I haven't actually installed Linux like this in years so I absolutely forget how, I know you have to designate space for every partition, but that's about it lol. Any help would be appreciated.
Unless they updated it to work from 'Erase this disk and install' I used to have to choose 'Something Else' from Installation Type. Thank you for your reply .
What would be the step by step setup for the 'Something Else' option? I also have issues when setting it up manually because sometimes grub doesn't work when set up because sometime I find some distros require putting it on sda1 or on the whole sda partition, then I'm stuck trying to fix it in gparted, but ususally I have to reinstall the whole distro. Thank you.
Just ensure your select the right drive. Generally with Linux you want 3 partitions. / Is the root partition which is primary and usually ext4 but some use btrfs Then you create extended partition with rest of space. Then within extended you make /home with ext4 which is what you want. Then swap which should be around 2GB since most systems have a lot of Ram. So it will look / Ext4 primary partition Extended partition /Home Ext4 Logical Partition Swap Try to keep / to about 20 GB unless you have some weird needs. Linux is small generally. /Home should be big all your personal stuff is there and settings. Swap keep to 2 GB unless you have very small amount of ram like less than 1 GB. The bootloader goes on the drive (sda) that you made your partitions, it's usual a tick box and the installer will select the right one since it should look at where / is located. This is all for mbr drives by the way gpt is simpler.
There's a lot to cover here. Let's take a couple of steps backwards and ask the question "does your system use MBR or UEFI boot?". This is important because it will determine the overall number of disk partitions you need to create. On MBR systems, you'll need to initialize the disk as ms-dos (MBR) and create three disk partitions: / , /home , and /swap. On UEFI systems, you'll need to initialize the disk as GPT and create four disk partitions: /boot, / , /home, and /swap. I find it's much easier to use Gparted, which is usually included in the installation .iso, to first initialize the disk, then create and format the disk partitions prior to running the installer. I dislike using the partitioning tool included in the Ubuntu installer because it uses 1,000,000 bytes per MiB instead of the "real-world" number of 1,048,576 bytes per MiB, resulting in all your partitions being smaller in size than you intended. Also #1: If you're using UEFI boot and a GPT disk, remember to format the /boot partition as FAT32 and flag it as "esp". DO NOT flag it as "boot". Also #2: Before closing Gparted, remember to right-click the line for swap and select "swap on" from the drop-down menu. This mounts and activates swap, and saves you a step when using "Something Else" to install. If you followed my advice and use Gparted to create and format your disk partitions beforehand, start the installer. The first several screens are self-explanatory. When you get to the screen marked “Installation Options”, go down and select “Something Else” as the option. If your using UEFI/GPT, include step #1. Skip it if your using MBR/ms-dos. 1.) On the next screen, you will find a partition table similar to the one in Gparted. Examine it, and make a note of which partition is the EFI system partition. It's easy to find since it's the first and the only FAT32 partition on the disk, /dev/sda1 in Linux terminology. NOTE: You do not want to change the mount point or format this partition. Leave it be. 2.) Now find the root partition. Click on the line where it's displayed, then go down and click “Change”. In the new panel that appears, you must do three things: a.) Click the tab marked “Use as” and select “Ext4 journaling filesystem”. b.) *Check the box marked “Format”. c.) Click the tab marked “Mount Point” and select “ / “ - the symbol for root. When you are finished, click the “OK” button. *You must format root. Otherwise the installer will not proceed with the installation 3.) Find the home partition, click on the line where it's displayed, then go down and click “Change”. Follow the same procedure you used for root, with two exceptions: a.) When you choose the “Mount Point”, select “/home”. b.) You don't have to format /home. NOTE: If you ever need to re-install and want to save your existing files in /home, then DO NOT check the box marked “Format”- just select Ext4 as the filesystem and /home as the Mount Point!). 5.) One thing is left to do on this screen. You must select “The device for bootloader installation” near the bottom of the panel. On MBR systmes, use the default choice “/dev/sda” - this is meant for MBR systems. However, on UEFI/GPT, select the partition that used as EFI system partition. If it's the first one the disk, select /dev/sda1. When you are done, go to the lower right corner and click “Install Now”.