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I'm trying to install Linux on my HP Pavilion 14 inch ultrabook, but without any success.

At first I tried installing Ubuntu on it; everything went fine, I got into the Live DVD (yes I'm oldschool like that), and went to install the system on my disk. First weird thing that happened was that I wasn't prompted with the option to install Ubuntu alongside Windows, but instead got thrown directly into the window with the partition table. Or rather, lack thereof.

You see, the window showed my drive as being sda, but no partitions are visible. None. Not the one with windows on it, not any of the ones windows requires, not even the 500 GB free space on my drive that I made specifically for Ubuntu to play on. None of it.

I then went on to try and install Arch on my machine instead, hoping the more barebones system would be able to see my partitions. And indeed it did not. Exact same story as before, it can see the hard drive, but it cannot see any of the partitions.

This bugs me endlessly and I haven't been able to find any information about this on-line.

So what can I do? Is there some kind of trick to make the partition table visible? Everything else seems to be working, even the WLAN card (the one thing I always have trouble with) works. Any help?

NOTE: The ultrabook came with Windows 8

Output of sudo fdisk -l as requested:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn 't support GPD. Use GNU Parted. Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes 256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121126 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0d5e6520 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 1953525167 976762583+ ee GPT Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundry. WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn 't support GPT. Use GNU Parted. Disk /dev/sdb: 24.0 GB, 24015495168 bytes 256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2908 cylinders, total 46905264 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x71dea371 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 4294967295 2147483647+ ee GPT ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Trying to run parted gives me the following error:

Error: The backup GPT table is not at the end of the disk, as it should be. This might mean that another operating system believes the disk is smaller. Fix by moving the backup to the end (and removing the old backup)?

Following the suggestions below, I tried running sudo gdisk /dev/sda and got the following:

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.8 Partition table scan: MBR: protective BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: present Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

What should I do here?

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  • @Electric Coffee - you never mention the Arch/Ubuntu versions you're trying to install - and you also don't mention anything about the firmware. I would guess an ultrabook has got an ssd and you're booting from USB, yes? You need to make sure that the USB disk you create is also a UEFI-compatible boot disk - GPT, FAT format, and none of that nonsense with writing a CD iso to the head of the disk - no matter the 100s of tutorials tell you otherwise. You also need to ensure that the firmware is configured to boot EFI. You may need to boot EFI to read EFI with live disks. Commented Feb 16, 2015 at 21:00
  • @mikeserv I honestly have no idea what HP model it is, as it doesn't actually say anywhere on it. The hard drive is a HDD, not an SSD, and I'm booting from a DVD, it even states in the question that I'm booting from a DVD... on the second line Commented Feb 16, 2015 at 21:03
  • Doesn't sound very ultra - what version of Ubuntu - and is the CD booted in EFI mode? Try... ls /sys/firmware/efi and if you have booted EFI you should show up files in that directory. Commented Feb 16, 2015 at 21:05
  • @mikeserv Hey, it says "ultrabook" on the outside, and I got it new. But anyway the command you wanted me to enter spits out efivars systab vars Commented Feb 16, 2015 at 21:13
  • Still, what Ubuntu version? And I was only joshing you about the ultra thing. I don't care if you have a mega laptop, man. I'm just trying to help. Hmm... My mistake - on my machine /sys/firmware/efi/efivars is the efivarfs mountpoint. So you need to go one deeper to check - anything in there? Commented Feb 16, 2015 at 21:17

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This disk is partitioned in the new GPT style, and your current version of fdisk doesn't support it. It even says so right at the beginning:

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

What the fdisk is currently showing you is the "protective MBR" of GPT partitioning: on every GPT-partitioned disk, there is a dummy MBR that has a single partition with a type code of ee. It is not a real partition: its purpose is just to tell any GPT-unaware operating system or partitioning tool "this disk is not empty: it is in use by something you don't understand".

Because of this, fdisk's report of Partition 1 does not start at a physical sector boundary can be ignored... but you probably should not be using that version of fdisk to partition that disk at all. You should use gdisk, parted or a newer version of fdisk that supports GPT partitioning. (However, at the time the question was written, such a version of fdisk may not have been available yet.)

The Error: The backup GPT table is not at the end of the disk... you got from parted is probably caused by the ultrabook firmware trying to hide an OS recovery partition (or something else) at the end of the disk. Linux is clever enough to see through this hiding attempt.

You could probably gain some useble disk space by allowing parted to implement the fix it's suggesting, but in the process you would probably lose the ability to restore the ultrabook's factory-default Windows 8 without using an external Windows installation media... personally, I would regard that as a very acceptable loss :-)

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