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I have a fairly recent DELL XPS 15 with Windows 10. I'm trying to dual boot Ubuntu 17.10. I've written a bootable USB using rufus but when I get into Linux (live version or the installation program), there is only one 'drive' available 'sda' which points to the USB drive (as far as I can tell) but doesn't actually see any hard disk partitions!

I'm attaching a screenshot of windows partition tool: enter image description here

Here is a gparte screenshot (ubuntu live): enter image description here

The 111.03 GB drive is set aside for Ubuntu. There should be one windows partition, one linux and one recovery. I don't know what others are but I'll deal with that mess later.

I've seen some references to UEFI and GPT but I'm not really clear on what they are or if they are causing this.

Clicking on the drop down in the top right hand corner only shows /dev/sda.

Adding BIOS pics (the usb drive was not plugged in when i took these pics) enter image description here

I noticed that Enable Legacy Option Roms is checked, after taking this pic, I unchecked it and tried to re-install, exactly the same issue! enter image description here

Any help will be appreciated.

EDIT: Fixed Ubuntu partition size, added ubuntu screenshot, added note about top-right corner drop down

Kristopher Ives
  • 5,509
Shahbaz
  • 111
  • This is afaik most likely due to that the partition is already formatted. try to leave it unallocated is maybe the best way to go. – Videonauth Oct 25 '17 at 03:55
  • @Videonauth originally the 111.03 partition was unallocated, Ubuntu installer still didn't pick it up. In fact, as you can see in the Ubuntu screenshot I just uploaded, only usb drive is picked up. No partition from the HD is found! – Shahbaz Oct 25 '17 at 04:03
  • @Shahbaz, in the GParted window, click on the dropdown list on the top right corner, where it is /dev/sda now. Do you see any more entries in the dropdown, other than sda? – Yaksha Oct 25 '17 at 04:39
  • @Yaksha Nope, I only see /dev/sda. I'll add this in the body of the message as well – Shahbaz Oct 25 '17 at 04:50
  • Did ubuntu boot in EFI mode? In the EFI firmware (what used to be BIOS), turn of Legacy support. Some systems call it CSM. This should force a EFI boot. – ravery Oct 25 '17 at 11:45
  • @ravery it looks like legacy support is already turned off (added screenshots of 'bios') – Shahbaz Oct 26 '17 at 03:37
  • NVMe --- is your ATA controller set to RAID instead of AHCI? – ravery Oct 26 '17 at 07:27
  • This symptom is most often caused by a lack of Linux driver support for your hard disk controller. Sometimes changing the disk's access mode from "IDE" or "RAID" to "AHCI" in the firmware setup utility can fix this problem, but this may render Windows unable to use it until you install the right Windows drivers. In other cases using a newer kernel is necessary. (Since you're trying this with the latest Ubuntu, 17.10, you'd need to wait a while or jump through extreme hoops to do this.) – Rod Smith Oct 26 '17 at 13:10
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    @RodSmith, ravery, I'll check the disk when I get home. However, this is on a dell xps, which is what Dell uses for their linux machines. I wouldn't expect it to have any linux compatibility issues. Besides, I used to have linux installed on it (an older ubuntu). I completely wiped my machine (windows and linux) and I don't remember having to mess with disk controllers. – Shahbaz Oct 26 '17 at 14:11
  • @RodSmith, ravery, The disk was set to "Raid on" (or something similar). Changing to AHCI wouldn't let me boot windows. I guess I have to solve that issue now, unless you have a solution already. – Shahbaz Oct 27 '17 at 00:38
  • Motherboard-based software RAID causes more problems (like yours) than it solves. In the long term, your best bet is to disable it and fix Windows so that Windows doesn't need it; but wiping the RAID metadata from the disk may take some effort. Unfortunately, one of the problems is that there's no standard, so the RAID metadata can be in different places depending on whose RAID implementation it is. Thus, you have more detective work ahead of you. – Rod Smith Oct 27 '17 at 13:22
  • @RodSmith can you make your comments into an answer, I'll accept it. I just needed to follow these instructions to switch to AHCI: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/ahci-for-ssd/18ee0b43-47a9-4344-b0c8-1e8546be2c82 – Shahbaz Oct 28 '17 at 19:49
  • For others passing by, this link explains the explicit steps necessary for Ubuntu & Dell XPS (scroll down to Changing the disk to AHCI mode): http://ewen.mcneill.gen.nz/blog/entry/2016-12-18-dell-xps-9360-dual-boot/ – helmesjo Jan 24 '18 at 21:28

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