Fujitsu lifebook ah512. Secure boot options blocked in bios

[arranskye]

Hi I want to dual boot Ubuntu & win 8. Done a lot of research which I found very conflicting. It ranges from easy peasy to almost impossible. Decided the first step was to familiarise myself with the Fujitsu Bios which is where I met the first big problem. It would appear that the the options to change CSM to enable, and secure boot to disable have been blocked.

The up/down arrow keys have been disabled for all options on this page, as detailed below.

Is this Jujitsu Lifebook only.?? Has anyone heard of it before?? Is there a fix to unblock.??

BIOS INFO. Laptop Fujitsu Lifebook AH512 BIOS 1.08 (10/02/2012) SECURE BIOS



FAST BOOT Enabled. I can enable/disable Fast Boot by highlighting with the up/down arrows and using the space bar.


CSM Disabled: I cannot change this. When using the down arrow it bypasses CSM and goes directly to the PXE boot protocol below. This prevents highlighting so cant change.


Security & Boot Configurations page


Secure Boot Enabled
Protected Signatures Enabled (user mode)
Customized Signatures Disabled (Standard)


Secure Boot Option Enabled


Change to customized signature Enter
Change to manufacturing default Enter.


The up/down arrows dont work on this page so I cant highlight anything to change. Despite this the F1 button quotes “configures secure boot features” Also one would think that the option to reset to manufacture default would definitely be accessible?????

Thanks

[arranskye]

UPDATE

sorted it. A supervisors password is required. create password, and access to secure boot and CSM is open.

Taking this one step at a time so could anyone please confirm that this is the correct bios status for anticipated ubuntu & win 8 dual boot.

CSM enabled Secure boot disabled. Fast Boot disabled. Thanks

Can now run a live ubuntu CD hooray lol

[oldfred]

You really want to install Ubuntu in UEFI mode not CSM/BIOS/Legacy mode.

For more info see link in my signature.

[arranskye]

Thanks Fred Will do. I have also downloaded & burned Linux Secure 13.04, 64 bit iso to disk . just trying to cover any eventualities and gain as much information and knowledge as possible before I begin.

Will report back with any progress. thanks

I have booted ubuntu from a live disk on the laptop and it works well. Ihave also ascertained that windows 8 boots ok after disabling secure boot and it does.

[oldfred]

How you boot installer from UEFI menu is how it installs. UEFI menu is often not clear which way you are selecting to boot. If you get grub menu, then you are booting install in UEFI mode. If you get purple accessibility screen with tiny icons that is BIOS/CSM mode.

If you boot installer in secure boot mode it will also install in UEFI secure boot mode. Otherwise it will just use UEFI mode. Boot-Repair can convert BIOS install to UEFI, or UEFI install to secure boot install if required.

You will need to run Boot-Repair as there still is a bug in os-prober and it does nto create correct UEFI chain load entries to boot Windows from UEFI boot grub menu.

Boot Repair -Also handles LVM, GPT, separate /boot and UEFI dual boot.:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
You can repair many boot issues with this or 'Create BootInfo' report (Other Options) & post the link it creates, so we can see your exact configuration and diagnose advanced problems.

[arranskye]

Hi Oldfred Sorry for the delay. Still reading, absorbing and trying to learn and understand. I have read your link several times and there is a lot of information to absorb. Being completely new to linux and grubs, uefi, and coding of any kind, I am struggling to understand. For me its important to understand what im doing and why im doing it so please stick with me.

I will post some info tomorrow detailing where I am at and hopefully you will be able to confirm that I am going in the right direction.

your help, links, tips, and interest are all very much appreciated. Thank you.

[oldfred]

With BIOS there was only one way to boot. But now with UEFI and secure boot it has gotten a lot more complex. And then some of the new hardware that is an Ultrabook adds other issues that get confused with boot issues, but still are start up issues, especially for a new user.

[arranskye]

hello there, Update :

Bios currently changed to FAST BOOT DISABLED: CSM ENABLED SECURE BOOT DISABLED. 1st Boot CD/DVD Windows boots and runs ok from this configuration Live DVD boots & runs ok.
Ran Linux Secure 13.04. Opened boot repair on live disk and found EFI detected.

Windows backed up.

Note HDD 500GB. HDD set up on laptop: Only 2 drives/partitions (C) 25.8GB free of 74.9GB (D) 373 GB free 0f 373GB.So Win8 was allocated 100GB and the rest was allocated to a logical D drive and no recovery partition. Its usually all of the HDD for the OS apart from the amount required for the recovery partition and boot loader. I found this odd so sent this output from live CD fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.





Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60563 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000



Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 4294967295 2147483647+ ee GPT
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Is this correct please. Delete (D) partition. Resize win 8 partition to 173GB leave 200GB free space to create a linux partition. ( let linux create the new partition)

Please advise the exact bios settings to use and the best method. The boot order must be CD/DVD first to enable the live CD to run. yes?
I would like to do this bit first, then if you could advise the best method (Efi/Legacy) then I will study the link some more and proceed. Much prefer "Install alongside windows" option.

thanks for sticking with me on this. margaret

[oldfred]

You should not delete any partitions. And I like having a separate NTFS shared data partition as you should not normally write into the Windows system partition (c: ) even with hibernation off.

If you are using DVD then you need it first or usually easier is just to use your one time boot key which lets you select a different boot device once. After Ubuntu is installed you will want to go into UEFI and reset order to have Ubuntu first.

You can only easily dual boot if you install Ubuntu in UEFI mode, not legacy or BIOS mode. But Boot-Repair can convert install afterwards if you install incorrectly by uninstalling grub-pc and installing grub-efi.

[arranskye]

Thank you I will report back when completed or if I have any problems.