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New to askUbuntu, and a new return to Ubuntu. I used to run Ubuntu about 8-9 years ago, but I recently decided to try it out again. Unfortunately, I've been getting nowhere trying to get this installed. I will start out by saying that I will be dual booting Ubuntu and Windows 10, on 2 separate hard drives. I will start with my system specs.

Motherboard - MSI z170a M7 / SSD 1 - Samsung 951 pro M-2 256 gig (Windows 10 already installed) / SSD 2 - Samsung 850 pro SATA 256 gig (This is where I would like to install Ubuntu) / HDD - 2 TB WD Black 7200 RPM / CPU - Intel Core I7 6700K / RAM - 32 gigs of EVGA 3200Mz DDR4 / GPU - 2 EVGA 980Ti run in SLI

So here's what's been going on so far. I finally figured out how to make the computer not automatically load into Windows, by going into my Bios and setting the Windows 10 support to Off. So, to dual boot I'll have to go into the bios each time I switch an OS, turning that feature on and off to get each OS to boot. I'm fine with that.

I downloaded Ubuntu (16.04.1), and installed it on an older flash drive. A Kingston 2 GB, probably 10 years old, and I put it into a standard USB port. I loaded to the screen where you can either boot it live, or install it. Selected install, went to a black screen, after about 20 minutes I decided maybe that flash drive was too slow to do this install. Went back into windows, and put the files on a SanDisk 32 GB USB 3.0 drive, and stuck that into a USB 3.1 port on the mobo. Figured that would give it plenty of speed.

Selected install, same deal. Black screen. Restarted, selected live boot. It did a few things, then black screen again. Restarted and selected check for errors. This time, it actually booted to a purple screen with an Ubuntu logo, and did an error check which came back clean, however when it told me to hit any key to reboot, my letters went into an odd almost CMD box on the upper left hand side of the screen, had to hard restart.

I've rebooted and tried this several more times, sometimes it's a blank black screen, sometimes it's a black screen with a flashing underscore at the top, like it's waiting for my to type something in, but I can't type on it.

I've seen mention of using VGA to get it to install, but this isn't an option for me as my monitor has only a single Displayport on it, no HDMI, no VGA, no DVI.

Am I missing something here? Should I just let it sit on the black screen for an hour or so and see if it does anything?

Thank you all for reading and any assistance you may have on this subject.

OneSlyBeast
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  • I hope you are using UEFI, not the 35 year old BIOS on a brand new system. But you need both systems installed in same boot mode. You have to gpt partition in advance. And with nVidia you will need nomodeset. But some found it easier to just use Intel video to install, add nVidia drivers, you may need ppa, and then change to use nVidia cards. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI and http://askubuntu.com/questions/743095/how-to-prepare-a-disk-on-an-efi-based-pc-for-ubuntu and: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295 – oldfred Aug 26 '16 at 03:54
  • I think my bios is locked to UEFI, not 100% but I can only change the UEFI settings, not disable it. I can go ahead and gpt partition the second SSD, but there's no way I can find to install them in the same boot mode. Windows controlled boot mode will automatically boot windows, it won't even let me go into the bios or change the boot order. And if I turn that off, windows won't boot at all. – OneSlyBeast Aug 26 '16 at 07:21
  • On both Z97 & Z170 systems I must have had 8 or 10 UEFI settings I had to change. Then it was easy. Make sure UEFI Secure Boot is OFF. It may just say "Windows" or "Other". Older MSI: Disable MSI Z87 fast boot to get it to work http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2272131&p=13258725#post13258725 Be sure to include ESP - efi system partition on Ubuntu SSD, even though default grub install will only install to ESP on sda. Or disconnect Windows drive. But you may have to manually add UEFI boot entry as disconnecting a drive, UEFI's NVRAM forgets entries. – oldfred Aug 26 '16 at 13:10
  • I have an update. Turns out, some of my problem was me being stupid, and assuming Ubuntu could run through my graphics card without a driver like Windows does. 2 things saved me here, first was the fact that I am running dual monitors, and second is the fact that my motherboard has a displayport built in. The reason for this, is my motherboard bios seems to only support the graphics card, and no onboard graphics. So, One monitor plugged into GPU for bios screen to load, second in mobo – OneSlyBeast Aug 26 '16 at 19:52
  • It seems that this forum limits my words on comments, so this update will be a few comments long. Please bare with me. After swapping the display ports, I made some progress, but still not done. Now, when I select install Ubuntu, it takes me to a purple screen with a logo, and 5 dots under. After a few seconds, this goes away and black screens again. When I live boot, I get the same ubuntu screen, until it goes black and leaves 2-3 dots showing on the black screen, but will not move from there. I noted some settings in my bios, and will post those in the next comment. – OneSlyBeast Aug 26 '16 at 19:56
  • There is UEFI Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities, the options are Windows Boot Manager, and Disabled. I have to leave this on Windows Boot Manager to avoid it loading into the EFI Shell CMD Prompt. I also have a Fixed Boot Priorities Menu, where I can change the boot order, all devices listed are UEFI.There is a SATA Configuration section, where I can remap or enable hot plugs for my M.2 and SATA drives. In Windows OS Configuration, there are options for Windows 7, or 8/10 support. To load windows, this has to be on, otherwise it has to be off to load Linux. More to follow in the next comment. – OneSlyBeast Aug 26 '16 at 20:01
  • There is an Internal GOP Configuration, which says NVIDIA GPU UEFI DRIVER, and it not able to be changed. There is a Secure Boot Mode, which is off. That is I believe all of the options to do with my GPU, SSD/HDD's, and boot mode/order. Thank you all for your help so far, sorry for the book but I want to include all details that I can possibly get you. Please let me know any further suggestions. – OneSlyBeast Aug 26 '16 at 20:03
  • Other threads with MSI: http://askubuntu.com/questions/801841/dual-boot-ubuntulatest-and-windows-10-on-msi-h170m-pro-vdh-using-msi-click-bio/802095#802095 and:http://askubuntu.com/questions/705796/msi-z170a-gaming-m5-with-linux-dual-boot – oldfred Aug 26 '16 at 21:18

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So after days of pulling my hair out, I found the solution. Hopefully people installing Ubuntu with my system setup will find this, because the solution is an easy one, but if you don't know a lot about in depth bios setups, can be tricky to figure out.

I simply needed to go into the bios setting in the advanced section, click the Graphics section, and switch from PEG, to IGD. That let my system show Ubuntu from the live install USB. Thank you to all who assisted.

OneSlyBeast
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