ThinkPad T520: uefi/gpt based debian install
 

Hi!

I am about to receive a ThinkPad T520 with Intel SSD 320 real soon
hopefully.

I wondered whether it might make sense to install with UEFI and GPT.
Informations from Arch Wiki hint at that for better alignment and less
space waste for SSD:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSD#Using_GPT_-_RECOMMENDED_METHOD

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface


Did anyone here try this with any laptop with uefi BIOS? Did it work? Were
there problems? I have seen some Debian bug reports that were closed.

As far as I understand, I it should work when I Debian installer to select
UEFI/GPT somehow and then add an about 1 MiB sized 0xEF02 Bios Boot
Partition as GPT doesn't guerantee free space aber (legagy) MBR.

I intend to use BTRFS. I hope that it will align automatically, but I am
not sure about this. I will use debian unstable, possible even some parts
from experimental with kernel 2.6.38 or better 2.6.39 for best Sandybridge
graphics support.

If interested I report back what I find when I do the Linux installation.

Ciao,
--
Martin 'Helios' Steigerwald - http://www.Lichtvoll.de
GPG: 03B0 0D6C 0040 0710 4AFA B82F 991B EAAC A599 84C7


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ThinkPad T520: uefi/gpt based debian install
 

Am Freitag, 13. Mai 2011 schrieb Martin Steigerwald:
> Hi!
>
> I am about to receive a ThinkPad T520 with Intel SSD 320 real soon
> hopefully.
>
> I wondered whether it might make sense to install with UEFI and GPT.
> Informations from Arch Wiki hint at that for better alignment and less
> space waste for SSD:
>
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSD#Using_GPT_-_RECOMMENDED_METHOD
>
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interf
> ace
>
>
> Did anyone here try this with any laptop with uefi BIOS? Did it work?
> Were there problems? I have seen some Debian bug reports that were
> closed.

Just for the record. The ThinkPad BIOS Version: 8AET42WW (1.22 ), didn´t
like to boot from a GPT partitioned SSD with BIOS Boot Partition and EFI
System Partition. I made the latter just for the case I want to switch to
EFI later on, but let grub-pc install to the BIOS Boot Partition.

Even after switching to MBR it didn´t work. Only after I zerod sector 2 to
2047, the BIOS Boot Partition and the EFI System Partition and set the
partition /boot bootable the BIOS booted from the SSD again. I do not
think it was the bootable flag.

Maybe it was the EFI System Partition, but I also tried after removing it
in gdisk. A parted mklabel msdos which should wipe the pre-existing GPT
headers did not suffice.

So the exact circumstances why it didn´t work are unknown to me, but I now
stick to MBR for the while being. Doesn´t matter anyway, as fdisk -cu also
aligns at 1 MiB and displays partitions offsets and sizes in sectors.

Well I saw an report that it doesn´t work with a ThinkPad W520 as well.

--
Martin 'Helios' Steigerwald - http://www.Lichtvoll.de
GPG: 03B0 0D6C 0040 0710 4AFA B82F 991B EAAC A599 84C7