1

I'm getting a new motherboard which uses UEFI instead of BIOS, so I was wondering what I would need to do in order to make sure that my Ubuntu partition will run smoothly once I plug into the new motherboard.

Adam
  • 2,638
Isaac_E
  • 11
  • There is a way to convert an MBR partition layout to GTP, but it is very advanced, and has a huge data loss risk. Unless your OS was installed using UEFI, I don't believe you can convert it post-installation. – TheWanderer Apr 06 '16 at 23:10
  • Converting from MBR to GPT using gdisk is trivially easy in most cases: Run gdisk on the disk and type w to save the changes. The risk of data loss is low, but not non-existent. The biggest problem is that this will wipe out the BIOS-mode boot loader, making it impossible to boot in BIOS mode after the conversion. See here for more details. – Rod Smith Apr 07 '16 at 18:34
  • If you have room for another primary partition on an MBR table or you are already using GPT try adding an EFI system partition as described here. – LiveWireBT Apr 09 '16 at 19:17

1 Answers1

1

Your mother board very likely supports a "Legacy" (BIOS) mode. When you get the new motherboard, configure it to use Legacy boot instead of EFI. It should then 'just work'. (There are many motherboards that support both, and you can tell them which to use primarily)

Thomas Ward
  • 74,764
  • Will this allow me to use my windows partition on efi mode? – Isaac_E Apr 06 '16 at 22:52
  • @Isaac_E If your Windows is in EFI and your Linux is on BIOS, there may be conflicts. It may be simpler to just reinstall things. (In 99% of all cases, I do NOT run things in 'both' - not all mobos can support both modes, AFAIK) – Thomas Ward Apr 06 '16 at 22:54
  • 1
    If you've got Windows on the disk now, then either your current computer is EFI-based and you can continue to boot in that way (although you may need to add a boot manager entry) or the computer boots both Windows and Ubuntu in BIOS mode, in which case you can keep booting that way. You should update your question to clarify your current configuration. Including the output of sudo parted -l would be helpful. – Rod Smith Apr 07 '16 at 18:37