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I have the usual problem: Ubuntu won't boot. I will explain step by step everything I did as I am not sure what stuff is relevant and which is not:

  1. I started with fresh install of Windows 10 during which I learned that my netbook has UEFI and SecureBoot and these work differently than I used to (i.e. instead of pressing F12 or similar keys early during computer startup I have to go through convoluted Windows menus and reboot in some special mode)
  2. Then I have prepared USB stick by simply copying files and setting the boot flag using GParted (because I have read somewhere that this is sufficient for UEFI systems)
  3. I have managed to boot into Ubuntu live session from USB and run the installation. The process was rather smooth with only one quirk: turned out that Windows installer weirdly partitioned my hard drive with some Windows-specific stuff at the beginning of the hard drive and the main windows partition at the end, leaving free space I wanted use for Ubuntu in the middle. However, the Ubuntu installer didn't complain about anything and was happy to install system there (I am not sure if this is normal or not).
  4. After that the installer told me that everything is fine and it will reboot now. Then the netbook shut down and booted back to Windows 10.
  5. As pointed in similar question, I have tired the boot-repair tool (using guide provided by Ubuntu Wiki). However, the recommended repair option failed with some message about Secure Boot being enabled.
  6. In BIOS I switched startup mode from UEFI to Legacy and tried the boot-repair again - now it complained about being Legacy instead of EFI.
  7. I went to BIOS again and changed startup mode back to UEFI but I have set a supervisor password and disabled Secure Boot.
  8. I tried boot-repair tool yet another time - now it succeeded and told me to reboot (and gave my some tips what to do if it still doesn't work).

  9. After reboot, the computer again started to Windows 10. boot-repair told my that in such a case I should use following line in Windows console:

    bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi

  10. The command succeeded (when run in administrator mode) and after reboot the computer greeted me with No Bootable Device message so now I am not even able to boot into Windows.

After that I have run out of options. boot-repair yield me this report and told me to take it to some forum.

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Iguana Bob
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  • Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Please share the exact model of computer you have. – Andrea Lazzarotto Aug 21 '16 at 18:03
  • @AndreaLazzarotto Ah, of course. Its Acer Aspire ES1-131 (although with slightly different components from these listed on linked website: mine has 8GB RAM and SSD). – Iguana Bob Aug 21 '16 at 21:29
  • @IguanaBob Could you please share the version of the Setup Utility your Acer laptop comes with? This is the program that you have referred to as BIOS. In my Acer laptop, for example, the tool is InsydeH20 Rev 5.0 and that info is show at the top of the screen in the way of a header. – XavierStuvw Aug 22 '16 at 07:52
  • Possible duplicate of Unable to boot Ubuntu 16.04 This is a very common problem with some brands of defective firmware. – Rod Smith Aug 22 '16 at 14:39
  • @RodSmith I am actually surprised your answer over there does not recommend the wonderful rEFInd you made. :) – Andrea Lazzarotto Aug 22 '16 at 15:31
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    @XavierStuvw At the top bar it says InsydeH20 Setup Utility with Rev. 5.0 in the top right corner. In the information tab under System BIOS Version it says V1.17 and under GOP Version it says _Intel GOP Driver [8.0.1029]. – Iguana Bob Aug 22 '16 at 17:16
  • Andrea, rEFInd won't really help with defective firmware that forgets its boot entries. It is usually possible to get rEFInd to boot on such systems, but exactly the same workarounds can be used to get GRUB to boot, so adding rEFInd wouldn't help. – Rod Smith Aug 23 '16 at 13:07
  • @RodSmith alright, I agree. I recall fixing my friend's laptop that would overwrite the Windows bootloader with its backup copy every time he booted. The solution was simple: replacing the backup bootloader with rEFInd and making a custom entry with a copy of the Windows loader under a different name. :D – Andrea Lazzarotto Aug 23 '16 at 18:49
  • @RodSmith There is no case of defective firmware – XavierStuvw Aug 24 '16 at 20:13
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    Acer has unique requirements. You have to set the supervisory password and enable trust on grub/ubuntu's .efi files. Some threads may mention reverting to an older Acer UEFI, but newer ones say newest UEFI from Acer works. So make sure you have newest UEFI from Acer: Acer Very latest UEFI/BIOS works, downgrade not required: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2298380&p=13419141#post13419141 Edit: Missed you already knew that. – oldfred Aug 24 '16 at 22:04

1 Answers1

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I have finally managed to get into GRUB and boot to Ubuntu (Windows 10 works too!). Basically, I have followed this video (the part interesting for me starts about 5:50). In case of video take down, here is a text guide, detailing the procedure for the InsydeH20 Setup Utility Rev. 5.0 installed in the Acer laptop:

  1. Get into System Set-up Utility. In an Acer laptop you might need to press F2 instead of the classical F12.
  2. Navigate to the Security tab.
  3. Select Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing option and hit enter.
  4. The path you need to follow might be different but generally now you must navigate to a shimx64.efi file, in my case it was: HDD0 (enter) -> <EFI> (enter) -> <ubuntu> (enter) -> <shimx64.efi> (enter).
  5. Give it some name (e.g. shim or EFIubuntuShim to remind you of the location).
  6. Navigate to the Exit tab and pick Exit Saving Changes.
  7. Now after reboot you should see the GRUB2!
XavierStuvw
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Iguana Bob
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  • Congratulations. This is also my experience. Some additional information. After you add a new trusted UEFI file, a new entry will be created in the boot priority list with the name chosen in point 5. This list is in the Boot tab. You may need to save settings and exit, then enter again in the system set-up, before you see that entry in the list and move it up and down at your will. This is useful when the computer appears to splash in Windows time and time again. – XavierStuvw Aug 24 '16 at 20:11