HowTo: UEFI Dual Boot install of Win7/Ubuntu 12.04

Hi there! I'm Dave, AKA RustyLambda.

Note: This is my first tutorial I have ever made, so expect it to be far from perfect.

I had wanted to install Ubuntu on my new Alienware X51 for a long time, but ran into a multitude of problems. This tutorial is aimed to simplify the process of installing Ubuntu on an Alienware X51 as AturoDeza explained, with the added benefit of a Dual Boot installation.

First, you'll want to head over to http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop and download the 64 bit Ubuntu iso. VERY IMPORTANT: The 64 bit iso contains the necessary efi boot files which the 32 bit version lacks.

As you are downloading the file, click, "start," right click on, "Computer," and select, "Manage." In left the left pane of the window, under the "Storage" directory, select "Disk Management." Right click on the "OS (C:) Partition," and choose "Shrink Volume" from the menu. After a short wait, a dialog will appear, asking how much you would like to shrink the partition. I choose to shrink it by 100 GB (102,400MB), leaving 50 GB for a drive to share my files across the operating systems and 50 GB for the Ubuntu installation.

If you don't want a partition to share files across your system, then just go ahead and reserve the space that you would like for Ubuntu. If you want the partition, then simply reserve however much space you would like for BOTH your Ubuntu installation AND the shared files drive. After it is done, either leave the unallocated space there or create a new NTFS partition if you want the shared files partition. Leave some unallocated space for Ubuntu!

Next, download any USB Linux installer application, I prefer Universal USB Installer http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/, but it really doesn't matter.

Run the application, and after clicking, "I agree," select, "Ubuntu 12.04 Ubuntu Desktop," from the drop down list. (This may be a bit different if you are using a different USB installer)

Afterwards, click the, "browse," button, navigate to your downloaded Ubuntu iso file and select it. Then, select your USB thumbdrive you want to write the iso file to, and click, "create."

After clicking, "yes," to confirm the thumbdrive you want to write the iso to, it should begin installing. Don't pull out your USB until it says, "Installation Complete!" While you are waiting for it to write the iso, download and install the Alienware X51 A06 Bios if you haven't already: http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER00712169M/1/Alienware%20X51-A06.exe

Following the completion of Ubuntu being burned to your USB, restart your computer. When it boots up, as it makes its first beep, press F12. This should bring you to the boot selection menu. From there, select your USB drive and hopefully you will see a screen that says, "Try Ubuntu without installing." Before pressing enter, press e and add, "nomodeset," to your list of parameters next to "splash" and "quiet." Press F10 to begin booting the Ubuntu Live USB.

Once you are in Ubuntu, click the Dash Home button in the top left and type in GParted. I created 3 partitions in my 50 GB Ubuntu installation:

25 GB ex3 file system for / mountpoint
23 GB ex3 second filesystem for /home mountpoint
2 GB linux-swap filesystem

Your screen should look similar to this:

Close GParted, open the Ubuntu installation tool, and proceed to the screen where it states "No operating systems detected." Choose something else to make a manual installation of Ubuntu.

Scroll down to the bottom of the list where you have your three new partitons, ex3, ex3 and linux-swap filesystems. Click change on the first ex3, select ex3 in the use as dropdown box, and select / as the mountpoint. Do the same for the other ex3 partition but this time select / home for its mountpoint. Finally, make sure the linux-swap 2 GB filesystem is being used as "swap."

For the menu below where it says device for boot loader installation, select /dev/sda1, which should be your 300 MB EFI partition. Double check to make sure! In the end it should look like this:

If everything looks good, click install! After it has completed, restart your computer and take out your Ubuntu Live USB. It should automatically boot into Ubuntu. If you wish to make it boot into Windows first, simply go into the BIOS and change the Hard Drive BBS priority so Windows Boot Manager comes first.

To select which OS you want to boot into, press F12 during startup to select either Windows Boot Manager (Win7) or ubuntu (Ubuntu).

Once you are ready, proceed to update Ubuntu and install the nvidia generic drivers afterwards by entering:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

courtesy of Rex from http://quantumbeach.wikidot.com/forum/t-453106/gtx-555


References:

http://quantumbeach.wikidot.com/forum/t-452990/installing-linux-12-04b
http://quantumbeach.wikidot.com/forum/t-453106/gtx-555
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=12159193#post12159193
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

Thanks to:

ArturoDeza and Rex of QuantumBeach
oldfred and drmrgd of Ubuntu Forums