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I bought a cheap refurbished laptop that had Windows 10 installed and I wanted to setup a dual boot system with the latest version of Ubuntu. I did this and it was successful installing Ubuntu and preserving Windows 10. The machine is an HP and is very old and uses BIOS by default but has UEFI experimental mode.

After the installation the laptop displayed that an OS is not installed, so I switched to UEFI and it will then boot Ubuntu but not Windows. I actually was able to actually fix this problem on another drive (same machine) with Boot-Repair, but I cannot reproduce the series of commands I performed. I cloned the drive to a larger drive and the larger drive now has the original issue. Somehow on the original drive I was able to convince Ubuntu to stop using UEFI and start using grub, but I cannot reproduce it.

The latest error I got from Boot-Repair while live booting the Ubuntu 22.04 installer was:

The current session is in BIOS-compatibility mode. 
Please disable BIOS-compatibility/CSM/Legacy mode in your UEFI firmware, 
and use this software from a live-CD (or live-USB) that is compatible   
with UEFI booting mode. For example, use a live USB of Boot-Repair-Disk-64bit| 
(www.sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd), after making sure your BIOS is set up 
to boot USB in EFI mode. This will enable this feature.

This error occurred while I had the laptop booted into BIOS mode, so I then booted into UEFI mode and got the same error. I also tried using the Boot-Repair live image with the same error.

I’ve tried many things from an assortment of forums and tutorials and I cannot seem to fix this. Boot-Repair worked for me on the original drive (not in live mode) and that seemed to fix the problem, but I cannot seem to do it again on the cloned drive.

In short Windows 10 was setup in BIOS mode and I cannot boot into it to change windows to UEFI. Ubuntu won’t leave UEFI mode and I cannot switch it to BIOS. And I cannot get grub to load. The goal is to get both Windows and Ubuntu running in BIOS mode.

karel
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Fmhegs
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  • You are best installing an OS in the mode in which you'll use it, as your pre-installed windows was installed in BIOS mode, I'd have installed Ubuntu in that mode, you didn't specify which Ubuntu 22.04 LTS product, but I do know Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Desktop will install correctly in BIOS mode, including BIOS only hardware. I've installed 4 machines in the same way within the last week (varying ages of hardware, 2x laptops & 2x desktops); all second hand devices. – guiverc Jan 25 '23 at 22:36
  • FYI: How you write the Ubuntu ISO to your installation media matters; if written correctly it will install on both BIOS/legacy/CSM, or uEFI/Secure-uEFI hardware in the mode in which it is booted, however you can also write the ISO so it will only boot & install in BIOS mode, or likewise write the ISO to media so it'll only write in uEFI/Secure-uEFI... Your issue maybe how you wrote the ISO to your installation media; ie. limiting yourself to uEFI, but you can re-install Ubuntu non-destructively if talking about Desktop (you didn't specify which 22.04 product) which is likely what I'd do. – guiverc Jan 25 '23 at 22:39
  • I tried installing Ubuntu in both bios mode and uefi mode. When I install in bios mode, the machine says no OS found. I switch it to uefi mode and it sees that it Ubuntu is installed.

    I believe I used Rufus to write Ubuntu 22.04 64 bit to a 16 gb microsd card. But I will try again using the Ubuntu stock media tool

     – Fmhegs Jan 26 '23 at 00:05
  • Ubuntu GRUB will only boot Windows if both OS are installed in the same mode. My Laptop is BIOS only HP EliteBook, and dual boot works fine with 22.04. When making an installer USB using Rufus, my Partition scheme was MBR and my Target system was BIOS or UEFI. I boot in BIOS mode when installing Ubuntu. – C.S.Cameron Jan 26 '23 at 10:44
  • No it does not because I have tried all these things and none of them worked. I am going to post a video shortly illustrating this further. I don’t think I am being understood at this point. But I will try this anyway – Fmhegs Jan 28 '23 at 23:08
  • Does this answer your question? Convert from EFI to BIOS boot mode – Artur Meinild Jan 30 '23 at 07:04

0 Answers0