12.04 windows 7 dual boot: no fast/secure boot option in bios

[blacknblue]

Hi all,


I performed a clean install of windows 7 on uefi-enabled asus47vc. I was able to install windows 7 in UEFI mode. I tried installing ubuntu as well but it would not detect the presence of windows 7.


The original BIOS had no fast boot/secure boot option. So, i updated the bios to the latest version but I still see no fast boot/secure boot option. Ubuntu is still unable to detect Windows 7. I did some web search and around this forum which explains UEFI/secure boot/fast boot etc...


My problem is that there is no fast/secure boot option in my bios. Any thoughts/help would be appreciated

[darkod]

Secure Boot is usually used with win8, not win7. Besides, you don't need it, so you don't need to look for it.

One thing though, why the hell would you want to install win7 in uefi mode since making a working uefi dual boot is much more difficult than legacy dual boot?

In your place, I would boot go into bios and set it to boot only in legacy mode, boot the computer with the ubuntu cd, make a new blank msdos table on the disk.
Then boot with the win7 dvd and install it giving it the size you want. Don't let it take the whole disk.
After that boot with the ubuntu cd and install ubuntu. That's it.

One reason why it might not be detecting win7 is if you actually installed it in legacy mode, even when you think it's uefi. If the disk had gpt table and you made it msdos with windows, it doesn't delete the gpt backup table so linux gets confused about the partitions on the disk. That's why I suggest above using ubuntu live mode to write new blank mdos table. Windows just makes chaos on your machine with these things. MS is not even making it delete the backup gpt table, so it leaves gpt leftovers.

[oldfred]

Best to see what you have. Both Windows & Ubuntu install in either BIOS or UEFI mode from newer UEFI systems based on how you boot installer. Boot and install one in BIOS and the other in UEFI and you have to go into UEFI/BIOS and change modes to dual boot. Both need to be the same to make it easy to dual boot, and which ever mode you want.

Post the link to the BootInfo report that this creates. Is part of Boot-Repair:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Info
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)
http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuSecureRemix

[blacknblue]

Darko, thanks for your suggestions. My initial plan was to install both in legacy mode. The problem is when i tried to install Windows 7, I kept getting the error "Windows 7 cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the gpt partition style." After several attempts, I gave up and went uefi.
Now, the laptop came with a recovery partition on the drive, which I did not delete/format, could this be why I got this error?

I can boot with the LiveCD, how do you make a blank ms-dos partition table? I assume this will format the disk and get rid of the recovery partition, which might allow me to install in legacy mode.

[darkod]

No, it's because you are trying to install in legacy mode on a gpt disk. Note where I said "make a new blank msdos table" from live mode first.

Windows has the following limitation:
in legacy mode it can install only on msdos disk (msdos partition table)
in uefi mode it can install only on gpt disk

So, if you want to do a legacy dual boot, boot into ubuntu live mode first and make a new msdos table on the disk. After that win7 will install just fine in legacy mode, and ubuntu too.

But writing new table will delete all data on the disk, including the restore partition. If you want to keep your factory restore option, make a set of restore DVDs first. You should be able to do that from the backup software in windows. After you have those DVDs, deleting the restore partition doesn't matter. You can do a factory restore with the DVDs.

[darkod]

Sorry, I didn't read you last sentence.

In live mode, the easiest way to write new msdos table is using parted. If the disk is /dev/sda, open terminal and do:

sudo parted /dev/sda
mklabel msdos
quit

That's it, you now have blank msdos table. Boot with the win7 dvd and start the installer.

As I said above, that will delete the restore partition too, so make sure you don't need it before that.

[blacknblue]

Thanks for your suggestions. For a start, I booted using the live CD, installed boot-repair and ran boot-info.
You can find the output here

http://paste.ubuntu.com/5664995/

[blacknblue]

Darko, thanks. I'm backing up the system to an external hard drive. I will try your suggestions after that and post the outcome.

[darkod]

OK, no problem.

[blacknblue]

Darko, worked like a charm. I have both os running now, and I am able to boot into each. Onto figuring out drivers now. Thanks much. Can you point me to a guide on hardware management under ubuntu? You know how windows has a 'hardware management' tool/gui where you can see which drivers you need/are malfunctioning.
Thanks again!

[darkod]

I've actually never looked into such tool. I usually search for drivers if some HW doesn't work. Most of it works by default.

Is there actually something not working?

Few useful commands to list usb and pci devices are:
lsusb
lspci

That can show you present hardware including the manufacturer and part ID in format like xxxx:yyyy. You can usually search for instructions using that ID.

[oldfred]

If there is a proprietary drive like nVidia, Ubuntu will show that in System Settings, Additional Drivers Icon.

There are a lot of tools to list hardware.
cpu info
cat /proc/cpuinfo
cat /proc/meminfo

sudo lshw | grep -m 1 -A 25 "*-memory"
sudo dmidecode --type memory
Hardware width
sudo lshw -c cpu | grep width
sudo lshw | grep -m 1 -A 25 "*-network"

Hard drive info - will show locked status or not:
sudo hdparm -i /dev/sdd
sudo lshw -class disk
udisks --dump


HTML version of info
sudo lshw -html > ~/hardware_info.html && firefox ~/hardware_info.html

udevadm info --export-db > file.txt
udevinfo -a -p $(udevinfo -q path -n /dev/sdd)

Similarly, if you run
sudo dmidecode > bios.txt
The last one (dmidecode) lists the machine's DMI or SMBIOS table contents in a friendly format. This DMI or SMBIOS contains a description of the system's hardware components and other useful information such as serial numbers and BIOS revision. This is a really powerful command.
Similarly if you boot with UEFI.
Internal efi details
ls /sys/firmware/efi/vars



HardInfo is a small application that displays information about your hardware and operating system
hardinfo
system, prefererences, system profiler & performance (hardinfo in synaptic)
sysinfo is a graphical tool that is able to display some hardware and software information about the computer it is run on.

I think you have to separately install hardinfo, do not remember on sysinfo.