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I've upgraded my OS to Windows 10 but my problem still persists

I am trying to get Ubuntu 14.04.2 and windows 8.1 dual boot setup. I've read numerous articles on how to do this, but can't figure out what I'm missing.

The latest article I tried to follow had some basic easy to follow instructions and I did everything as described.

I've disabled secure boot and fast startup. I've made sure the ubuntu files partition on the USB is indeed the primary partition. I've tried to install ubuntu several times in the past and every time I've tried a few things differently but it's never worked so far.

The machine restarts, and always loads straight into Windows.

I have a toshiba satellite series (Toshiba C50D-B-12C), if that is needed.

Is it possible to install ubuntu as dual boot on this machine?

Edit: After looking at this answer that states Ubuntu 15.04+ has most issues solved I downloaded 15.04 and tried it with LiLi again, but same as ever, the USB is completely ignored and my machine boots straight into windows.

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iamserious
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  • Can you run Ubuntu if you select it from the EFI boot menu? At power-up, bring up the EFI boot menu with some function key (F12 maybe). – ubfan1 Jul 25 '15 at 19:34
  • @ubfan1 - hi, just tried it, I go to EFI boot menu and select boot from USB, but it goes to windows on restart anyway... – iamserious Jul 25 '15 at 22:01
  • So you are unable to boot the install media? Have you tried a program like Unetbootin to create the install USB? Have you tried the USB in different ports, on different machines? Did you hashcheck the downloaded ISO? – ubfan1 Jul 26 '15 at 01:26
  • @ubfan1 Hi, I used Linux Live usb creator to create usb media, I have tested it on different ports, unfortunately I don't have a second machine to test it on, The LiLi creator hash checked and verified the ISO file before creating the bootable USB. Is there anything else I can do? – iamserious Jul 26 '15 at 09:11
  • @ubfan1 I edited the question to mention that I've now tried it with U 15. Also, I've pretty much done everything that linked answer mentions to get it to work as well. – iamserious Jul 26 '15 at 09:25
  • What the boot mode in bios? EFI, Legacy or Both? – RobinHood Jul 26 '15 at 10:15
  • @RobinHood - EFI, I can't see bios until I disable UEFI, but in bios I can't load windows, but I also can't boot from the USB – iamserious Jul 28 '15 at 15:40
  • Well, I suppose you boot Window8.1 in EFI mode. And you should also install ubuntu in EFI mode if you want dual-boot with Windows8.1. So, you should formate the USB drive with using GPT file system. If your USB drive is formated with using MBR file system, you should change it into GPT file system. You could use some disk tool, eg. diskgenius, to change the file system without lose any files. After that, you could repair the boot with using boot-repir by boot into Ubuntu- LiveCD/LiveUSB. – RobinHood Jul 31 '15 at 02:45
  • For more detail, you need this, this, this and this. – RobinHood Jul 31 '15 at 02:46
  • @iamserious the last post in this link seems promising... I did some googling and all I get is this solution for toshiba laptops. – daltonfury42 Aug 09 '15 at 08:06
  • How exactly are you shutting down Windows? Right side options (gear), power options, shutdown? – ubfan1 Aug 16 '15 at 21:39

6 Answers6

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I have Win8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04 dual booted on a Toshiba S50-B. Here are some things that you should try that worked for me:

  1. Change from UEFI boot to CSM Boot. This is important as the bios will on boot UEFI compatible OSs unless it's in CSM mode.

  2. Change the boot priority to try booting from USB before it tries to boot from HDD or SSD. Otherwise your bios will see the Windows and boot straight to it before checking if there is a USB option.

    Check this Toshiba Guide for a little more info on how to make these changes if you need.

  3. Ensure that you are actually turning your computer off. Usually when you power down a UEFI computer, it goes into a sleep state. On Win8.1 you need to shift click the power button to bring up the option to "Shut Down" your computer.

