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squakie
April 11th, 2014, 07:26 AM
I just bought a new laptop for myself - nothing fancy but all I could afford. Toshiba C55D-A5146 - AMD A4-5000. I've done some looking on the forums regarding actually installing Ubuntu for dual-boot, with just enough "knowledge" to know I needed to check for UEFI issues, etc. Well, the first thing I'm trying to do just to get there is not working - I can't boot from the DVD. I changed the boot order in the BIOS so the DVD drive is first, followed by USB and then the hard disk. I made sure that boot speed was set to normal and not fast. I turned off secure boot. Boot mode is still UEFI.

So, I put a 12.10 64-bit DVD in the drive and it never boots from the DVD. I even called up the boot device selection screen, selected the DVD drive, but it still skips Ubuntu and goes straight into Windows 8. The DVD is a "live" media, and boots up in my desktop. I'm sincerely hoping I'm not locked into Windows-only! I want to dual-boot until the warranty is up, then go back to just Ubuntu like I have on my other PC's.

So, any ideas what this dumb guy is doing wrong?

Thanks!

Kirboosy
April 11th, 2014, 03:09 PM
Is there a particular reason you are using 12.10 and not 12,04 or 13.10? (14.04 launches next week and you might want to wait until that drops so you can have the latest and greatest)

~Caboose

oldfred
April 11th, 2014, 03:31 PM
I have seen blogs on how much Intel has added to kernel, support software & video drivers that only now be in the 14.04 release. I assume the same with AMD and you have a very new video chip, so will need updated drivers for that. Those would not even be in 12.10.

So download 14.04 64 bit version and see if it works, they still are fixing last minute bugs but some with very new hardware have reported it works well with those newer systems. Of course if one of the remaining bugs applies to you then it may not be so good.

squakie
April 11th, 2014, 11:15 PM
I already tried a 13.10 disk as well. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the version of Ubuntu - the notebook literally doesn't try to boot from the DVD drive - it just boots right into Windows. The BIOS is set with the DVD as first boot device. It's almost as if something is saying "if it isn't Windows, I'm not even going to try to boot it".

I have 14.04 on one of my other systems as well with no problems, and was looking forward to doing so on this notebook.

And yes - it was burned as an image. I installed virtualbox so I could try the disk and that worked fine, so it's something in the Toshiba booting process. I haven't found anything yet in the BIOS setup that says anything like "boot only windows".

I know it sounds crazy - but it just doesn't boot the DVD at all - it goes straight to Windows with no more delay than if I was booting without the DVD in the drive. It never shows anything from Ubuntu - no dark screen, none of that blinking cursor stuff, etc. It just skips booting the DVD. It spins up duing boot like it should. It appears to be getting a short read, then boom - right into Windows.

I'm sure I've got to being something stupid - I just don't know what.

I will be downloading 14.04 to see if it will even attempt to boot that either.

Thanks!

oldfred
April 11th, 2014, 11:53 PM
One user with a Intel based Toshiba posted this. Not sure how similar a AMD based Toshiba would be to a Intel based one.


Am now running 13.10 daily and everything works. Also had to stick with EFI boot ON, Secure Boot disabled. Wouldn't boot off of any media or HDD when mode set to CSM.



Have you updated UEFI/BIOS? Vendors also are making many fixes.

This is now older, so I do not think it would apply to your model.
Some Toshiba's will not boot.
they managed to leave the signing key out of the database that's used to validate binaries

squakie
April 12th, 2014, 12:35 AM
Thanks again OldFred. I have to run out for a couple of errands (my cat doesn't like an empty food dish so I need to get more before that happens ;) ). I'll double check all of that a little later tonight.

Thanks!

squakie
April 12th, 2014, 06:40 AM
Okay, I don't have the faintest clue as to why, but I have some new results:

- burnt the 14.04 beta ISO image to DVD
- changed BIOS to CSM boot mode (obviously Win 8 would not come up so I didn't even try it) and 14.04 live booted
- shutdown/restart and changed BIOS back to UEFI boot mode - 14.04 live booted! Double-checked Win 8 and it still boots ok

So, I have no clue as to why anything below 14.04 didn't even try to boot - just went to Win 8, but with 14.04 it works. Video looks great and wireless was working live mode, so it (hopefully) will all be good when I install 14.04.

I'm off to boot Win 8, defrag, shrink the partition and reboot a couple of times, then install 14.04!

I'll let you know how it goes. Another big thanks, OldFred - without all your various replies to people on how to install Ubuntu for dual boot on a system with Win 8 preloaded, I wouldn't have even had a clue what to look for. Outside of turning off secure boot and setting boot speed to normal, the only other thing I had to do (well, so far ;) ) was change the boot order. Hopefully it all works out.

squakie
April 12th, 2014, 07:57 AM
Well, made a 92 gig partition for "/" (decided it just wasn't worth it to me to put /home, etc., in other partitions) and 8 gig swap. It's installing as we speak, which so far has gone without any hitches.

If I remember correctly, when I'm done I'll probably need to run boot repair (I'll try booting first). If so, does one normally just take the default options it comes up with? I'm afraid that when it comes to the things it does, and to UEFI, I am still at a loss. I guess I need to do some reading on all of that if I'm going to understand it.

squakie
April 12th, 2014, 08:23 AM
Success! Once I got the DVD to boot, everything was as simple as before: create file system space, install Ubuntu. Wireless works by default and the display looks nice and the font is crisp.

