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I was using Win10 for a while and now I want to install Ubuntu\Linux Mint as a second OS. But no matter what I do, I can't get into GRUB2 menu, each time it boots straight into Windows.

I'm using ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard.

I made a separate partition for Linux install, on the same SSD as Windows (Samsung EVO 1TB).

I'm installing using "Something else", creating "/" and "/home" partitions. Then I tried choosing either HDD's root or Windows EFI partition to install bootloader to - no luck with either option.

I tried running boot-repair from LiveCD, and it just broke Windows boot. I reverted it back.

So, right now I have Windows 10 and I can boot into it. I have Linux Mint Sonya installed on separate partition, but I can't boot into it, and I can't get into GRUB menu. There's only Windows Boot Manager available in BIOS, or SSD root, none of those options gets me into GRUB.

I have Fast boot turned off in windows, and there's no secure boot in BIOS.

How can I make this work?

I am thinking about installing Ubuntu instead of Mint, and I suppose there's no difference in boot process between Ubuntu 16.X and Mint, so I hope it's ok to ask this question here.

Nix
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  • Possibly the Windows Boot Manager is so deeply hacked into your UEFI boot system that it won't let you replace itself. You can however configure the Windows Boot Manager to load GRUB instead of Windows. Let me give you a link to a post about that. See the top answer, near its end is a troubleshooting section with a bcdedit command. – Byte Commander Aug 14 '17 at 21:08
  • Byte Commander - My Windows was not Pre-Installed, if that means that it was OEM install by manufacturer. It's a custom built PC, built it myself. But yes, forgot to mention that boot-repair did show an error about locked efi, can't remember the exact phrasing. I saw that page, and I'll try the part you pointed me to... – Nix Aug 14 '17 at 21:17
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    Posting the link to the boot-repair report would help us make some reasonable suggestions. – ubfan1 Aug 14 '17 at 21:20
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    I am trying to do what that post suggests, and this command "bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi" gives me an error: "The set command specified is not valid. Run ... for command line assistance. The parameter is incorrect". What does this mean? And I will post boot-repair report if bcdedit approach fails. However, as I mentioned, last time boot-repair made PC unbootable at all, untill I reverted it's changes. – Nix Aug 14 '17 at 21:27
  • Did you install Windows in UEFI or BIOS mode. For both Windows & Ubuntu how you boot install media is then how it installs. And both systems need to be in same boot mode. And if UEFI hardware generally better to use UEFI installs. Locked EFI can be an issue with the ESP. Try this first: Must be unmounted, change if not sda1: sudo dosfsck -t -a -w /dev/sda1 – oldfred Aug 14 '17 at 21:33
  • That bcdedit ... command should be correct. Sure you didn't mistype anything? What you can check though is whether Ubuntu is installed in UEFI mode and whether that efi file does exist at the specified location. You'll have to boot into an Ubuntu live system from DVD or USB for that and mount the EFI partition to check its contents, as Windows hides it. – Byte Commander Aug 14 '17 at 21:34
  • I do believe that I installed Windows as UEFI, as I do have EFI partition. Is there any other way to check if Windows is running as EFI or legacy? I did install boot into usb drive in UEFI mode when installing ubuntu. The command - my bad, I tried running it in PowerShell. Worked fine in CMD. Going to reboot it now, a few times and try booting windows boot manager, then into drive itself, and then will check bios settings again to see if anything changed there. Will then try other suggestions, if it still does not work. – Nix Aug 14 '17 at 21:40
  • I suggest you read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFI . One will have the Answer. Read the others to understand that one. – waltinator Aug 14 '17 at 21:42
  • It worked! bcdedit command did the trick. Thank you guys, I've been banging my head against it the whole day. Tried a lot of things, but skipped bcdedit command for some reason. Seems ok so far. – Nix Aug 14 '17 at 21:43
  • I will make sure to read those. I do have some general understanding on how those things work, but never had enough experience with UEFI. – Nix Aug 14 '17 at 21:45

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