Sony VAIO E Series Windows 8/Ubuntu 12.10 Dual Boot, EFI help

[YannBuntu]

@shadowspectre: Thanks for proposing.
Here are some others things you can do:
- when you select 'Windows 8 (loader) (on /dev/sda3)' in the GRUB menu, does it boot Windows8 successfully?
- it would be nice if you could create your Launchpad.net account (if you haven't yet), this will be useful for your future contributions to Ubuntu and other FOSS projects.
- you can login to your Launchpad account and help translating Boot-Repair, here: https://translations.launchpad.net/boot-repair/trunk

@oldfred: if SecureBoot is indeed enabled, then i bet there is a bug in the Ubuntu installer (it does not use the right method to detect enabled SecureBoot)
Else, maybe we need the "Enforcing SecureBoot" option ?

[shadowspectre]

It does not work. Same error as before.

Okay, I will get that account set up NLT tomorrow

How do we force secureboot? There is no option in my bios...only a status of if it is forced.

[YannBuntu]

It does not work. Same error as before.

Ok, then you can login to your Launchpad account, then go here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...2/+bug/1024383
Click "Does this bug affect you?" --> Yes

How do we force secureboot? There is no option in my bios...only a status of if it is forced.

ok.
I persist to think that your SecureBoot is NOT really enabled, although your firmware states "Enabled", because
shimx64.efi has been disabled (renamed to .efi.old) , so AFAIK the "signed" chain is broken, so if SecureBoot was enabled in the firmware, GRUB menu should not appear.

Please could you boot into your installed Ubuntu, and send me your current:
/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.bkp
/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi
/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi.bkp
/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi
files?

also please send me the /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi.bkp file of your previous ZIP.

[shadowspectre]

Done as requested. Hopefully it will help.

[harlequin_]

Hi,

Can you please provide a complete list of actions to achieve Win 8 - Ubuntu 12.10 dual boot on a Sony laptop? I followed this thread from start to end but it is fragmented which makes it not so easy to put in practice.

I've recently got a Sony Vaio S 15 laptop, Win 8 preinstalled (UEFI enabled). I'm not a new linux user, but I've spent the last 3 full nights trying to achieve a proper dual boot of Win 8 and Ubuntu 12.10. I tried a lot of suggestions, some of which are:

- Creating Ubuntu partitions from inside Win 8 (one for swap, one for the root and one for /home), and installing using the Live Usb (SecureBoot & Fast StartUp disabled).
- Creating Ubuntu partitions while installing ubuntu by choosing "Something else" (SecureBoot disabled)
- And finally installing by selecting "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows"

I failed each and every time. I am totally frustrated, and cannot work on my new PC. The most common problem I had was that after the Ubuntu installation and restart, it would directly boot into Windows 8, without any Grub options and alike. In these cases I tried to fix things with Boot-repair, however it did not change anything. Only in one of my many tries, after Boot-repair usage, I could get the Grub OS-selection menu at start-up, but then it gave the error "error: can't find command 'drivemap'error: invalid EFI file path." which I could not fix. That's how I ended up in this thread, but now I do not dare to follow it without a clear and complete list of instructions.

I am so very much frustrated. Please provide help in case you have time.

Best regards.

[shadowspectre]

Try it this simple way first, we can mess with partitioning later.
Using the live CD, install ubuntu alongside windows 8. use default settings, dont add/create partitions yet. Just see what happens
Reboot
Chances are, it didnt work. Boot up the live CD, choose "try ubuntu"

open a terminal, copy and paste:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update

press ENTER

and then copy and paste:

sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && (sudo boot-repair &)

Boot Repair should start, if not, you should be able to find the icon in your desktop environment or search for it. Then run it and choose "recommended repair" when it's finished, note the web address on a paper, reboot the pc.

You should have various options for booting now. Try all of them dealing with windows 8, but usually the UEFI Windows 8 or something similar in name that works. Just try them all and get back to us if it works or doesnt work.

Sorry for long post, short on time. Take care, good luck.

[harlequin_]

Hi,

Thank you very much for the reply, greatly appreciated. Howeverwhen I read your message, I was doing my 4 (or 5th maybe) ubuntu installation, this time following another sort of tutorial. What I did was

1- Install a refresh Win 8 using Sony recovery area.
2- Disable Fast StartUp and SecureBoot.
3- Create some free space partition from within Win 8
4- Install Ubuntu 12.10 using advanced setup (created a primary efi partition of 250 MB, a root partition of 50 gb, a swap partition of 12 gb and a /home partition of about 400 gb).
5- Install Ubuntu 12.10
6- Restart

The computer again directly booted into Win 8. Then I again booted with Live USB and installed Boot-Repair. It as always welcomed me with a message saying "EFI detected. Please check options". I went into advanced options, GRUB location, and looked at what was ticked at "separate /boot/efi partition". It was sda3 (which is my Win 8 EFI partition -not the partition I created -sda7- during Ubuntu installation). I thought "ok.." and without changing anything pressed "appy" and followed the instructions. The process seemed like just fine, no errors etc. I rebooted and BAM. Again Windows 8 boot directly.

here's the first link to the summary: http://paste.ubuntu.com/5635508/

Then I booted with Live USB again, downloaded Boot-Repair and this time clicked "recommended repair". At the end it again said Boot successfully reapir. Gave me the link:

http://paste.ubuntu.com/5635545/

It also says at the end of its last message: "please do not forget to make your BIOS boot on sda3/EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi file!" I highly suspect that this is where I fail, because I don't know how to apply this recommendation.

When I did the restart I was again.. taken into Win 8 directly. I have no clue what to do anymore.

[oldfred]

You can only have one efi partition per drive. All systems create their own folder in that efi partition for their efi boot files.
Delete your sda7 or at least remove the boot flag with gparted so it is not seen as an efi partition.

Since the efi partition is like many MBR's you have to go into your UEFI menu, not Windows and choose what boot loader to use. I think it really will just say ubuntu as that is the folder name, not the detail of the efi files in the folder.

It looks like Boot-Repair found a lot of efi files that you may want to boot like Windows in the efi partition but other efi files in the recovery partition. Also grub has a bug and does not create correct chain entries yet.

grub-update fails to detect windows bootloader on a uefi system
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...b2/+bug/807801
grub2's os-prober creates wrong style (BIOS) chain boot entry
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...2/+bug/1024383
type of entry from Boot-Repair that should work.
'Windows UEFI loader'
Type of entry that does not work:
'Windows ...) (on /dev/sdXY)'

[harlequin_]

Hi,
Thank you for trying to help. I deleted the sda7 partition, and restarted. It again booted into Win8.
I am sorry but there is *no* place in the Sony UEFI menu where you can choose for a boot loader.

After I deleted sda7, I restarted and using Live USB. I entered in the terminal, "sudo os-prober", and the output is
/dev/sda2:Windows Recovery Environment (loader):Windows:chain
/dev/sda3:Windows 8 (loader):Windows1:chain
/dev/sda8:Ubuntu 12.10 (12.10): Ubuntu:linux

[oldfred]

os-prober does not work with UEFI installs, you have to use Boot-Repair or manually create boot entries. see post #38 above.