Dual booting windows 8/Ubuntu 12.04.2, GRUB doesn't appear and Ubuntu never boots

Question

I got a new ACER predator AG3620-UR308 which came with windows 8 and I wanted to run ubuntu 12.04.2 on it as a dual boot machine. The box came with 2TB HDD. So I made 4 partitions with a raw partition just after the windows installation partition.

I created a swap area and finished the installation. GRUB was installed on the only drive there which is /dev/sda.

After reboot, GRUB doesn't even come up. It always boots Windows 8. I repeated installation process twice and got the same result. I disabled secure boot from the BIOS and enabled CSM (don't even know what it means) according to Acer custhelp site . I boot from USB and got this:

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

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes 
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8c361cb5

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1  3907029167  1953514583+  ee  GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

Disk /dev/sdb: 8178 MB, 8178892800 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 994 cylinders, total 15974400 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: 0x0006a87e

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *        2048    15972351     7985152    b  W95 FAT32

Can anybody shed some light? thank you in advance

EDIT
I just did another trial with 13.04 this time and still no luck.

bios: secure-boot: disabled   
enable CSM : always

Deleted previous Ubuntu partition and swap area partition.now having free space
Used usb installer to prepare usb with ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso
rebooted : liveusb didnt detect windows 8, used something else
created partition ext4 for /
created partition for swap-area
default grub path is /dev/sda and clicked install

Acer always boots into windows.

NEW EDIT

After following the boot-repair suggestion installed on the liveUSB, I can now see grub but can't log into windows anymore as it's not in the list. The boot-repair also completed with an error, i guess logged on pastin.ubuntu

How my drive is organized

gparted shot

Windows 8 pre installed? Turned off secure boot? This can help - http://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/installing-ubuntu-on-a-pre-installed-uefi-supported-windows-8-system — Web-E, Jul 01 '13 at 10:21
Hello, i've read it. I did disable secure boot before the second installation. From within windows linux partition has already be created.Besides i use ubuntu 12.04.2 that should actually work. But for some reason it doesn't work for me :( — black sensei, Jul 01 '13 at 10:52

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 01 '13 at 15:54

2

Try using Boot Repair in Ubuntu.

Installing Boot Repair

Open the Terminal, then type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update
Press Enter.
Then type:

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

Using Boot Repair

Search for Boot Repair in the dash and launch it. Then click the "Recommended Repair" button and wait until it's finished.

Reboot. It should work now, although your GRUB is probably littered with useless entries.

answered Jul 01 '13 at 15:54

jobukkit

5,220

where exactly this is done? i can't boot in ubuntu so i assume this is done with liveUSB or liveCD.Are we on the same page? – black sensei Jul 02 '13 at 17:29
Hi, I've updated my post with NEW EDIT. kindly see into it , thanks – black sensei Jul 02 '13 at 20:10
What was the error that boot repair gave? – jobukkit Jul 02 '13 at 22:01
sorry i thought i pasted it http://paste.ubuntu.com/5838337/ – black sensei Jul 03 '13 at 07:45
@blacksensei Sorry I didn't see it. Hm... – jobukkit Jul 03 '13 at 08:00
I run it again and it's solved. Thanks to who ever worked on boot-repair and thanks to @com.BOY – black sensei Jul 03 '13 at 10:08
@blacksensei If this answer solved your question, please click the checkmark next to it. – jobukkit Jul 03 '13 at 10:14

Danatela · Answer 2 · 2013-07-02T02:13:48.800

0

You have to write GRUB manually. Boot from CD and run this command:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

In some cases you have to run more commands. Let's assume that you have Windows partition on /dev/sda1, swap on /dev/sda5, /boot on /dev/sda6 and Ubuntu root on /dev/sda7. Then you have to run these commands:

sudo su
mount /dev/sda7 /mnt
cd /mnt
mount /dev/sda6 boot
mount --bind /dev dev
mount --bind /proc proc
mount --bind /sys sys
chroot /mnt
grub-install /dev/sda
update-grub2

This will make the job what standart installer fails for some reason. The advantage of this method is that you don't have to install any third-party packages.

edited Jul 02 '13 at 02:13

answered Jul 01 '13 at 11:00

Danatela

13,243
11
45
72

I am having this error: Path /boot/grub is not readable by Grub on boot. Installation ins impossible. Aborting – black sensei Jul 01 '13 at 13:40
@black, is your boot settings branch located on another partition than Ubuntu? Then you have to do some preparations. I'll edit my answer to make it more helpful in thes situation. – Danatela Jul 02 '13 at 01:59

Dual booting windows 8/Ubuntu 12.04.2, GRUB doesn't appear and Ubuntu never boots

2 Answers2

Installing Boot Repair

Using Boot Repair

Linked