0

I just installed Kubuntu on an Acer Aspire V3 netbook with a SSD using GPT and the following partition layout:

  • 1 MB unformatted partition with boot_grub flag,
  • 200 MB FAT32 partition with boot flag,
  • 2GB swap partition,
  • 20 GB ext4 partition,
  • 90 GB ext4 partition.

The netbook fails to detect my EFI partition. When I disable the secure mode I can access a menu for choosing a boot binary. The menu shows my SSD but no EFI partition on it.

I am only able to boot in legacy mode (using the BIOS partition). Does anyone has the same netbook booting in EFI mode? What is your partition scheme?

snoop
  • 4,040
  • 9
  • 40
  • 58
Stéphane Tréboux
  • 2,979
  • It sounds like you need to install an EFI boot loader for Linux. You should disable the BIOS/CSM/legacy support in the firmware, boot a live CD, and run Boot Repair. If that doesn't help, post the URL that Boot Repair generates; that will give us necessary details about your configuration. – Rod Smith Sep 16 '15 at 22:04
  • I just chatted with the Acer support; they told me to use the Windows 8.1 image to restore my drive :-) Then I told the support guy that I have the Linpus version and he told me that Acer does not support Linux :-( And he didn't know any details about EFI partitions. – Stéphane Tréboux Sep 17 '15 at 19:42

2 Answers2

3

I finally solved the issue, Kubuntu is able to boot with the default UEFI firmware settings (no legacy mode, secure boot enabled). EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi needs to be selected once in the UEFI (press F2 during boot, set a supervisor password, then got to Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing and pick EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi). The password can be removed afterwards. Here some background information: SHIM (shimx64.efi) is a (Microsoft) signed binary used to call GRUB (grubx64.efi); GRUB then loads the Linux kernel. By the way when I boot in legacy mode Kubuntu is unable to shut down correctly and crashes every time I try to change the mouse settings; this is solved after switching to UEFI mode.

Stéphane Tréboux
  • 2,979
  • Many systems require the work around you just did. But Acer seems to have a process where you set a supervisory password and then drill down to the ubuntu efi boot files and set "trust" http://askubuntu.com/questions/597213/bootable-device-not-found-after-clean-install-of-ubuntu-14-04-uefi – oldfred Sep 21 '15 at 21:50
  • 1
    Thanks for you remark, I removed the EFI/boot folder and selected EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi as trusted for executing and it works too. So I don't need to copy and rename files on the my EFI partition. I tried that too but for some reason it did not work. I will correct my solution. – Stéphane Tréboux Sep 22 '15 at 06:44
0

I tried for hours to get my Acer laptop to recognise the correct EFI to launch. The bios didn't have the ability to select a trusted EFI and it while it could successfully boot a windows OS, Linux would failed. I solved it by copying the Linux EFI into the windows boot folder and renaming shim64x.efi over the windows bootmgr.

Worked like a charm, looks like Acer has hard coded the EFI that will boot.

Antibios
  • 1