Toshiba UEFI boot issues Windows 8 & Ubuntu

[tchaffee]

I'm trying to get Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit working alongside Windows 8 on a Toshiba P845t. I can boot from Ubuntu on a USB stick when I change the bios to not use the UEFI mode, and Ubuntu installs fine, but then it boots Ubuntu only and will not show the grub menu. After using boot repair it boots only Windows and shows no menu at boot. Here's the URL I get from boot repair.

http://paste.ubuntu.com/1578237/

[oldfred]

Moved to your own thread.

You always need to install Ubuntu in UEFI mode, if Windows is UEFI. You cannot dual boot a BIOS install and a UEFI install unless you go into UEFI/BIOS and change modes each time or a real hassle.

Boot-Repair converted your BIOS install to a UEFI install. You should just need to go into UEFI/BIOS from boot key not Windows and set ubuntu as default boot choice.

You also installed grub2's boot loader to the PBR of the efi boot partition. You were in BIOS mode. In BIOS you always install grub2's boot loader to the MBR. In UEFI it auto installs to the efi partition but not the PBR. That may cause issues, but I do know if FAT has a backup like NTFS does or not. If Windows boots then your grub to PBR has not totally corrupted it like it does with a Windows NTFS partition.

[tchaffee]

I started over again and still no love. I installed Ubuntu 64bit to my USB stick and I get the UEFI grub boot menu, but when I choose Ubuntu it just hangs. Any suggestions?

[oldfred]

It seems some Toshiba have major issues. They left signing key out in UEFI.
Samsung, Lenovo & Toshiba UEFI issues
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/22028.html
Some Toshiba's will not boot.
they managed to leave the signing key out of the database that's used to validate binaries

But I would think if secure boot is off, and fast boot is off. Then you should be able to boot with UEFI anyway?

Some also have video issues. What video chip do you have. Do you have Optimus?How to set NOMODESET and other kernel boot options in grub2 - both liveCD & first boot, but different
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions



nVidia Optimus and Ubuntu explained
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1657660

[tchaffee]

Thanks for the quick response. I can confirm it will not boot even with secure boot and fast boot turned off.

Concerning the video chip, how can I tell which video chip I have?

[oldfred]

If you can boot liveCD/DVD/Flash we could run some commands. Otherwise it is look at vendors specs for your system.
Not sure with Windows 8 how to see hardware details, but I am sure there is a way.

[UltimateCat]

Have you tried disabling the Secure Boot?
That helped a friend of mine that had Win's 8 and a Samsung laptop-
He told me that the EFI bootmanager which runs in the BIOS can be frobbed at runtime using EFI bootloader.

For Linux to access UEFI Runtime Services the UEFI Firmware processor architecture and the Linux Kernel must match. It is independent of the bootloader used.

Just trying to help-

I read these articles to learn more about UEFI.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/EFI
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/search/node/uefi

[tchaffee]

I have tried disabling secure boot. Still hangs once I select any of the options from EFI grub boot menu.

[tchaffee]

oldfred: I can get a livecd to boot from usb if I switch back to CSM boot. What commands should I run?

[oldfred]

In your first post you had BootInfo. Rerun that to see if anything has changes.

But if you can get to grub menu and then it does not boot that is a video issue or other boot parameter that may be required.

To see Video:
lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga
sudo lshw -c display
sudo lshw | grep -A 11 display

#Resolution:
xwininfo -root

[tchaffee]

lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:fb71]
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915

sudo lshw -c display:

*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 09
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:44 memory:7fc00000-7fffffff memory:90000000-9fffffff ioport:3000(size=64)

sudo lshw | grep -A 11 display:

*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 09
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:44 memory:7fc00000-7fffffff memory:90000000-9fffffff ioport:3000(size=64)

xwininfo -root:

xwininfo: Window id: 0xd8 (the root window) (has no name)

Absolute upper-left X: 0
Absolute upper-left Y: 0
Relative upper-left X: 0
Relative upper-left Y: 0
Width: 1366
Height: 768
Depth: 24
Visual: 0x21
Visual Class: TrueColor
Border width: 0
Class: InputOutput
Colormap: 0x20 (installed)
Bit Gravity State: ForgetGravity
Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
Backing Store State: NotUseful
Save Under State: no
Map State: IsViewable
Override Redirect State: no
Corners: +0+0 -0+0 -0-0 +0-0
-geometry 1366x768+0+0

[oldfred]

You have Intel in 1366x768 ?

Intel only have the open driver and it should work.

Some have to add this at grub menu, if it works we can add it permanently:

if you've got an intel graphics card, then the usual fix is to either add i915.modeset=1 or i915.modeset=0 to your boot

[tchaffee]

Unfortunately neither of those did anything. Still just hangs with a blank screen.

[oldfred]

Then it may be other boot parameters or several including the above.

Without splash quiet you see the boot process, it goes by quickly but does it say something is not working. Last entry iis not usually the issue.

Some Asus need this boot parameter, but it seems it is more UEFI vendor (only 4 or hardware like Intel related)

pci=nomsi
vt.handoff=7 rootdelay=90 reboot=a,w

[tchaffee]

The strange thing is that even without "splash" and without "quiet" I see absolutely nothing. It immediately hangs.

I've tried the extra params you suggested above, both alone and in combo with both variations of i915.modeset and still no luck.

[oldfred]

So you get no command lines posted at all?

We have had issues with BIOS installs and large / (root) partitions. I do not think I have seen it with any of the UEFI installs, but they may not have had large / partitions. You might try a smaller root. As a test, just use gparted to shrink your sda8 to less than 100GB. You can use the rest for /home or data if it works.