Legacy MBR or UEFI GPT?

[ady_12]

I know this has been solved so many times but I've read so much about it and now I'm so confused.

Recently my manjaro was unable to boot it was giving an error

ERROR: resume: hibernation device 'UUID=xxxx,xxxx,xxxx,xxxx' not found
ERROR device  UUID=xxxx,xxxxx,xxxx,xxx not found
mount: /new_root: can't find UUID=xxxx,xxxx,xxxx,xxxxx
you're now being dropped into emergency shell.

Luckily I found the solution that all I had to boot a live USB backup the data either a fresh install or update the existing one, I'm going for fresh install because it's been a while

But now I'm so confused what should I go for
I want only manjaro in my laptop
I have 1TB hard drive and its MBR right now
it support both legacy and UEFI
I don't do gaming at all

[stephane]

boot on usb iso manjaro
open a terminal and browser on this topic
and returns

inxi -Fxxxza
sudo parted - l

[ady_12]

inxi -Fxxxza                                                             
System:
  Host: manjaro-gnome Kernel: 5.6.15-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
  v: 10.1.0 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-x86_64 lang=en_US keytable=us 
  tz=Asia/Kolkata driver=free nouveau.modeset=1 i915.modeset=1 
  radeon.modeset=1 misobasedir=manjaro misolabel=MANJARO_GNOME_2003 quiet 
  systemd.show_status=1 apparmor=1 security=apparmor 
  Desktop: Gnome 3.36.2 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM 3.34.1 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20150 v: Lenovo G580 serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: type: 10 v: Lenovo G580 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: LENOVO model: INVALID v: 31900004WIN8 STD SGL serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: LENOVO v: 5ECN92WW(V8.04) date: 09/14/2012 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 11.7 Wh condition: 33.6/40.4 Wh (83%) volts: 11.3/10.8 
  model: LENOVO PABAS0241231 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Charging 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-3110M bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Ivy Bridge family: 6 model-id: 3A (58) stepping: 9 microcode: 21 
  L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 bogomips: 19162 
  Speed: 1197 MHz min/max: 1200/2400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1197 2: 1197 
  3: 1198 4: 1199 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Vulnerable 
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion 
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: Lenovo 
  driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0166 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF119M [GeForce 610M] vendor: Lenovo driver: nouveau 
  v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1058 
  Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.8 driver: nouveau compositor: gnome-shell 
  resolution: <xdpyinfo missing> 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2) 
  v: 4.2 Mesa 20.0.7 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1e20 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.6.15-1-MANJARO 
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR8162 Fast Ethernet vendor: Lenovo driver: alx 
  v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 1969:1090 
  IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network 
  Adapter 
  driver: bcma-pci-bridge v: N/A port: 2000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
  chip ID: 14e4:4727 
  IF-ID-1: wlp3s0b1 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 938.97 GiB used: 554.25 GiB (59.0%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 
  size: 931.51 GiB block size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> rev: 1A01 scheme: MBR 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Cruzer Blade 
  size: 7.45 GiB block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B serial: <filter> 
  rev: 1.27 scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw size: N/A size: 1.31 GiB used: 144.0 MiB (10.7%) fs: overlay 
  source: ERR-102 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 59.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 60 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 205 Uptime: 1h 03m Memory: 1.75 GiB used: 1.03 GiB (59.2%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 Compilers: gcc: N/A Shell: zsh v: 5.8 
  running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.37 

sudo parted -l                                                           
Model: ATA WDC WD10JPVX-22J (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  1000GB  1000GB  extended
 5      2097kB  105GB   105GB   logical   ext4            boot
 7      105GB   109GB   4194MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)
 6      109GB   1000GB  891GB   logical   ext4


Model: SanDisk Cruzer Blade (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8004MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 2      2773MB  2777MB  4194kB  primary               esp

[stephane]

so on sda with MBR, there is
a logical partition sda1 and sda3

if you want to install EFI ,
check all option in Bios

• secure boot disable
• fastboot disables
• csm boot disable
• legacy boot disable
• UEFI on only or others ( not windows )
• disks on AHCI

--> need a format GPT partition with

• boot/efi 100Mo fat32 with flag boot & esp

if you want MBR active CSM

--> you need to format MBR , manjaro do not reuse logical partition ,
require a flag boot partition ( no esp )

you can use Gparted before for formating disk

be careful memory is very low ( better 8Go )

[ady_12]

ok! just tell me which is better according to my configuration

[stephane]

if possible EFI
you should see on boot USB iso see this
UEFI < USB vendor name >
UEFI < USB vendor name >< partition 1 > --> this for boot EFI

if you want to check before install

inxi -Fxxxza 
sudo efibootmgr -v 

[ady_12]

@stephane

sudo efibootmgr -v

it says

EFI variables are not supported on this system.

[stephane]

• have you checked all options in Bios ?
• no password admin ?

[ady_12]

There is no this much option all it has this and there is no password

[stephane]

what are the other choice for boot mode ?

[ady_12]

that's the only one

[stephane]

from this video

How to Enable Boot Menu and Enter BIOS on lenovo G580

in > configuration
USB Legacy off ( or UEFI )
PXE off

check security ( no password admin )

recheck
Boot on ( other or EFI )

[ady_12]

that's how I boot and I thought that was the only way and Now I see what you meant

and in configuration
USB Legacy is Enabled
PXE Boot to LAN is Enabled

There is no security password

[woistmeinauto]

You should boot easeus partition master to convert mbr disk to gpt without losing data. Else, most likely you will delete everything on it.
If you have stuff on your HDD don't do anything before backing up.

As for your question, UEFI is always better than Legacy. Though the difference is very small uefi still boots faster than MBR.
Using Legacy while you have EFI support is not cool. If you are planning on dual booting you should use GPT.
I'm a guy who likes to try out new stuff, say you want to try another linux distribution, android on pc... then at some point you will hit the partition limit. You can use extended volumes but imo you're just better off keeping things as simple as possible and with uefi you never need extended partitions.

However, it's not always perfect, i've heard of problems booting UEFI, though very unlikely you might find some devices not working in UEFI mode.
For example, 2011 iMacs cannot detect any audio device when you dual boot windows in uefi mode. I couldn't find any way to make it work in uefi, when a device doesn't even show up in device manager you can only do so much.
If something like that happens -again, very unlikely- you can always go back to MBR.
But if i were you i would try and find whatever is necessary to boot in uefi mode. You are a linux user for a reason, right?