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I'm reading a lot of documentation about partitioning on EFI machines, but I have a lot of doubts I cannot clarify. First of all:

  • I am focusing on a Linux-only laptop. I am not interest in dual-booting. Windows 8 OEM that was included in the laptop was removed by me the day after I bought it.
  • EFI boot is set as "legacy mode". But my Lenovo EFI menu does not allow me to disable SecureBoot (that I don't want to enable), so my only remaining choice is legacy mode. This way SecureBoot will be disabled.

I am used to using gparted to change HD partitions, but I am used to using gparted on old BIOS.

My starting questions are:

  1. Do I have to create a partition for EFI boot even if I set legacy mode? Which kind of file format should be used? FAT32?
  2. If I have to create EFI partition boot how can I "save" information (if I needed them) from the current HD EFI partition? I mean that if I change all partitions from scratch, I'm afraid I can lose fundamental settings that allows the laptop to boot properly.
  3. Can I use LVM if my UEFI is set as "Legacy"?

The general idea I have is:

  • having a partition (if needed) for EFI
    • Primary Partition (using old-bios terms)
    • don't know what file system. FAT32?
  • having a partition for /boot where I can put grub (EXT4)
    • Primary Partition
  • having a partition where I can use LVM
    • (primary partition - did I need some file system in particular?)
    • all the virtual LVM would be EXT4 (except for swap partition)
    • the idea is to separate /home from the rest of the system, allowing me to resize the space of /home if it is not enough (or too big)

But I don't know if I'm missing something. And I'd like to be sure to avoid any trouble on booting before proceeding. Currently my system is working with the original (manufacturer) partitions (which are a bit inefficient, IMHO), where Ubuntu was installed in the biggest partition (where Windows 8 was originally installed).

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  • Thank for editing my question (and for language corrections), it looks nicer. I didn't remember the stack exchange markdown. Commented Oct 24, 2017 at 19:53

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Do I have to create a partition for EFI boot even if I set legacy mode? Which kind of file format should be used? FAT32?

Legacy mode is BIOS, so no you don't need an EFI partition.

If I have to create EFI partition boot how can I "save" information (if I needed them) from the current HD EFI partition? I mean that if I change all partitions from scratch, I'm afraid I can lose fundamental settings that allows the laptop to boot properly.

You can save your partition table to a file, and then use that file to restore your partition table. Note: This will not save/restore your filesystems and data, just the partition descriptions.

If you have a GPT partitioned disk, you can use sgdisk. For example:

sgdisk --backup=mybackup /dev/sda

If you have a MBR partitioned disk, you can use sfdisk. For example:

sfdisk -d /dev/hda > mybackup

Can I use LVM if my UEFI is set as "Legacy"?

Yes. LVM doesn't care whether you use UEFI or BIOS.

Resources

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