Lenovo Ideapad Y500

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Download:

ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso  
Note: A kubuntu live boot I tried didn't recognice screen resolution and wireless network.

use http://www.linuxliveusb.com/ on windows
or http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ on Mac OS X 10.6.8

to create a bootable USB device
(other data on the stick stays intact, just put them into one folder)

In the BIOS:

(note lenovo ideapad y500 has a bios button on the side. 
 very useful since F2 stopped working for me)
shut off secure boot if not already off (my case)
switch from EFI to legacy support but leave the "second boot??" on EFI
activate USB boot

Windows puts restore information in the middle of the C: partition. These are in 'unmovable' files that get in the way when shrinking the partition. If you want a lot of space for linux, disable 'system protection' prior to shrinking the partition, in which case the system protection files are deleted (ignored?), and much more can be chopped off the end:

'Control panel' --> 'System' --> 'System protection'.
Select 'Windows8_)S (C:)(System)' Hit 'Configure' button, and
then 'Disable system protection'.

Shrink your big windows8 partition in win8.

win8: right click lower left corner -> choose "File System Manager"
I did this: 880GB NTFS -> 664 NTFS & 216 FREE for linux

If you disabled system protection on C:, repeat steps above to turn on system protection for C: drive, now that it has been shrunken.

Reboot from USB and choose the install-ubuntu option.

(Install while network connection is present. Wlan works well right from the start.)
For install method choose: "something different" to ensure
the partitions are created the way you want them.
Find the free space you created under windows8 and click on it.
click the "add?" button and 
1) create swap partition (type =swap)
   on the end! so that it can be more easily extended if needed.
   130% ram size is recommended
   I had 8 GB but might upgrade to 16GB at some point.
   I choose 16GB swap (on HDD) since my SSD is exacty that size.
2) create root partition filling the rest of the space
   mountpoint \  type ext4-journaled
As boot device choose the entire SSD device. 

After successful install you might need

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
to get everything worlking properly.
I was able to boot from ubuntu but not from Windows8
thus I was able to install bootrepair from within ubuntu.

After the first normal linux startup:

Firefox was crashing when dragged and then dropped
an automatic nvidia driver installation solved the problem immediately.

Last you might want to install synaptic and kde (and your language pack)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install synaptic
sudo apt-get install kde-full

Lukas Süss (2013-03)