That was SO much easier than I was afraid it was going to be. I now have 14.04 running, but I also selected Windows from the grub menu and that boots great as well. I also don't have 6 or 7 entries on the grub menu like I did on another laptop that I did the same thing with (older release of ubuntu), none of this windows on such and such, and windows blah-blah-blah, and 4 entries for Ubuntu as well (only 1 of each ever worked). So, something must have been worked on for UEFI installation stuff as well.

All in all, fantastic experience! grub shows Ubuntu, the additional Ubuntu options and Windows 8. That's it - nice and clean and everything worked right out of the box.

So, thanks to everyone who made the a great experience! I still don't understand why it didn't even try to boot the 64-bit live DVD's of 12.10 or 13.10, but hey - it works!

squakie
April 12th, 2014, 09:55 AM
I should add that I notice a difference in the wireless connection. I've been used to using Tenda USB wireless adapters that support 300mps. It appears the adapter in this laptop supports N with no problem but only goes to 150mps speed. Believe it or not, it is actually noticable. Nothing wrong with the laptop - just different from what I've been used to.

oldfred
April 12th, 2014, 03:06 PM
With 14.04, you normally should not need Boot-Repair. Grub2's os-prober has been fixed, so you do not need it to add correct chain boot entries to Windows.

Only some systems that have modified UEFI to only boot Windows may need Boot-Repair to rename grub/shim to be Window's efi file so it can boot grub. But Boot-Repair offers that fix too much and many that do not need it may run it and it then does prevent direct booting from UEFI to Windows (as only grub works) and when Windows does some of its updates may reverse the fix and users get lost.

But always good to know how to run Boot-Repair and it does document & back up some boot files internally which is good.


Always say no until proven that you only can boot Windows entry from UEFI menu.

buggy-kernel detected. Do you want to activate [Backup and rename Windows EFI files]? yes (if any choice fails, please retry with the other)
To undo & to rename files to their original names, you just need to tick the "Restore EFI backups" option of Boot-Repair.

squakie
April 12th, 2014, 09:09 PM
Hummm - don''t know why it would make any differnce, but I disconnected the 300mps wireless adapters from the other computers and now the internet is at least running faster on this laptop.

A little side note: Dont't put your hand under the left side under the DVD drive wth even the slightest amount of pressure. It seems it causes something to press up against the drive and the drive sounds like it is tearing the DVD up.

squakie
April 15th, 2014, 05:56 AM
Just in case someone with or thinking about getting this laptop, I wanted to add another thing: I installed with secure boot turned off in the BIOS, but it might not have been needed - I just now changed it back to secure boot and it boots Ubuntu and Windows 8 fine yet.

oldfred
April 15th, 2014, 02:47 PM
I thought grub had a more recent issue booting 8.1 from grub menu with secure boot on. Some change in Windows 8.1.
Does it boot from grub menu or are you using UEFI or one time boot key to dual boot with secure boot on.

squakie
April 15th, 2014, 07:43 PM
When I installed, I installed with secure boot off and boot speed at normal. Just for the heck of it over the weekend I tried turning secure boot back on in the BIOS and letting it boot normally. It comes to the grub menu and I can successfully boot Windows 8.1 or Ubuntu 14.04.

Perhaps if I had installed with secure boot on it may have failed. It may fail yet when an update-grub is run. For now, it is working. As for why - beats the heck out of me! I've relied on all the info you have posted to various threads about UEFI and Windows 8 just to get this far and I think I had it easy compared to some - and I do want to thank you for that. In that idea, if there is anything you want me to test/try on this end that would give you more information, please just ask!

dave

oldfred
April 15th, 2014, 07:47 PM
Just for info post the BootInfo report. They do not keep forever, but your copy can be useful just for your own documentation. Do not run any fixes, if system is working.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Info



My 2006 Toshiba is getting long in the tooth, and maybe the end of this year I will get a new laptop. Glad to hear a success story as you may have noticed it seems many have lots of issues.

squakie
April 16th, 2014, 04:00 AM
Hummmm - followed the link for boot-info and apparently those instructions don't work for 14.04? It didn't find the repository, so obviously I couldn't install it.

Help a dumb guy out? ;)

oldfred
April 16th, 2014, 04:34 AM
I filed a bug report a couple of days ago. I should have mentioned that to you.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/boot-repair/+bug/1307218
Workaround. Change ppa from trusty to saucy.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2216051&p=12986335#post12986335

squakie
April 17th, 2014, 11:52 PM
I filed a bug report a couple of days ago. I should have mentioned that to you.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/boot-repair/+bug/1307218
Workaround. Change ppa from trusty to saucy.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2216051&p=12986335#post12986335

Sorry it took me a while to get back here. I had some things I had to do that were for the time being better done in Windows (soon to migrated to Linux - my own programs).

Thanks for the link - that fixed the boot-repair problem.

The link to the boot-repair summary is: http://paste.ubuntu.com/7271426

I * hope* everything is the way I thought it was ;)

Let me know if there is more I can do.

Dave

EDIT: I should probably mention - I check in Windows and it does say Windows 8.1

oldfred
April 18th, 2014, 12:49 AM
Glad that worked.
I do not think links to pastebinit last forever, but you should have your copy. Looks like a normal dual boot with UEFI. :)

squakie
April 18th, 2014, 03:13 AM
Thanks oldfred! I have to thank you again for all the posts you've made about this. I don't understand some of it yet, but at least I could be a little prepared and knew where to look for help!

Have a good one!

Dave ;)