giotoula
December 12th, 2014, 03:47 PM
Hello all.
I am creating this thread to transfer a problem I posted elsewhere in the forum, and ask some further questions.
I installed Ubuntu 14.04 on a Toshiba SATELLITE C55-A-1NN to make a dual boot system, but it bypasses the GRUB2 and loads directly Windows 8.1.
You may want to know that on windows if I hit restart with the Shift key pressed continuously I enter a special UEFI screen where I can select a "Use a device" option. I can choose Ubuntu and load normally the GRUB2 and the Ubuntu. But this is quite impractical and I want to make the system work properly.
This is the Boot Info summary I got after unsuccesfully running boot repair http://paste2.org/E3HcVyk4.
So I am about to try the following steps (suggested at this post http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2238714).
Since you do not have any Windows you can just create the Windows efi boot file with the Windows name. Then the UEFI will think it is booting Windows but really boots grub.
You will have to recreate in the efi partition the Windows folder, a boot folder under Windows and copy grubx64.efi into that folder and rename it to bootmgfw.efi.
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
cd /mnt/EFI
use ls to see if mounted correctly
ls -l
mkdir Microsoft
mkdir Microsoft/Boot
cp /mnt/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /mnt/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
Most systems also have a /Boot folder and can boot grub from that using a hard drive entry.
mkdir Boot
cp /mnt/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /mnt/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi
Your ls -l should then have this in the efi partition:
/EFI/Boot
/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
/EFI/ubuntu
But I have three questions before I make anything I regret.
1. I am confused with a 1GB partition I find at the start of my disk ( /dev/sda1, file system: ntfs, flags: hidden,diag) and the /dev/sda2, fat32, 100MB partition flagged as boot. As I see at my Boot Info script as well, http://paste2.org/E3HcVyk4, I think the /EFI directories are on sda2. So I want to make clear if I should mount /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2.
2. At the Boot Info script again, I see there exists a bootmgfw.efi file in a Microsoft/Boot directory. I am supposing that creating a Microsoft directory refers to a different problem.
Should I just replace the bootmgfw.efi file with grubx64.efi (which I have to rename to bootmgfw.efi) or should I follow the steps referred at the first link and make a Microsoft/Boot directory?
3. It is suggested some times to backup the efi partition. Is it that necessary? Because I cannot find any information I can understand. Can I use the cp -r command and copy the directory (which exactly?) in the /EFI partition with a different name or this would cause problems?
I hope asking for instructions as exact as possible (as I am not very familliar with all the linux story) is not too much a trouble.
I am creating this thread to transfer a problem I posted elsewhere in the forum, and ask some further questions.
I installed Ubuntu 14.04 on a Toshiba SATELLITE C55-A-1NN to make a dual boot system, but it bypasses the GRUB2 and loads directly Windows 8.1.
You may want to know that on windows if I hit restart with the Shift key pressed continuously I enter a special UEFI screen where I can select a "Use a device" option. I can choose Ubuntu and load normally the GRUB2 and the Ubuntu. But this is quite impractical and I want to make the system work properly.
This is the Boot Info summary I got after unsuccesfully running boot repair http://paste2.org/E3HcVyk4.
So I am about to try the following steps (suggested at this post http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2238714).
Since you do not have any Windows you can just create the Windows efi boot file with the Windows name. Then the UEFI will think it is booting Windows but really boots grub.
You will have to recreate in the efi partition the Windows folder, a boot folder under Windows and copy grubx64.efi into that folder and rename it to bootmgfw.efi.
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
cd /mnt/EFI
use ls to see if mounted correctly
ls -l
mkdir Microsoft
mkdir Microsoft/Boot
cp /mnt/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /mnt/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
Most systems also have a /Boot folder and can boot grub from that using a hard drive entry.
mkdir Boot
cp /mnt/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /mnt/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi
Your ls -l should then have this in the efi partition:
/EFI/Boot
/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
/EFI/ubuntu
But I have three questions before I make anything I regret.
1. I am confused with a 1GB partition I find at the start of my disk ( /dev/sda1, file system: ntfs, flags: hidden,diag) and the /dev/sda2, fat32, 100MB partition flagged as boot. As I see at my Boot Info script as well, http://paste2.org/E3HcVyk4, I think the /EFI directories are on sda2. So I want to make clear if I should mount /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2.
2. At the Boot Info script again, I see there exists a bootmgfw.efi file in a Microsoft/Boot directory. I am supposing that creating a Microsoft directory refers to a different problem.
Should I just replace the bootmgfw.efi file with grubx64.efi (which I have to rename to bootmgfw.efi) or should I follow the steps referred at the first link and make a Microsoft/Boot directory?
3. It is suggested some times to backup the efi partition. Is it that necessary? Because I cannot find any information I can understand. Can I use the cp -r command and copy the directory (which exactly?) in the /EFI partition with a different name or this would cause problems?
I hope asking for instructions as exact as possible (as I am not very familliar with all the linux story) is not too much a trouble.