UEFI and Lubuntu 12.04

Question

Community, I'm new at Lubuntu and don't know more than a simple user - so I need someone who explains me the installation and configurations in a very simple way (and if posible in german?) My problem: Yesterday I bought a new Laptop from HP with preinstalled Win8, AMD E1-1200 and UEFI-Boot. I wanted to make a parallel installation of Lubuntu. I managed to install Lubuntu 12.04 from the CD after some changes in the boot-menu. But it is possible that it wasn't a UEFI-version/installation.

After installing Lubuntu I expected, that the computer would ask me automatically while starting with wich OS (Win or Lubuntu) I wanted to work - as it does on my old computer. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Than I began to search and changed in the boot options: Legacy Support - enabled (loads Compatibiltiy Support Module) and Secure Boot disabled. Now I can load Lubuntu, if I push ESC while starting the computer to get to the boot menu. Then I have to manually elect "Boot from notebook hard drive" (CSM). And then I come to the well known menu where I can select the OS. Complicated....

Unfortunatley UEFI boot order has still "higher priority than legacy boot order" so the computer starts with the "UEFI OS boot loader" where only Win8 works. I can't change the boot order in the way that "Boot from notebook hard drive" (CSM) would be at first place. With other words: I haven't found a automatical way to come to the menu. I have to go to the boot menu every time I wnat to start Lubuntu.

Can someone help me, please??? Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Thanks a lot for your fast answer! I tried it hard, but unfortunatley the "refind" Win installation instructions are not totally complete and useful for beginners like me. They are written for someone who knows how to use a command line and the commands. Sometimes it's just a missing simple sentence like: "to change directory use "S:" or "cd S:"." And then I made a mistake and corrupted my Win8 - System, what can easily happen. So I had to recover my system and deleted everything. In total it took me some 7 hours to have a "new" Win8-Version without Lubuntu. Because of lack of time and patience I stay with Win8 now. Maybe I'm gonna install Lubuntu with one of the next versions, when all these children-diseases with UEFI in the common Lubuntu-Installation-Routine are solved. Again: Many thanks, but it was to difficult for me as a beginner.

Answer 2

You need to install an EFI boot loader for Linux. There are several available. Ubuntu uses GRUB 2 by default, but you can't install it quite completely in your BIOS boot. Furthermore, any attempt to do so carries some risk that you'll disrupt your minimally working BIOS-mode installation, since the grub-efi (EFI-mode) and grub-pc (BIOS-mode) packages are mutually exclusive. Therefore, I recommend you try installing rEFInd, which can redirect the boot process from EFI mode to BIOS mode, thus streamlining the process you're already using. Once that's up and running, you'll have several possible avenues to improve it further. The initial procedure is as follows:

1. Download rEFInd in Windows.
2. Follow the Windows installation instructions on the rEFInd Web site.
3. While still in Windows, edit the refind.conf file. Uncomment the scanfor line and add hdbios to the list of options.
4. Reboot and test it.

With any luck, rEFInd will appear and give you two options: One will launch Windows and the other will launch your BIOS-mode GRUB, which in turn will launch Linux.

This may work acceptably well for you, in which case you can use it in the long term. You can, however, add an EFI-mode Linux boot loader such as ELILO or GRUB Legacy to the mix with minimal risk of disrupting the boot process. Switching from BIOS-mode GRUB to EFI-mode GRUB is also possible, but this is done most safely in your situation by compiling from source code, which is tedious. If you upgrade your kernel to a 3.3.0 or later kernel and add a driver for the filesystem on which your kernel resides to your rEFInd installation, you can boot the kernel directly. If you get EFI booting working to your satisfaction, you can remove your BIOS-mode GRUB installation and remove the hdbios option from refind.conf.