I have a Sony VAIO PC (specifically, model SVS1511T9ES), with original Windows 7 Pro installed. I tried to install Ubuntu 16.04 for dual-boot setup, but every time I reboot, I'm only getting Windows; no GRUB menu. (With one non-Windows non-GRUB exception, see p. 14. below)
Notably:
- my BIOS has boot mode set as "UEFI",
- apparently no "Safe boot" settings in BIOS (didn't see anything like that anywhere),
- I'm booting Ubuntu 16.04 installer from a live USB (I don't use 18.04 because it failed to start from USB for me),
- I didn't try upgrading BIOS because I'm scared I could brick the PC. In the top line of the screen, my current BIOS configurator claims to be
InsydeH2O Setup Utility, top-right corner showsRev. 3.7
Specifically, what I tried till now, to the extent I still remember:
- Free up some space on Windows, run defragmentation, then downloaded & run "Free AOMEI Partition Assistant" to shrink the partition (pure Windows tools weren't good enough because pagefile.sys was blocking the shrinking). Notably, this created some "WinPE" stuff and required a reboot to finish its work.
- After this, Windows booted successfully and seems to be working, with extra space freed.
- I run Ubuntu 16.04 LiveUSB ISO from a pendrive. Chosen "Install". Picked "Custom" partitioning, because I don't want a swap partition (I'm hoping to use a swap file if necessary and possible). Finished installing Ubuntu, looked OK.
- After reboot, no GRUB, just "Windows is starting up..." and normal Windows boot.
- Hrmh, ok, booted back to the LiveUSB and tried running
boot-repair. Clicked the "backup" first and saved to some dir in the new Ubuntu partition on the disk. Then reviewed settings, did not change anything I believe, clicked OK or whatever; didn't upload the log to pastebin (but seems to be saved on the EFI partition anyway); got some long report, generally stuff seemed ok; reboot. - After reboot, no GRUB, just Windows again.
- Hrmrh; ok, now tried
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi(on Windows). Reboot. - After reboot... you know the drill. Just Windows. (By the way, I must say I'm genuinely very happy that this part with preserving Windows is working so well. I recall this being much, much worse in ye olden Slackware days. So big thanks for all good people for this :D)
- Notably, running
bcdediton Windows seems to show that the path was indeed changed to\EFI\ubuntu\..., it still shows as such. Anyway, I triedbcdedit ......\grubx64.efinow. Reboot. - After reboot... Windows. And
bcdeditstill showsgrubx64.efi. - Uhmh. Ok; I'm not sure what more I can do, so I'm starting to write the Askubuntu question. A related question shows up. Ok, let's see what
efibootmgrwill show. Boot back to LiveUSB;
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo efibootmgr -v BootCurrent: 0000 Timeout: 2 seconds BootOrder: 0000,0002 Boot0000* EFI USB Device PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(4,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x4294967285,0x800,0x1ce7800)RC Boot0002* Windows Boot Manager HD(2,GPT,a6098758-cdae-433d-87ce-ab327609a343,0x2b7d000,0x82000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)RCOk, here things seem to start getting somewhat weird. This command seems to show a different path than
bcdediton Windows, namely\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi, i.e. what was originally set in bcdedit before I changed it. Butbcdeditseems to still showgrubx64.efi.I tried
boot-repairagain. I thought I'm just clicking and unclicking "Advanced", but apparently I may have accidentally clicked the "rename Windows ..." option. This time I have a pastebin log. Out of curiosity, I run theefibootmgr -vagain and got:ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo efibootmgr -v BootCurrent: 0000 Timeout: 2 seconds BootOrder: 0001,0000,0002 Boot0000* EFI USB Device PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(4,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x4294967285,0x800,0x1ce7800)RC Boot0002* Windows Boot Manager HD(2,GPT,a6098758-cdae-433d-87ce-ab327609a343,0x2b7d000,0x82000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)RCNote that
BootOrderis different here: it has a0001first, but there's no such entry on the list below (noBoot0001). Notably, the boot-repair log seems to have ~3efibootmgrcalls, and the last one of them does seem to show aBoot0001entry. Why does it disappear later? Does the subsequent grub call erase it, or what???Reboot and... weird stuff! I cannot recall well, but instead of "Windows is starting up...", I got some 4 text lines describing some boot error; notably, it was complaining about a missing file at a weird path more or less like:
\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\grubx64.efi(note there's both Microsoft and grub there).- Hm. Wierd. Hmhm. Maybe this nudged things in some way? — I thought to myself. Reboot again to LiveUSB.
efibootmgrseems to show0000,0002now. Runboot-repairagain, now just clicking the initial "Recommended recovery" button, and this time again saving the log. Theefibootmgr -vagain shows0001,0000,0002. Reboot. - After reboot, "Windows is starting up..."....................
- Hilfe! :( Ok, sit down, finish writing this Askubuntu call for help.
Some things I observed on the way, which may or may not be related:
- I seem to have 2 partitions with an "EFI" directory. One of them has the ubuntu dir (I think this is /dev/sda2); the other one seems to be a "Windows recovery partition", and it seems to have no ubuntu dir. Weirdly, it has both an "EFI" and "efi" dirs in root path (don't remember which sda is this).
- If I write bcdedit /enum all on Windows, I get a lot of stuff, and notably one of them seems to be related to the AOMEI tool I used, with a ramdisksdipath \Aomei\AomeiBoot.sdi. I suspect it is not relevant, but mentioning it just in case.
So — any ideas what can I try next, to get GRUB to show up?
