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I have Windows 8.1 on my Lenovo G500 laptop and I want to install Lubuntu allongside (dual boot). Windows boot in UEFI.

My problem is that after booting from the CD and choosing any of the options (Install, Command-line install, Expert install, ...), I always get the same screen: it is completely illegible, like squeezed vertically, I can see some orange color - probably the highlighted line in a list, I can move it, I can press Enter and get further - god knows where). Strange that I get this also when I choose Command-line mode...

I tried pressing E, that didn't do anything.

Installation in Legacy mode seemed to work, but I need UEFI since I already have there Win8 in UEFI mode.

tuxtu
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galapah
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  • There are many How To Guides for someone who wants to install Ubuntu along side of Microsoft Windows 8. Among them are http://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/installing-ubuntu-on-a-pre-installed-windows-8-64-bit-system-uefi-supported – Rex Jul 19 '15 at 00:06
  • True, but I could not find any guide addressing my issue, did you? I had read the page you refer to, but there they say 15.04 installation runs without any problem, mine does not. – galapah Jul 19 '15 at 12:04
  • galapah the author says "This does not mean that in your cases it will work perfectly, it just means that on my cases, I had a 100% Ubuntu Perfect installation." Perhaps you should look at his 9 bullets to ensure that you will get a good result. Five of the laptops that he tested were Lenovos. – Rex Jul 19 '15 at 18:15
  • Rex, I find your comment a bit arrogant. What makes you think I did not read that statement or did not check those bullet points? I did, as well as the other list - of known issues. None of the points describes the problem I have.

    Once again: After booting into installation CD, I get a completely illegible screen. I could theoretically go on in the installation, but I cannot read the options. I know there happen to be problems with screen resolution AFTER installation, which is not my case. I have no idea how to fix this. I did search for the answer.

     – galapah Jul 20 '15 at 19:48

1 Answers1

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If you've done an EFI-mode installation, then 99.9% of the software you need is installed; the only thing left is a boot loader. Ordinarily, using Boot Repair might help; but with an existing Windows installation, you really need to run Boot Repair in EFI mode, which isn't working for you (from the installation medium, anyhow). Therefore, I suggest you try this:

  1. If you haven't done so already, disable Secure Boot in your firmware.
  2. Download the USB flash drive or CD-R version of my rEFInd boot manager.
  3. Create a USB flash drive or CD-R that holds rEFInd.
  4. Boot to the rEFInd medium. It should show you entries for both Windows and Ubuntu. Test both of them. If they both work, proceed. If the Ubuntu entry doesn't work, you may want to put off the rest of this procedure until you can fix the problem.
  5. Boot to Ubuntu.
  6. Install an EFI boot loader. Two options are likely to be relatively easy:
    • Install the rEFInd Debian package or PPA. Since rEFInd works from the USB drive, it's almost certain to work when installed to your hard disk.
    • Install the grub-efi package, which will replace the grub-pc package. You'll then need to run sudo grub-install and probably sudo update-grub to get a working configuration. Note that this is a bit of a gamble, though; because you didn't boot with GRUB, you can't really be sure it will work. You might run into the same video problems you experienced with the installation medium, or something else. OTOH, it might be fine.
  7. If desired, re-enable Secure Boot in the firmware. (Depending on how you installed, you might need to install Shim before re-enabling Secure Boot. If you re-enable Secure Boot and the system stops booting, disable it and install Shim.)
  8. You may need to adjust your firmware options to disable the BIOS/CSM/legacy boot support.

If you run into the same video problems with rEFInd that you have with the Ubuntu installation disc, you can try playing with kernel options. If you see a clear GRUB menu in the installer, you can hit e to edit the entry and change kernel options. In rEFInd, highlight the kernel you want to boot and hit F2 or Insert twice. The result will be a text editor with which you can edit the kernel options. In either case, try nomodeset as an added option. There are probably other options you can try, but they're mostly chipset-specific. Your laptop has an Intel video chipset, according to Lenovo's Web site, but I don't know offhand what options you might try with it. (Video problems such as the one you're having seem to be more common with Nvidia and AMD/ATI chipsets.)

Rod Smith
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  • Rod, thank you for your detailed answer. I appreciate your effort. However, I have not even installed the system yet. My issue occurs after booting the installation CD. – galapah Jul 20 '15 at 19:50
  • You said "installation in Legacy mode seemed to work," which of course implies that the OS had been installed in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode -- or did you mean that you could boot the installer in that way, but had not actually installed it? If the latter, you can try playing with nomodeset or other kernel options on the installer in EFI mode, as described in the last paragraph of my answer; or you can try installing in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode and then applying my suggested workaround. – Rod Smith Jul 20 '15 at 20:55
  • The latter option is correct. Thanks for suggestions, I will try that. – galapah Jul 21 '15 at 07:05
  • For the effort you made for such a long and detailed text, you deserve +1 and thank You. – Billal Begueradj May 29 '16 at 18:29