boot - Arch Linux USB Installer Infinite Loop & How to Properly Partition a UEFI Disk Before Installing Arch Linux

05
2014-04
  • dillmo

    I would like to install Arch Linux and am familiar with GParted and its use. However, my computer comes with Windows on it, along with an EFI system partition on /dev/sda2. This seems to be a pretty inconvenient place for it, since it has a 1GB partition just before it.

    My question is, would it be best to format the partition and attempt to move it to the left, then install my partitions, or to make a new partition table? Is it even necessary to format it, if I follow the first option? Thanks for your help. I'm new to Arch Linux, although not to Linux, and want to get this right so as to avoid hours of troubleshooting.

    Additonally, I do not care about preserving other partitions, such as those specific to Windows. I want the whole disk to be dedicated to Arch Linux.

    Edit:

    I got the partitions set up from scratch, but now my USB stick won't work. Specifically, it boots up, lets me go into the UEFI installer, gives me a black screen for a second, and reboots into itself. Then, it repeats the process. What is wrong with my USB stick?

    I set it up using dd, using the command sudo dd bs=4M if=Downloads/archlinux-2014.01.05-dual.iso of=/dev/sdd && sync. I'm afraid I have to use a USB stick since my laptop lacks an optical drive.

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    Installing Arch Linux and Windows 7: need partitioning help
  • Skilldrick

    I've just got a new computer with Windows 7 pre-installed. I want to keep Windows but dual boot Arch Linux (I've already installed Arch on another computer so don't need any help with that).

    My new computer's a Samsung R530, and comes with Samsung Recovery Solution 4, which forced me to partition my hard drive before I could get up and running in Windows.

    I'm a bit paranoid about installing Arch, because I haven't had much experience with partitioning hard drives. I don't want to accidentally remove the Windows partition (the computer didn't come with Windows install discs).

    Does anyone have any tips before I go and mess up my new computer?


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  • Algific

    I now Arch. You can't accidentally install over anything as long as you don't choose the "partition automagick" option during install. You are free to use cfdisk before you start the Arch installer, then you can note down the names of the the drives you want to keep. You need room for Arch, so you do indeed need a free partition. You can create this with Ubuntu live disk and Gparted. Resizing is easy with gparted. I don't know how to do that part with the arch install media.

    Worst case you manage to mess up the grub config. That is fixable.

    http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Quick_Arch_Linux_Install