should be improved and in my opinion this bug should be critical for many PC's are shipped with windows installed on gpt partitions and UEFI defaults to on in BIOS.

How i finally managed to install was:

- Problem 1

I donwloaded the 32-bit version of Ubuntu which does not support UEFI install. I always install 32-bit due to better support for some applications. The website does not tell that for UEFI i have to download the 64 bit version.

- Problem 2

The installation medium (in my case USB) has to be started with the UEFI prefix.

- Problem 3

Could not install Ubuntu for the installer did not see my windows installation and existing gpt partitions. It wanted to install on the full hard drive space! By doing so, i would have destroyed both my windows installation and recovery partition! This is very serious for inexperienced users! I had to find a way to let the installer see windows. After a lot of searching forums i found a (not ideal) solution: Removing the recovery partition of windows. Apparantly the last X blocks of a hard drive should be available for Ubuntu to see windows installed. After i removed the recovery partition, in the windows partitioner, Ubuntu installed just fine on a partition i wanted to use.

- Problem 4

Grub was installed and this is nice, but windows did not start up. I got the message 'invalid EFI path'. After searching the forums i downloaded an application called "boot-repair". This application took care of all the, very complex, details of setting up the grub bootloader. I now enjoy a dualboot with windows and Ubuntu. Both are working just fine.

It's a pity that installing Ubuntu next to windows is such a struggle.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-10.10-generic 3.5.1
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-10-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu12
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Aug 16 01:30:40 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash --
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

These bugs should be split up and addressed. After the split this meta bug can be closed.

[Evertjan Garretsen (egarretsen)]

Created bug report for problem 1:
Bug #1037548

[Evertjan Garretsen (egarretsen)]

Mentioned problem 2 in bug report for problem 1, for they are related. so see Bug #1037548 for problem 2 as well.

[Evertjan Garretsen (egarretsen)]

Problem 3:

duplicate of Bug #1017880.

[Evertjan Garretsen (egarretsen)]

Problem 4:

duplicate of bug Bug #1024383

Added a comment with a workaround / suggestion.

[Evertjan Garretsen (egarretsen)]

Please close this bug. I don't know how to do this.