So, I’ve been testing and stuff recently. Therefore I’ve learned new stuff.
One of them is that you need an EFI partition in order to install an OS. As I’ve sofar installed Linux Mint as dual boot, there was already an EFI partition (from the pre-installed OS) on it. This is why I didn’t pay attention/know about it until recently.
You can check the install tutorial for Linux Mint that I’ve made before, if you don’t already have : edited in 2022 : check the newer one : https://melina-j.me/linux-mint-install-tutorial-2021/ .
So, if you’re installing in dual boot, the install process is basically the same and an EFI partition is already there.
Now, if you want to install on a computer where nothing has yet been installed (or if you wiped your disk clean), you need to start by making an EFI partition. I’m going to simply summarize from memory how to do so here, I’d advise you to still check here and there, there are probably very clear step by step video tutorials somewhere…
Also please note that I’m basing this on what should be done when installing Linux Mint, stuff might slightly differ for other distros.
All the articles/tutorial I’ve read explained to make an EFI partition before starting the install of Mint.
When you are booted on the live USB, open GParted. If the computer is brand new with nothing on it, you will need to “create partition table” (gpt) first (in “device” menu). Then in the “partition” menu, click “new”.
Then fill in the “form” :
* Free space preceding (MiB) : 1
* New size (MiB) : lots are recommending to use something in the 500th, some use “512”, others “550”.
* Create as : primary partition
* Partition name : EFI partition (or EFI system partition)
* File system : Fat32
* Label : EFI
Then click on “add”. Then click on the tick (“V” kind of sign) in the second top menu bar in order to apply the changes. After it’s done, right click on it, choose “manage the flags”, select “boot” (“esp” should be selected together with it automatically, if not, select it too).
Your EFI partition is created. You can proceed with the install, just like I showed in the video (choosing the option “something else”).
Note that if you don’t want/need to install other versions/distros later, you can just skip all this by choosing the “erase disk and install Linux Mint” option, which will use the full hard drive and do everything automatically.
Something else I’ve learned, is that you need to tweak (or verify the setting) in the BIOS UEFI menu/settings. (I know it’s either one of them, but it’s literally how it’s called by everybody, so…) While I knew stuff were supposed to be tweaked before, I let the computer vendor do it and he didn’t explain to me last time. Now I’ve learned that secure boot needs to be off, as well as fast boot. I’ve also learned that not all motherboards allow you to turn secure boot off…
There’s also something about hardware that should be in AHCI mode rather than RAID, but I’m not too sure about the details here, so I’m just typing it like this and would advise you to ask someone who knows better about this.
There you go. Hope it helps. ^_^
I’ll make a video soonish to talk about stuff. I’m going to be busy with several stuff for the next few days, though.