paralis
October 29th, 2013, 02:12 AM
I have trouble to boot a fresh install of Ubuntu 13.10 so I come here in the hope someone will be able to help me :p
I got recently a brand new laptop Asus N550JV to replace my old Acer 5920G.
The official page for the laptop at Asus.com : http://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/N550JV/
Specs :
- Processor Intel i7 4700HQ Haswell 4th Gen
- 16 Gb DDR3
- 15'6 screen HD IPS 1920x1080
- Optimus technology Intel HD 4600/Nvidia GT 750M 4 Gb
- 1TB HDD 5400 RPM
- Windows 8 Preinstalled (upgraded to 8.1 recently)
UEFI Bios, Aptio type, (204 version originally upgraded to 207, last available version)
Now, I downloaded the 64 bits desktop 13.10 ISO and made a live USB using Universal USB Installer (also tried Unetbootin btw), tried to boot the USB stick but it was not possible.
Secure Boot does not allow it (or something else).
Disabling Secure Boot, I was able to boot the USB stick and proceed. Installation went smoothly.
I forgot to mention I had previously resized the second windows partition (named 'Data') to free 200 Gb for Linux.
Since I wanted to keep things simple, I only created a swap partition of 16 Gb and a root partition (/) with the rest of the space.
I chose to install Grub on that partition (I mean the root partition) becauseI dind't want to mess with the Windows loader and all that new (at least for me) UEFI thing.
Once back in Windows, I used EasyBCD 2.2 to add Ubuntu to the Windows loader (which I find quite elegant and way more watchable than Grub but that's juste me :p).
Then I noticed something strange. At the first run of EasyBCD, there was already an 'ubuntu' entry. I did not touch that one and added mine (Type: Grub2, Name: Ubuntu 13.10, Disk: Autolocate). Rebooted and here was my new entry Ubuntu 13.10 (but the weird 'ubuntu' entry I didn't add was nowhere to be seen). Trying to boot it, I got the, I believe, 'infamous' error message :
(...)
\NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr
0xc000007b
(...)
I must say sometimes there is also like 3 lines on the top left corner but it's displayed to briefly and I can't read them.
When trying to boot Linux, Secure Boot is disabled, Fast Boot is disabled, Fast Startup (in W8) is disabled. All that doesn't seem to help much.
For EasyBCD, I also modified the entry to point it to the exact partition (not using the autolocate, just in case): no luck...
Remade several times my live USB, downloading new 64 bits ISO, using Unetbootin instead of USB Universal Installer: no luck.
Reinstalled several times: no change.
Tried to install from a 'try session' : same result.
Also tried to enable CSM (or CMS don't remember the exact term, the legacy stuff), doesn't help either.
Now, I do know Ubuntu 13.10 is, as far as I can tell, perfectly (well maybe not that perfectly lol) installed, my problem is I just can't boot/run it.
I read tons of articles here and there on installing Ubuntu on UEFI computers with preinstalled W8 but so far I'm getting nowhere.
So any suggestion gladly accepted.
Thank you for your patience ;-)
Eric
P.S. Forgot to mention another thing. About that stealth 'ubuntu' entry not showing and which popped up right at the first run of EasyBCD, I found its trace when pressing Esc at start to pick up the device to boot. It's listed there (as non UEFI partition clearly). Trying to boot that way doesn't work either but no error message just black screen and auto reboot.
[Adding this after further reading:]
From that link https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI, I believe I may have a clue.
I remember seing during partitionning when installing an EFI partition already existing (from the preinstalled Windows 8 obviously).
I read on the mentionned page that:
if you use the manual partitioning ("Something else"), the difference is that you will have to set the /boot/efi mount point to the EFI partition
They don't say how.
Also says on the very same page:
If your disk already contains an EFI partition (eg if your computer had Windows8 preinstalled), it can be used for Ubuntu too. Do not format it. It is strongly recommended to have only 1 EFI partition per disk.
Hum...
When creating an EFI partition(which is not my case since I've got already one), it is said:
Mount point: /boot/efi (remark: no need to set this mount point when using the manual partitioning, the Ubuntu installer will detect it automatically)
Right...
Found this http://askubuntu.com/questions/315297/installing-13-04-on-an-efi-partition-share-with-windows-8, very interesting because it says:
Note that you don't install Linux onto the ESP in any meaningful sense. You should create Linux partitions in the normal way on your GPT disk -- say, for swap, /, and /home. In the Ubuntu installer, you then mark the ESP as being the "EFI boot partition." Alternatively, the various automated partitioning options do this automatically.
Whatever you do, do not create a new filesystem on the ESP, and do not remove the "boot flag" from the ESP or set a "boot flag" on any other partition.
Note that ESP means here the EFI partition.
Anyway still investigating.
[Added on 10/31:]
Booting my live usb ubuntu, I ran Boot-repair to 'fix' well that 'thing' since it's supposed to fix grub and uefi troubles. All went nicely until I got the following message:
(...) Locked-ESP detected
So after googling that error, I found out that there is indeed a known bug with such message. The bug is described here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1090829 and probably else where.
According to the people talking about that stuff on those pages, it's either a real locked up EFI partition (ESP) which prevents Ubuntu installation to write the files where it should OR, somehow, the files are corrupted (maybe for the same reason). Apparently, most people don't think the ESP is screwed but rather only the ubuntu file needed to boot in EFI mode.
Creating a second EFI partition with the bootflag doesn't seem to fix it (haven't tried).
Anyway, for info: http://paste.ubuntu.com/6332633/
And the quest goes on...
Editing this, three weeks later or so : I'm stuck and a lil bit fed up struggling with that issue. Can't run Ubuntu on my laptop because of some UEFI weirdness... Sadly, I doubt I'm the only one. Maybe Ubuntu will fix that, one never knows...
