On 2020-03-11 11:59, kaye n wrote:
Hello Friends! Can someone please confirm to me once and for all if I'm correct with these assumptions regarding debian installation on hard drives: 1. If the hdd has an MBR partition style, that hdd needs to have a FAT32 partition, flagged as esp and with mount point at /boot/efi. If this is correct, can I put it anywhere on the hdd or must it be on the left-most part of the drive (when looking at it in GParted) ? Also how big should the FAT32 partition be if, a) no Windows would be installed on the hdd, and b) Windows will be installed on the hdd making it a dual boot system. 2. If the hdd has a GPT partition style, there is no need for a FAT32 partition (that is flagged as esp and mounted at /boot/efi), unless of course you would install Windows 10, making it a dual boot system, but even then, Debian would not use or need the FAT32 partition. Please confirm my assumptions and answer some of my questions (in number one). Thank you very much for your time! kaye
I recently worked on a Dell Latitude 5400 laptop with Windows 10 Pro. It used UEFI firmware in Secure Boot mode. This is how Dell partitioned the system disk:
# parted /dev/nvme0n1 u s p free Model: KBG40ZNS512G NVMe TOSHIBA 512GB (nvme) Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 1000215216s Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt Disk Flags:Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
34s 2047s 2014s Free Space
1 2048s 1333247s 1331200s fat32 EFI system
partition boot, esp
2 1333248s 1595391s 262144s Microsoft
reserved partition msftres
3 1595392s 998158335s 996562944s ntfs Basic data
partition msftdata
4 998158336s 1000185855s 2027520s ntfs
hidden, diag
1000185856s 1000215182s 29327s Free Space
During this time, I wanted a Debian USB system drive that would boot in
the laptop without making any CMOS Setup changes. If you want a
single-boot Debian system disk for UEFI, Secure Boot, and GPT, the
thread starts here:
https://www.mail-archive.com/debian-user@lists.debian.org/msg752277.htmlIf you already have a single-boot Windows 10 system disk, AIUI the process is to "shrink the C:\ drive" and then install Debian into the created free space. I have not done this and am not familiar with the details.
If you want a dual-boot Windows 10/ Debian system disk and you are installing everything from scratch, I would install Windows first. Tell the Windows installer to leave free space on the disk and let the Windows installer decide everything else. Once Windows was installed, I would then install Debian. I have done this in the past with Windows NT, Windows 2000, and/or Windows XP.
David