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I got a WinBook TW800 and can download Ubuntu Server 14.04.3 LTS and put it on a USB drive with Rufus and then copy a bootia32.efi to it's /EFI/BOOT folder then it will load on my WinBook and I do the things to install it. But it messes up on making grub. I guess because the BIOS on this WinBook don't like 64 bit. But the CPU is 64 Bit.

Guess if can install the bootia32.efi as it's installing it's OS then it my work and boot a server on it.

Any one know how to do this? Or it be nice if they just added this to the download of ubuntu-14.04.3-server-amd64.iso

-Raymond Day

Raymond Day
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1 Answers1

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You have two, or possibly three, choices:

  • Install a 32-bit version of Ubuntu in EFI mode. This is not officially supported, but can be done, and it works well once accomplished. See this question and my answer to it for some general advice.
  • Install a 64-bit version of Ubuntu in EFI mode using a 32-bit GRUB. This is what you were attempting to do. The trouble is that the installer itself will try to install a 64-bit GRUB, which of course won't work. You'll therefore need to manually install a 32-bit GRUB to your hard disk after the rest of the installation has completed. Note that there are problems with running a 64-bit kernel on a system with a 32-bit EFI, since the two won't be able to talk to each other. (Or they couldn't a while ago; maybe that problem has been overcome.) This means you can't control the boot process from your booted OS, which is a bit of a nuisance.
  • Install in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode. If the firmware has a CSM, you can install in BIOS mode, bypassing EFI. This may be the simplest solution if you plan to single-boot; but if you're dual-booting with something else, you'll have additional hoop-jumping to do. Installing the 32-bit version of my rEFInd boot manager may help, but you'll need to edit refind.conf: Uncomment the scanfor option and add hdbios to the list of options. This should enable you to boot the 32-bit EFI-mode Windows (or whatever) and 64-bit BIOS-mode Ubuntu. As with the previous option, you won't have access to EFI runtime variables from Linux, which is a small nuisance. Also, this option requires a CSM in your firmware. Many 32-bit EFIs lack CSMs, so this option may be off the table.

Personally, I'd go with option #1 unless you have a compelling reason to install a 64-bit OS (like if the machine has lots of RAM -- "lots" being over 1 GiB, and especially over 4 GiB). Option #3 is likely best if the firmware has a CSM and if you want to single-boot Ubuntu (or if you're willing to convert all your OSes to BIOS mode).

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