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I have lenovo E420, windows 7 preinstalled on my laptop the first time I bought the laptop. Then I installed windows 8. Now I want to install Ubuntu 12.04 alongside with windows 8.

I google and found this website where it describes how to install ubuntu alongside with windows 8. This is the link: http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2013/09/install-ubuntu-linux-alongside-windows.html

I followed every steps on it. But then I stucked where I need to disable the secure boot. It seems since my laptop was not windows 8 preinstalled, when I went to the advanced options on windows 8 there is no "UEFI firmware settings". Thus I can't turn off the secure boot. I tried to look on bios and I couldn't find anything that related to turn off the secure boot.

Please tell me other way to disable the secureboot on windows 8?

user199230
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2 Answers2

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If the computer shipped with Windows 7, chances are it doesn't support Secure Boot, so you can skip any instructions that tell you to use it.

Before proceeding, though, you should determine whether Windows is booting in BIOS mode or in EFI mode. You can tell this by examining your partition table -- if it's MBR, Windows is booting in BIOS mode; and if it's GPT, Windows is booting in EFI mode. (See here for more information.) It's important to install Linux in the same mode as Windows is using. If you don't, you'll have to re-install your boot loader and/or jump through some extra hoops.

Rod Smith
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UEFI and Secure boot can be confusing. I wrote a summary after I read about it trying to install Ubuntu along side my Windows 8 here.

The big picture is that you most likely can't find UEFI and Secure Boot because your computer isn't using it. If you install Ubuntu with UEFI selected in the BIOS, it will automatically install in EFI mode assuming that you have a 64-bit version. Ubuntu also supports Secure Boot with Shim. The only issue is Grub 2.0 doesn't currently boot Windows 8 in Secure Boot so that will need to be disabled to boot both OS's (The bug link is referenced in my previous post linked).

Googling your laptop it appears it may support UEFI, but I find no evidence that it supports Secure Boot. That would make sense since I'm pretty sure Windows 7 doesn't support Secure Boot. To know for sure go to C:\Windows\Panther\ and open setupact and search for "BootEnvironmentDetect" and see if it is EFI or BIOS.

If it is EFI make sure you are installing Ubuntu with the same type as Windows (most likely 64 bit) and it will auto install as EFI. If you can't find Secure Boot, I wouldn't worry about it. If it is on by accident, then everything will install and run normal until you try to launch Windows from Grub... then you'll know to look harder.

Community
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Diesel
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