[SOLVED] Help! I cannot bear Win 8.1 - Installing LL 2.2 on Lenovo U530?

[gold_finger]

• amandasabroad,
  
  LL does not yet support installing in UEFI mode, but there is a way to install it in Legacy mode first and then convert it to UEFI mode in order to have dual-booting work correctly with Win 8 (assuming Win 8 is installed in that mode).  I don't have any hands-on experience with UEFI myself, but have guided many people through such installations (on a different distro) so I know a decent amount about the process.  Will try to help you through installation here, but need you to do some things in preparation first and then provide answers to a few questions before we begin.
  
  To Do in Preparation for Installation:
  • Make a recovery USB for Windows if you haven't already done so.
    
  • If you have a spare hard drive of equal or greater size to that of laptop, clone the Win 8 drive so you can restore to current state easily instead of having to re-install with recovery USB if everything gets broken.  Two possible cloning programs you could use are:
    • http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/  (Windows-based, so might be best to use this.)
    • http://clonezilla.org/
      
  • Open Windows disk management and defragment the "C:drive"
    
  • Still in disk management, shrink C:drive after defrag to make room for Linux installation (you decide how much room you want to allot for Linux -- give at least 20-30GB).  Don't make any Linux partitions -- just leave space unused/unpartitioned.
    
  • Turn off Fast Startup in Windows.
    
  • Disable Secure Boot.  Here's another page describing process if needed.
    
  • If have problems accessing/changing UEFI settings, see if anything on this page helps.
    
  • Make a live DVD or USB of LL2.2 (make sure you select the 64-bit version).
    • Windows programs to burn image to DVD are listed under "Writing the latest Linux Lite ISO to a CD on Windows".
      
    • Use UNetBootin or Win32DiskImager if you are creating a live USB.
      
    • Boot computer with your live medium to test out if LL works.  You will need to use the UEFI Boot Menu and select the none-UEFI boot option mode.  There should be two choices shown for booting the device: one for UEFI mode and one for Legacy mode (but it might not be worded as "Legacy".)
      
  
  Answer following questions about how you want to setup your dual-boot installation:
  • Let us know your general level of experience with Linux and Linux installations (not UEFI installs obviously).
    
  • Do you want to have a shared partition to store data on that can be accessed by both Windows and Linux?
    
  • Report back whether or not you are able to clone your drive.
    
  • After booting computer into live LL, open a terminal and enter this command so we can see your current partition structure:
    

Code:

sudo parted -l

(Last character is a lowercase letter "L", not a number 1.)


After posting back with above, read through this tutorial on installing to GPT partitioned disks in Legacy mode.  Despite the explicit warning about doing this when Windows is on the drive, this is how you are going to need to install LL.  I put the warning on page to make sure people don't accidentally destroy their Windows install by attempting dual-boot without help.