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I have Windows 8.1 installed to an SSD in a 100 gig NTFS partition which has 100 gig raw space as well. The motherboard is an EVGA x79 Dark. It has a UEFI bios but no option for secure boot. I unchecked fast boot from the windows boot options.

I booted into the live USB and installed Ubuntu choosing the 'something else' option. It installed Ubuntu into the raw space fine. I rebooted and was greeted with a blinking cursor on a black screen.

I rebooted into my bios' boot selection menu and can see multiple options including achoice to boot into Windows and two choices to boot into Ubuntu.

I rebooted into the live CD and downloaded and ran boot repair. The output is here.

I see that I have a boot partition sda2 which contains the boot files:

sda2:   __________________________________________________________________________

File system:       vfat
Boot sector type:  Windows 8/2012: FAT32
Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:  
Boot files:        /EFI/Boot/bkpbootx64.efi /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi 
                   /EFI/ubuntu/MokManager.efi /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi 
                   /EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi 
                   /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi 
                   /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgr.efi 
                   /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/memtest.efi 
                   /boot-sav/log/2016-02-15__18h06boot-repair23/sda2/bootx
                   64.efi

however grub lives somewhere else

sda5: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 15.10 
    Boot files:        /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab

I read this :

core.img cannot be found

but was not enlightened. Should I try boot repair to reinstall grub to sda2? I am afraid that will wipe out my windows boot info.

Community
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aquagremlin
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2 Answers2

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Please run boot-repair again. If grub2 is not installed then reinstall it. grub2 won't mess up with /dev/sd2

Ashu
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unfortunately, reinstalling grub did not help. I had to boot into windows to

1)delete the ubuntu partition AND

2)delete all the ubuntu entries in the EFI partition AND

3)delete the entries in the UEFI using easyUEFI (the equivalent of easyBCD for UEFI systems and found here.

Then I had to reinstall Ubuntu ALONGSIDE Windows.

Now ubuntu is behaving. My guess is that the 'something else' option in the Ubuntu installation process is not telling the bootloader the correct place of the Ubuntu files.

aquagremlin
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  • The "something else" option does work (I've used it many times), but your output shows evidence of both BIOS-mode and EFI-mode GRUB installations. My guess is you accidentally installed Ubuntu in BIOS mode alongside your EFI-mode Windows. This is a recipe for problems, as described in this page of mine. In your re-install attempt, you probably happened to boot the Ubuntu installer in EFI mode, which would result in a correct installation. – Rod Smith Feb 16 '16 at 21:01
  • thank you. I dont remember the little bios mode icon the first time but it certainly was NOT there the second time. It is unfortunate that we cannot specify how linux should boot - bios mode or efi mode. That way, we can know what the OS is expecting and if our crazy motherboard cannot comply, Linux should notify us early in the boot process. In other words, I'd like to be able to burn a 'BIOS boot only' Linux live distro and an 'EFI boot only' Linux Live distro. Though it sounds complicated, this process would avoid the bug that bit me. – aquagremlin Feb 16 '16 at 22:10
  • It's the firmware that determines the boot mode, not the OS; however, if a boot medium lacks a boot loader for a given mode, it can't boot in that way. Thus, creating a BIOS-only or an EFI-only boot medium is easy (in principle) -- just omit the boot loader for the mode you don't want to use. In practice, few tools make this easy. (Rufus offers the best options along those lines.) Disabling the CSM will normally ensure an EFI-mode boot. You could also boot via my rEFInd to do the same (on a UEFI-based PC; it's a little more complex on a Mac). – Rod Smith Feb 16 '16 at 22:57