Ubuntu 16.04 partition help

I had some problems with instaling Ubuntu (first time instaling os), and people here was realy nice and help me a lot in my post Can't boot Ubuntu 16.04 without dvd / usb. Now evrything is going nice, I just need to ask one more thing.

After I prepere disk in Gparted (did it all the same like in this post How to prepare a disk on an EFI based PC for Ubuntu? ) and make gpt disk and make fat32, linux-swap, ext4. Then I go to second step ( How to use manual partitioning during installation? ) and use "Something else", thing that I want to know is, do I use "New Partition Table" or I just add (swap, ext4 /, /home) to partitons that I made in Gparded (fat32, linux-swap, ext4) ?

If I dont use "New Partition Table" its looking like to much partitions, and if I use "New Partition Table" and use only (swap, ext4 /, /home) then it's asking me to make boot or efi partition. And I dont realy know what do I need to have of partitions. I want Ubuntu to be my only os to use, and im instaling on Acer Aspire 15 lap top.

First time instaling os, so just hoping to do evrything good, hope someone can help me with partition things, thanks in advance.


In gparted you need to create a partition of atleast 512 MB and flag it as boot, esp. XFS file system for the boot partition is preferred.

Also you need to create a linux-swap partition and trun swap on. Ideally it is twice the size of your physical RAM.

Further partitions you can create in either gparted or during installation. the second method makes thing easier. if you prefer creating partitions in gparted, then also it is fine. You have to go to Something else --> Select an already creaated partition, click change and give mount point.

Else you can directly go to something else option without first making further partitions in gparted. Change the 512 MB partition and give it mount point /boot. Leave the swap partition as it is. These two parrtitions are essential. The other partitions are optional. The file format of the other partitions should be either ext4 or btrfs.

At this stage you can either create a single partition using the entire remaining disk space and give it the mount point / make the boot loader device /dev/sda (assuming sda is your primary disk) and continue with installation or make further partitions. If you chose to make further partitions then do the following:

/opt partition is meant for installing third party directly from internet and not via repoitory. Create a partition of aabout 50 GB and give it mount point /opt

/var partition is meant for installing system files. Make a partition of about 80 GB and give it mount point /var

/root partition is meant for storing personal files for root user. Create a partition of about 50 GB and give it mount point /

/home partition is meant for storing your personal files. I think creating these many partitions are enough. Create this partition using remaining unallocated space and give it mount point /home

Now device for installation of boot loader is by default /dev/sda. If not make it.

Then proceed with installation as usual.