  4. If none of the above help, try looking at this tutorial that shows how to select a USB to boot from directly from Win8 and Win8.1. I will try to find a similar thing for Win10.

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Eric Power
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  • An edit and an upvote! – Fabby Aug 10 '15 at 12:16
  • Hi, I initially wanted to install ubuntu under ufi, but if csm works, I will give it a try even if it meant I had to switch my bios every time. I have tried switching to csm, but when I do that and restart, my laptop just looks for bootable media and says "error no bootable media found, insert bootable disk and press any key" or something to that effect. I can't do anything unless I switch csm back to ufi, I will go through that toshiba guide and see if I can do something different to make that work later tonight – iamserious Aug 11 '15 at 08:05
  • Hi, also, I did mention it above - I can special restart and select usb device to boot from, and when I do that, my machine just restarts and then goes right to windows.. – iamserious Aug 11 '15 at 08:47
  • In that case I sounds like it might be your USB drive isn't registering as a live usb. You might want to try a couple different distros, maybe Elementary or Slackware, to see if those work. If they do that would get you GRUB as a bootloader and from there you have another whole list of options. – Eric Power Aug 11 '15 at 16:20
  • Hi, this is what I get when I go to CSM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nda0kzj724vxj42/WP_20150811_001.jpg and it doesn't seem to want to boot into any device. I've tried 2 USB sticks (one of them I've used for this purpose multiple times and on multiple devices) and an optical disk. I am not able to do anything until I revert back to UEFI and then it boots to windows. – iamserious Aug 12 '15 at 08:59
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For a dual-boot to work, you need to install ubuntu alongside windows. That means that you should install grub (boot loader) in front of windows. You should first boot from a live cd/usb. After installing ubuntu you should try:
1. Boot Repair (GUI) - See this post for more info.
2. From the live cd/usb:
Open a terminal and run these commands:

sudo mkdir /mnt/boot
sudo mount /dev/sdXZ /mnt/boot  # Example: sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/boot
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt  # Example: sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdX # Example: sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

If Ubuntu was installed successfully, you will be able to chroot into your real system.

Important: All instances of sdX and sdXY must be replaced with the correct drive/partition for your system. (sda, sdb, sda1, sda5, sdb5, etc). X is the drive letter. Y is the partition number. The first drive is "a" and the first partition is "1". Example: sda1

Only If You Have a Separate /boot partition. If you have a separate /boot partition run these commands. Most users do not have a separate /boot partition and should go to the normal partition section. sdXY is the main partition. sdXZ is the boot partition.

sudo mkdir /mnt/temp /mnt/temp/boot  
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/temp  # Mount the main Ubuntu partition. Example: sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/temp
sudo mount /dev/sdXZ /mnt/temp/boot  # Mount the /boot partition. Example: sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/temp/boot

Only If You Are Running WUBI (Ubuntu inside Windows) It is possible to chroot into a Wubi install by first mounting your Windows partition, and then mounting the Windows Wubi file, root.disk. The user must determine the value of the Window partition (sda1, sda2, etc). This section only applies to users booting an Ubuntu OS installed within Windows.

sudo mkdir /mnt/windows /mnt/temp  # Make the mount points
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/windows  # Mount the Windows partition. Example: sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
sudo mount -o loop /mnt/windows/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /mnt/temp  # Mount the root.disk file.

If You Have a Normal Installation. No separate /boot partition, not a Windows/Wubi installation.

sudo mkdir /mnt/temp 
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/temp  # Example: sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/temp


And then do (in the chroot environment): 

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get purge grub grub-pc grub-common
sudo apt-get install grub-common grub-pc
sudo update-grub
exit
theoko
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I had a similar problem on my Acer desktop and Dell laptop. When I shut-down Windows, I could not boot on Linux or a USB drive. The problem is that Windows does not actually shut down, but goes into a hibernate mode. In order to boot to another system, I had to tell Windows to "reboot" and press the boot menu key to choose a boot device. (I was unaware of the shift-power button feature at the time.)

