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I am attempting to dual-boot Ubuntu 12.04 with Windows 8.1, but I am unable to run a LiveUSB without turning on legacy mode first. In legacy mode I was able to install. I planned to fix the legacy mode problem by running boot-repair from the 'Try Ubuntu' option on the LiveUSB. However, boot-repair gives me the following error in an infinite loop:

"The boot of your PC is in Legacy mode. You may want to retry after changing it to EFI mode. Do you want to continue?"

I press yes, it says it is applying changes, then it gives me this prompt again, over and over. But it doesn't fix my boot. I have the 'Separate/boot/efi partition' option ticked.

So, if I can't run Ubuntu in EFI mode, and I can't run boot-repair in legacy mode, what am I supposed to do?

The strange part is, I had Ubuntu-Windows8 dual boot set up on this machine before and it worked fine, but I broke my Ubuntu side and had to do a fresh install. I remember that I had to run boot-repair to fix the legacy mode problem before, and it worked. Is there something I'm missing?

lcdavis13
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1 Answers1

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First, disable Secure Boot in your firmware. That might enable you to boot the live CD (or installer, for that matter) in EFI mode.

If that doesn't help, then I recommend you try my rEFInd boot manager. This lowest-risk way to do this is to download the USB flash drive or CD-R image and try booting from it. It should give you options to boot both Windows and Ubuntu. If both work, boot into Ubuntu and then install the Debian-package version of rEFInd. It should then launch from the hard disk when you restart the computer in EFI mode.

Rod Smith
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  • Hi Rod, I have SecureBoot disabled. I'm trying to install rEFInd but am having trouble...most programs can't burn a .img file but I found one that can, Win32DiskImager. But my computer won't boot the USB at all (legacy on or off), so maybe this program doesn't work. Can you recommend a certain program to burn the .img file from Windows? – lcdavis13 Mar 20 '14 at 01:16
  • Wait, I got it to work using Win32DiskImager, I just had to format the drive for fat32 (from instructions here link). rEFInd works, I'll have to try installing it permanently! – lcdavis13 Mar 20 '14 at 03:23
  • Ok so I ran the Debian installer, and I now have rEFInd, but it's not my default boot loader (in fact, it's not in UEFI's list of boot options at all). My local copy of rEFInd only shows up as a boot option in the USB copy of rEFInd, which of course defeats the purpose. Is there any way to fix this or will I have to carry around a USB to boot my laptop from now on? – lcdavis13 Mar 20 '14 at 22:12
  • Try booting to Ubuntu using rEFInd, open a Terminal window, and type sudo efibootmgr -v. Post the result here (edit your original question, and add four spaces to the start of every line of the efibootmgr output) or post the output to a pastebin site and post a link to your document here. – Rod Smith Mar 21 '14 at 01:04
  • sudo: efibootmgr: command not found – lcdavis13 Mar 21 '14 at 19:26
  • Install it by typing sudo apt-get install efibootmgr. – Rod Smith Mar 22 '14 at 12:37
  • I tried this, but it requires an Ubuntu disk to be in the CD-ROM drive (apparently having it on a USB doesn't work). I don't have an Ubuntu CD, nor do I have any blank discs. "Media change: please insert the disc labeled 'Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS Precise Pangolin - Release amd64 (20140204)' in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter". Thank you for all your help so far! But I'm already half-convinced to live with a boot USB from now on. – lcdavis13 Mar 23 '14 at 15:43
  • You probably need to edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file, as described here. – Rod Smith Mar 23 '14 at 16:14