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I'm quite new to Linux in general and wanted to try it out. I have Acer Aspire Nitro - 16GB RAM, Core i7, 2 hard discs - 128 GB SATA and 1 TB HDD.
On the SATA disc I would like to install Windows 10 and on the HDD - Ubuntu. The SATA disc (Disk 0) is converted to GPT and the HDD disk (Disk 1) is MBR. This I did using the cmd diskpart command.

BIOS info : UEFI mode is enabled. Secure boot is also enabled with no option to be disabled. Quick boot disappear as option in UEFI mode.

What i did so far:

Pre-install: formatted the two hard disks

Installing Win:

  1. Changed the boot order in BIOS - 1.USB, 2.Disk0 (SATA), 3.Disk1 (HDD)
  2. Selected the SATA disk for installation
  3. Done - now I have Disk0 split in 3 - Recovery Partition, C, System Reserved

Installing Ubuntu:

  1. Changed the boot order in BIOS - 1.USB, 2.Disk1 (HDD), 3.Disk0 (SATA), 4.Win Boot Manager
  2. In the installation menu - Select something else
  3. Ubuntu detects that I have Win installed in dev/sda so I can see the different partitions. The HDD is labeled dev/sdb. From that free space I create:
    • Swap partition - Primary, 20GB
    • Root partition - Logical, 20GB, mounted to /
    • Home partition - Logical, 400GB, mounted to /home
    • Fat32 partition mounted to /windows, 20GB
    • EFI boot partition - Primary, 200 MB

Device for boot loader installation : dev/sdb WDC bla-bla (1TB)

using these tutorials: How to use manual partitioning during installation? and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI#Creating_an_EFI_System_Partition

What I expected : To my understanding I expected to have two EFI boot partitions - one per disk. Disk0 boots windows, Disk1 boots Ubuntu. Since the boot order is unchanged at this stage - I expect HDD to boot first, then the GRUB boot loader to show up so I could choose which OS to run.

What I got: Straightforward Windows run. When I press F12 I see two options

  • Windows Boot Manager(TS128GMTS800)
  • ubuntu(TS128GMTS800)

The TS128GMTS800 is the model of the SATA disk. So it happens that I have one EFI boot loader in SATA that runs both Win and Ubuntu.

What actually happened here? Where is the GRUB loader ? How can I get Ubuntu without relying on F12 every time?

I'm not sure if I miss something during installation... (prob lots of reading on the partition/OS subject but that unfortunately comes with experience)

Some shots from GParted might reveal additional problems of the installation

Screenshot (dev/sda = SATA, dev/sdb = HDD)

As you can see dev/sdb3 is not mounted to boot/efi but at the same time it has boot and esp flags. This is actually the partition I selected as EFI boot partition during the Ubuntu installation and find it strange it was not mounted..

Community
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pollx
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  • See this question and this one. If EasyUEFI, bcdedit, and easyuefi don't permanently change your boot order, then your firmware is defective and you must use the file-renaming hack -- or better yet, if possible, return the defective computer to the store and get one that works. – Rod Smith Apr 08 '17 at 13:51
  • bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi or changing the boot order with efibootmgr didnt work so far. I added a screenshot from GParted where I see the EFI partition is not mounted to efi/boot. What if I manually mount it ? – pollx Apr 08 '17 at 22:48
  • You've misidentified the ESP; it's /dev/sda2, not /dev/sdb3. Also, your Ubuntu disk uses MBR, not GPT. This shouldn't cause the problem you describe, but there's a small chance that it is doing so. Converting /dev/sdb from MBR to GPT with gdisk (see this page for instructions) might help, but also runs a small risk of making matters worse. – Rod Smith Apr 09 '17 at 00:38
  • @RodSmith Can you elaborate more on this step here http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/installation.html#copy . How exactly I can install Grub2 in the ESP. Can I do something like sudo grub-install --boot-directory=boot/efi dev/sdb (and if yes - do I need (and how I gain) permissions to run this command?) – pollx Apr 09 '17 at 15:55
  • pollx, the procedure on the page you referenced is for manual boot loader installation. The grub-install script, though, performs these steps automatically. You should not try to mix and match these manual and automatic procedures -- at least, not unless you're an expert or have the guidance of one. The sudo command gives you administrative authority, so that's the answer to your final question. If you're booted in the regular installation, sudo grub-install should do the job, with no options. I'm not an expert on the grub-install options. – Rod Smith Apr 09 '17 at 18:51

1 Answers1

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A few known problems with UEFI installs to a second disk:
1) The installer always puts grub onto sda, regardless of what you specify as the location for the bootloader. Fix: Just copy the entire sda EFI partition to SDB. Possible to use a grub-install to get a non-secure boot (grubx64.efi) loaded onto the disk you specify (but the secure switch does nothing last time I checked).
2) Grub still won't boot Windows with secure boot enabled. You will still need to use the EFI boot menu to boot Windows with secure boot enabled. Disabling secure boot is the easy fix for this problem.

ubfan1
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