Fedora 17 install WITHOUT EFI

[R3v0lut10nary]

Alright, I have a Lenovo V570 laptop
- 750 GB hard drive, so it doesn't have the 2TB MBR limitation

When I installed Fedora 17, I was left with no choice other than creating a GPT partition scheme. This wiped out my Windows 7 OS but who cares, I never use it anyway.

The problem is, I have all this extra disk space sitting there and I can't figure out how to dual boot any other OS with the UEFI boot and GPT scheme.

I've searched various threads asking about installing Fedora to a standard MBR partitioning scheme. Here's what I've tried, and failed at.
- use ISO Master to remove the EFI directory and all files with the .efi extension, then burn the new image to USB. This results in an unbootable USB image.
- Add the nogpt option to the Fedora Live Image kernel. This does nothing, I'm still told the bootable partition must have a GPT label and that a stage 1 bootloader has not been created.

I have srs' excellent rEFInd boot manager installed, but can't figure out how to make it dual boot.


Anyone have any ideas about a next step? I'm open to one of two possibilities.

1. Recreate an MBR partition and reinstall Fedora 17.
2. Get some guidance on how to dual boot with rEFInd.

P.S. - This forced GPT issue doesn't exist on any earlier version of Fedora - particularly F16.

[george_toolan]

With the Lenovo s205 netbook you have to press F2 to enter firmware setup which you can just exit without changing or saving anything, but now it will boot the Fedora 17 DVD in BIOS mode.

The Fedora 17 DVD will look slightly different if you boot it in BIOS mode like you will have some troubleshooting options and a 60 seconds delay before it starts booting. In UEFI mode it will start booting after a few seconds and the first text you will see in the top left corner includes the words Linux-EFI.

If everything else fails you can try to install Fedora 16 and then upgrade to Fedora 17 ;-)

If you want to dual boot in UEFI mode you'll have to install each and every os in UEFI mode.

[R3v0lut10nary]

Originally Posted by george_toolan

If everything else fails you can try to install Fedora 16 and then upgrade to Fedora 17 ;-)

I tried that once. Pre-upgrade didn't give me a new kernel. Most threads I searched for a solution either lead me to rambling bug reports or people just saying how much preupgrade sucks.

If you want to dual boot in UEFI mode you'll have to install each and every os in UEFI mode.

Shouldn't any OS I install automatically install in EFI mode?

[george_toolan]

Shouldn't any OS I install automatically install in EFI mode?

Only if you boot the installation DVD in UEFI mode and only if the OS supports it, e.g. you can't install Windows XP in UEFI mode.

[R3v0lut10nary]

Alright, I'll install another OS and pay closer attention to whether or not the DVD is in UEFI mode. I've never messed with whatever the default action is because I thought your computer being in EFI or BIOS mode controlled everything else.

And then I'll report back. Thanks for the tip.

---------- Post added at 01:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:20 PM ----------




Well, I found a solution, kinda.

*** REVISED ***
What I thought was a solution wasn't. Back to Sq. 1.

[R3v0lut10nary]

I may just have to un-install this POS F-17.

I should be able to choose how to partition & boot my computer....