unable to boot ubuntu

[farhan-syed01]

I installed Ubuntu 14.04.1 on my Hp envy dv6 laptop, that comes with a preinstalled Windows 8, using live usb. I removed windows during the installation. Now I can't boot Ubuntu. It doesn't give me any options. I ran boot-repair using the live usb and it gave me the following url with some error.

http://paste.ubuntu.com/8077457/

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[user1397]

Did you intentionally remove windows during installation or did you do it by accident?

[farhan-syed01]

It kept booting into windows so I thought removing it would solve the problem.

Any idea what can be done to fix it?

[oldfred]

HPs only boot Windows UEFI entry. They modified UEFI against the UEFI standard to only boot the UEFI entry with Windows. There are several workarounds.

You still have the Windows folder in you efi partition and should then have a Windows entry in UEFI. One of the work arounds is just copy grub or shim file into the Windows efi folder and rename it to have the Windows file name. Then UEFI thinks it boots Windows but really boots Ubuntu/grub.

Did you backup Windows before install? Back up efi partition also before making any changes.

HP 4545s Secure boot off, manually copy files.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2133796
HP Manually renamed files to make it work.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2131886

All of these are alternatives or work arounds for the UEFI issues. Since not running Windows, so Windows will not overwrite the bootmgfw.efi later that may just be the choice for you.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/507013/windows-8-1-changes-boot-order
http://askubuntu.com/questions/486752/dual-boot-win-8-ubuntu-loads-only-win/486789#486789
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2234019
Systems that only boot Windows from UEFI. Work arounds -Often Sony & HP, maybe others
Backup entire efi partition before making changes.
A: Manually rename files efi boot files in efi partition

a1: Rename /efi/boot/bootx64.efi, copy shim or grub into /efi/boot and name it bootx64.efi Then boot harddrive entry in UEFI menu.
a2:(this is the same as what Boot-Repair does in B:. Windows updates will cause issues and require redoing.
Rename /efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi and copy grub or shim into /efi/Microsoft/Boot and name it bootmfgw.efi Then boot Windows entry to boot to grub menu. You have to manually add a grub menu entry to boot renamed Windows efi file. Grub2's os-prober entry boots bootmfgw.efi entry which is now just grub, so it will not work.

Users who manually moved efi files around see post #6
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2101840
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2219452
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2221498&p=13012109#post13012109

B:Boot_Repair renames Windows bootmgfw.efi. But cannot boot Windows from UEFI only from grub menu with bkpbootmgr.efi entry
Always say no until proven that you only can boot Windows entry from UEFI menu.
buggy-kernel detected. Do you want to activate ? 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.

Any rename either manually or with Boot-Repair of bootmfgw.efi will need to be redone after a Windows update as it will restore Windows files.

[B]C: Edit Windows BCD, one Alternative to Boot-Repairs rename to make shim have Windows name.
Some systems work better to register grub/shim from inside Windows - for those that keep resetting Windows as default
http://askubuntu.com/questions/371559/grub-not-showing-on-startup-for-windows-8-1-ubuntu-13-10-dual-boot
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi
https://coderwall.com/p/vfyqkg

D: Use efibootmgr

d1: If Description has to be Windows then change UEFI description.
sudo efibootmgr -c -L "Windows Boot Manager" -l " \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi"
d2: Disable Windows in UEFI and only boot from rEFInd or grub. If Windows is #1
sudo efibootmgr -A -b 0001

http://linux.dell.com/cgi-bin/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=efibootmgr.git;a=blob_plain;f=README; hb=HEAD
http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/efi-shells-and-scripting/
E: Some install rEFInd which seems to be another workaround and has nice boot icons.
http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/index.html
http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/secureboot.html
Now has a ppa to make it easy to install:
http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html

[farhan-syed01]

Thanks oldfred for the detailed reply. It was really very helpful. The rename trick did the job! :)