I got recently a brand new laptop Asus N550JV to replace my old Acer 5920G.
The official page for the laptop at Asus.com : http://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/N550JV/
Specs :
- Processor Intel i7 4700HQ Haswell 4th Gen
- 16 Gb DDR3
- 15'6 screen HD IPS 1920x1080
- Optimus technology Intel HD 4600/Nvidia GT 750M 4 Gb
- 1TB HDD 5400 RPM
- Windows 8 Preinstalled (upgraded to 8.1 recently)
UEFI Bios, Aptio type, (204 version originally upgraded to 207, last available version)
Now, I downloaded the 64 bits desktop 13.10 ISO and made a live USB using Universal USB Installer (also tried Unetbootin btw), tried to boot the USB stick but it was not possible.
Secure Boot does not allow it (or something else).
Disabling Secure Boot, I was able to boot the USB stick and proceed. Installation went smoothly.
I forgot to mention I had previously resized the second windows partition (named 'Data') to free 200 Gb for Linux.
Since I wanted to keep things simple, I only created a swap partition of 16 Gb and a root partition (/) with the rest of the space.
I chose to install Grub on that partition (I mean the root partition) becauseI dind't want to mess with the Windows loader and all that new (at least for me) UEFI thing.
Once back in Windows, I used EasyBCD 2.2 to add Ubuntu to the Windows loader (which I find quite elegant and way more watchable than Grub but that's juste me :p).
Then I noticed something strange. At the first run of EasyBCD, there was already an 'ubuntu' entry. I did not touch that one and added mine (Type: Grub2, Name: Ubuntu 13.10, Disk: Autolocate). Rebooted and here was my new entry Ubuntu 13.10 (but the weird 'ubuntu' entry I didn't add was nowhere to be seen). Trying to boot it, I got the, I believe, 'infamous' error message :
(...)
\NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr
0xc000007b
(...)
I must say sometimes there is also like 3 lines on the top left corner but it's displayed to briefly and I can't read them.
When trying to boot Linux, Secure Boot is disabled, Fast Boot is disabled, Fast Startup (in W8) is disabled. All that doesn't seem to help much.
For EasyBCD, I also modified the entry to point it to the exact partition (not using the autolocate, just in case): no luck...
Remade several times my live USB, downloading new 64 bits ISO, using Unetbootin instead of USB Universal Installer: no luck.
Reinstalled several times: no change.
Tried to install from a 'try session' : same result.
Also tried to enable CSM (or CMS don't remember the exact term, the legacy stuff), doesn't help either.
Now, I do know Ubuntu 13.10 is, as far as I can tell, perfectly (well maybe not that perfectly lol) installed, my problem is I just can't boot/run it.
I read tons of articles here and there on installing Ubuntu on UEFI computers with preinstalled W8 but so far I'm getting nowhere.
So any suggestion gladly accepted.
Thank you for your patience ;-)
Eric
P.S. Forgot to mention another thing. About that stealth 'ubuntu' entry not showing and which popped up right at the first run of EasyBCD, I found its trace when pressing Esc at start to pick up the device to boot. It's listed there (as non UEFI partition clearly). Trying to boot that way doesn't work either but no error message just black screen and auto reboot.
[Adding this after further reading:]
From that link https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI, I believe I may have a clue.
I remember seing during partitionning when installing an EFI partition already existing (from the preinstalled Windows 8 obviously).
I read on the mentionned page that:
if you use the manual partitioning ("Something else"), the difference is that you will have to set the /boot/efi mount point to the EFI partition
They don't say how.
Also says on the very same page:
If your disk already contains an EFI partition (eg if your computer had Windows8 preinstalled), it can be used for Ubuntu too. Do not format it. It is strongly recommended to have only 1 EFI partition per disk.
Hum...
When creating an EFI partition(which is not my case since I've got already one), it is said:
Mount point: /boot/efi (remark: no need to set this mount point when using the manual partitioning, the Ubuntu installer will detect it automatically)
Right...
Found this http://askubuntu.com/questions/315297/installing-13-04-on-an-efi-partition-share-with-windows-8, very interesting because it says:
Note that you don't install Linux onto the ESP in any meaningful sense. You should create Linux partitions in the normal way on your GPT disk -- say, for swap, /, and /home. In the Ubuntu installer, you then mark the ESP as being the "EFI boot partition." Alternatively, the various automated partitioning options do this automatically.
Whatever you do, do not create a new filesystem on the ESP, and do not remove the "boot flag" from the ESP or set a "boot flag" on any other partition.
Note that ESP means here the EFI partition.
Anyway still investigating.
[Added on 10/31:]
Booting my live usb ubuntu, I ran Boot-repair to 'fix' well that 'thing' since it's supposed to fix grub and uefi troubles. All went nicely until I got the following message:
(...) Locked-ESP detected
So after googling that error, I found out that there is indeed a known bug with such message. The bug is described here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1090829 and probably else where.
According to the people talking about that stuff on those pages, it's either a real locked up EFI partition (ESP) which prevents Ubuntu installation to write the files where it should OR, somehow, the files are corrupted (maybe for the same reason). Apparently, most people don't think the ESP is screwed but rather only the ubuntu file needed to boot in EFI mode.
Creating a second EFI partition with the bootflag doesn't seem to fix it (haven't tried).
Anyway, for info: http://paste.ubuntu.com/6332633/
And the quest goes on...
Editing this, three weeks later or so : I'm stuck and a lil bit fed up struggling with that issue. Can't run Ubuntu on my laptop because of some UEFI weirdness... Sadly, I doubt I'm the only one. Maybe Ubuntu will fix that, one never knows...