Trouble Installing Ubuntu 12.10 to Dual Boot with Windows 8

[jjwyse]

I just recently purchased a Gateway DX4870-UB318 Desktop. It has Windows 8 running on it with 1TB hard drive, 8 GB RAM and an i5 and I am trying to install Ubuntu 12.10 as a dual boot option.

I tried using the Wubi installer but it complained I was missing a file, so I put it onto a USB and installed it that way. Everything seemed to go OK, however it did not detect that I had Windows 8 installed during installation but instead said that 'No operating systems were detected...'. I decided to just partition the hard drive myself and after partitioning and installing Ubuntu 12.10 I restarted the computer when prompted. When everything rebooted it went straight to Windows 8 and I cannot get Ubuntu to boot at all.

I downloaded EasyBCD for Windows 8 and it finds my Ubuntu partition. When I set that Ubuntu as the 'default' in the 'Edit Boot Menu' and reboot, it prompts me what OS I want to start with but the only option is Windows 8.

I've been trying to get this installed for a couple days now and any help would be much appreciated!

[oldfred]

Have they updated EasyBCD to work with UEFI. A while ago it did not.

Did you install the 64 bit version of Ubuntu? And did you install in the UEFI mode. When you boot your flash drive installer, it should give two choices, one UEFI and the other BIOS/legacy/AHCI or whatever. Only the UEFI option will work if you have Windows in UEFI and Windows 8 will be UEFI with secure boot if pre-installed.

If you did install the 64 bit version in BIOS mode you can convert to UEFI mode with Boot-Repair. You uninstall grub-pc and install grub-efi and then in UEFI/BIOS choose to boot Ubuntu. Grub also has a bug in creating a boot stanza to chain load to Windows, but again Boot-Repair can also add a correct boot for Windows.

Post the link to the BootInfo report that this creates.

Boot Repair -Also handles LVM, GPT, separate /boot and UEFI dual boot.:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
You can repair many boot issues with this or 'Create BootInfo' report (Other Options) & post the link it creates, so we can see your exact configuration and diagnose advanced problems.Install in Ubuntu liveCD or USB or:
Full RepairCD with Boot-Repair (for newer computers)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuSecureRemix

[jjwyse]

From my understanding the new EasyBCD 2.2 does indeed have UEFI support, however I should mention I am new to installing my own OS and do not completely understand what UEFI is or what I need to do in order to comply with it?

I did install the 64 bit version of Ubuntu. I do not know if I installed in UEFI mode, can you help me out with exactly how to do that because I did not see that option when I used by boot installer (Universal-USB-Installer-1.9.16). Do I need to use a different flash drive installer?

I have seen the Boot-Repair mentioned elsewhere but, this may be a dumb question, but how do I use that utility when I can't get to my Ubuntu installation? That is just a Linux utility, correct? Or do I install those utilities while just running Ubuntu from a flash drive?

I apologize for the dumb questions and really appreciate your help!

[jjwyse]

I ran the Boot-Repair from Ubuntu and the results are here (this is after I deleted the partition I attempted to install on): http://paste.ubuntu.com/1376493/

Here is an update from Boot-Repair after after I attempted to install Ubuntu 12.10 again: http://paste.ubuntu.com/1376518

[jjwyse]

After running Boot-Repair I now can't boot from anything on the hard drive but only from my flash drive. When I go to click install in Ubuntu it detects the other Ubuntu 12.10 installer but it now appears I've screwed something up with Windows 8.

Ran Boot-Repair again and back to kind of back to where I began. It prompts me on startup for the OS I want to boot to and the only options is Windows 8.

[darkod]

Since your computer already had win8 in UEFI, you need to install ubuntu in UEFI too.

That means:
1. It has to be the 64bit version since the 32bit doesn't support UEFI.
2. When you boot the cd or usb to install, you have to boot the UEFI device.

On UEFI systems you will have two devices for the dvd-rom and for bootable usb sticks: one for the older legacy mode, and the other for UEFI mode.

You have to boot the UEFI device for ubuntu to install in UEFI mode. Be careful to make the correct selection when booting, and it should be fine after that.

[jjwyse]

Thanks for the help. I re-installed and ran boot-repair and it seems like the Grub location is accurately pointing to the right location however it still won't boot up Ubuntu and I'm back to not being able to boot to Windows 8 either. Sorry for the hassle but I must be missing something here?

Here's the most recent boot-repair information: http://paste.ubuntu.com/1377347

[darkod]

Why did you comment out /boot/efi fstab? I think it needs to use it for UEFI.

Also, since UEFI boots with its own boot manager, not with windows bootloader or grub, sometimes you need to enter bios/uefi setup and add the ubuntu entry yourself. You should be able to find a procedure in the computer manual or online.

PS. I noticed you added the /boot/efi at the end. I only saw the disabled entry at first glance. See if you need to add it to the uefi menu yourself.

[oldfred]

It looks like the /boot/efi is commented out and then added again, so it is ok.

You have to go into UEFI/BIOS (check manual for which key) and choose to boot Ubuntu. UEFI remembers last booted, so it will keep booting Windows until you change it. And when booting Ubuntu, grub menu will also have an option to chain back to Windows, so from grub you can boot either.

[jjwyse]

Thanks again for both of your help. I cannot seem to find how to get into the UEFI/BIOS menu to modify it? I've been searching the web and looking in the manual for it but the only thing I can find is the 'Del' button to get to the BIOS.

Since I couldn't get to Windows I was getting worried so using GParted I just deleted the Linux partitions and reformatted the C:/ (Windows) partition back to how it came out of the box. This allowed me to boot back into Windows. I am going to try (the fifth time) to install Ubuntu 12.10 by partitioning the drive myself. Before I do this again is there any directions specifically I should change? Below is how I've been manually partitioning things:

10 GB - Linux swap
1 GB - /boot
500 GB - /

I then have just been running Boot-Repair to allow it to do the dirty work because truthfully, I'm pretty new to this and don't understand exactly what I need to do still. Sorry for needing my hand held through all of this but I really appreciate your help and any further direction would be appreciated.