Xubuntu install on Win7 laptop fails

[MR ZenWiz]

On Tue, Jul 11, 2017 at 4:02 PM, MR ZenWiz <mrzenwiz at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 11:02 PM, Ralf Mardorf <silver.bullet at zoho.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> first mount all partitions, then list the content of all partitions.
>>
>> ls -hAl /mnt/point_boot/grub/ /mnt/point_2/ /mnt/point_n/
>>
>> Assuming there should be a Windows that looks good and a Linux,
>> including /boot/grub/ files, you could install grub like this
>>
>>     sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/point_boot/grub/ /dev/sda
>>
>> after updating grub, there likely would be a GRUB menu with a
>> chainloader to boot Windows, as well as the appropriate Ubuntu entries.
>> But I suspect you even don't need to run update-grub, grub-mkconfig or
>> whatever the command is named. I suspect you installed grub to an
>> Ubuntu partition instead of just /dev/sda without a number, so just
>> running grub-install might do the trick.
>>
> Update:
>
> I discovered that the only way to control the boot sequence was on the
> laptop's native screen, so that piece cleared up (it doesn't show on
> the dock-station connected monitors).
>
> The file systems looked fine, so I did the grub-install to no effect.
> The laptop still boots straight into Windows.
>
> I looked at the partition layout and this might be part of it:
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
> Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
> Disklabel type: gpt
> Disk identifier: F3DB32EB-3851-4CC0-A57E-0B50C27DC6F3
>
> Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
> /dev/sda1       2048    206847    204800   100M EFI System
> /dev/sda2     206848    468991    262144   128M Microsoft reserved
> /dev/sda3     468992 502231039 501762048 239.3G Microsoft basic data
> /dev/sda4  943554560 976773119  33218560  15.9G Microsoft basic data
> /dev/sda5  502231040 502233087      2048     1M BIOS boot
> /dev/sda6  502233088 935806975 433573888 206.8G Linux filesystem
> /dev/sda7  935806976 943554559   7747584   3.7G Linux swap
>
> Partition table entries are not in disk order.
>
> Xubuntu install partitions 5, 6 and 7, and 5 appears to be completely
> useless (that piece should be at the front of the disk).
>
> I tried removing those partitions, but the installer can't seem to get
> past there being an OS there and won't overwrite just those
> partitions.
>
> I'll try again after using gparted to reset those 3, but I'm not
> messing with the Windows partitions at all unless there's a safe way
> to do that.
>
> MR

I booted gparted and deleted the partitions, but then Xubuntu said I
need a boot partition (not a /boot partition - I don't use that
anyway) and it would not accept the 1MB empty space in front of
/dev/sda1.

I don't want to mess with the MS partitions... is this even doable?

Thanks.