Until Windows does a complete download, the EUFI boot system will not boot to anything but the windows drive.

One word of warning, sometimes when I "rebooted", it triggered automatic updates and the computer was locked up until it finished. This was a serious PITA as I might be trying to leave a remote WIFI location to go home!

Try Shift-Power button (clickable button) and then use your F-x Key to get your BIOS boot menu. Dell is F-12 and I think Acer is F-2. You should see it when you boot the computer.

Buck
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  • Hi Buck, I've disabled fast boot and secure boot, and also tried to boot from the special menu and selected "Boot from UEFI: USB device" (or something very similar) option, but nope, it doesn't seem to want to do that and boots to windows again. – iamserious Aug 14 '15 at 13:55
  • Look in your BIOS at your HDD settings. Mine has an option for the boot order of internal HDD, CD, removable device, and LAN boot. I chose HDD and then below, there were options about the devices. When I clicked on the HDD, it also showed the Ubuntu, USB device and the Windows. See if that works. – Buck Aug 14 '15 at 14:12
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I am not sure what state you are in right now...can you boot the install media? If so, beware that in my experience the 14.04 installers (desktop and server) need patching to be able to install on a UEFI machine. You could check my instruction How to install Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit with a dual-boot RAID 1 partition on an UEFI/GPT system? but ignore the mdadm/RAID parts.

Also, I've read about faulty EFI systems that only call boot managers called /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi. I've read about solutions that replace that file with the grub2 boot loader and chain the Windows boot loader.

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Niclas Börlin
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  • Hi, I cannot, at all, boot from the installation media. That is my problem. My machine does not boot into anything but straight to windows. As mentioned in the question above, I've turned off fast boot, turned off secure boot, tried booting from usb (via special restart menu / F12) but no matter what I do, the machine just relentlessly loads up windows. Also, I am now trying it with Ubuntu 15.04, and same results – iamserious Aug 14 '15 at 13:57
  • I trust you have tried booting from CD as well...some machines I've had have been a lot more picky about USB than CD for some reason. If yes, then I'm lost for more help I'm afraid. – Niclas Börlin Aug 15 '15 at 17:19
  • Hi, yep.. tried with a CD as well. I tried calling up toshiba help center but they are more clueless than my dog and are no help at all. In the end if I cannot install, I will probably sell this laptop and get a different. Thanks for your help anyway! – iamserious Aug 16 '15 at 16:22
  • That would be a shame...hmm...how about this (read at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BIOSUpdate#Toshiba): Create a USB recovery drive (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/create-usb-recovery-drive) and see if by some magic you can boot from it. Perhaps some other clue here: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html. If you do get to boot from the USB, perhaps you can somehow switch the boot loader to get it to boot the ubuntu installer instead. – Niclas Börlin Aug 17 '15 at 08:36
  • Also, if you're really desperate I guess you could try to extract the hard drive and plug it into a friend's computer to get access to the boot loader... – Niclas Börlin Aug 17 '15 at 08:41
  • Hold on...are you able to boot of any CD? (Windows recovery?) If so, you should be able to a) mount the ubuntu .iso, b) copy the ubuntu installer (probably EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi) to EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi (inside the ubuntu .iso), and c) write the iso to a CD. – Niclas Börlin Aug 17 '15 at 08:46
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A workaround would be to make a USB/SD drive that contains grub that boots your Ubuntu install bypassing the windows boot manager. A utility that will help is super Grub2 disk http://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub2-disk/

Also if your HDD is formatted with GPT it might have an option to select the Ubuntu boot loader when you go into your boot device menu.

scj643
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UPDATE:

To resolve this known BOOT issue for intel undi pxe-2.1 (build 083) try the solution by ELECTROMAN1 otherwise ensure that your network connection / WIFI is disabled before booting

then download an Ubuntu iso and create a bootable USB using PenDriveLinux for Windows, refer instructions from the link provided

TrevorL
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