I have a Lenovo Thinkpad 420 with Windows 7 running in legacy mode. I wanted to dual-boot Windows 7 along with Ubuntu.
I downloaded Ubuntu and created a bootable USB using Rufus 3.8. I used Rufus 3.8 to put Ubuntu on the USB stick. It says it will create a BIOS or UEFI bootable Ubuntu but it only seems to be UEFI. With changing the boot set-up to legacy, only the USB could not be recognized.
After reading for 2 weeks and multiple attempts to do a legacy Ubuntu install, I went ahead and installed Ubuntu with the EFI partition. Now I can't boot Windows 7 whether I set the boot options to Legacy Only or not. I can't reinstall Windows as UEFI as I am out of the country without installation disks for another year.
I would really like to get Ubuntu to boot in Legacy mode but how do I do that and get the current EFI install changed to Legacy or off the laptop so that I can even do a Legacy install of Ubuntu? Of course, I would still need the USB stick to a legacy install stick or I'm back to where I was 2 weeks ago. For information, the laptop is a single HD, 2 primary partitions for Windows (system_drv and Windows 7).
I used the "something else" install option as the install did not recognize that windows 7 was already installed. I created 4 extended/logical partitions (EFI, root, home and swap). I have noticed that the "boot" flag is removed from the "system_drv" partition of Windows. I don't get any boot options to choose Windows or Ubuntu.
fdisk -l output:
Disk /dev/loop0: 3,7 MiB, 3825664 bytes, 7472 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop1: 54,4 MiB, 57069568 bytes, 111464 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop2: 14,8 MiB, 15462400 bytes, 30200 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop3: 1008 KiB, 1032192 bytes, 2016 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop4: 149,9 MiB, 157184000 bytes, 307000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop5: 4 MiB, 4218880 bytes, 8240 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop6: 88,5 MiB, 92778496 bytes, 181208 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop7: 42,8 MiB, 44879872 bytes, 87656 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/sda: 298,1 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xbc87ff27
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 2459647 2457600 1,2G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 2459648 368834559 366374912 174,7G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 368834560 369811455 976896 477M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sda4 369813502 625141759 255328258 121,8G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 369813504 418639871 48826368 23,3G 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 418641920 610045951 191404032 91,3G 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 610048000 625141759 15093760 7,2G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Disk /dev/sdb: 3,8 GiB, 4027580416 bytes, 7866368 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00e5a528
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 63 7866242 7866180 3,8G c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdb2 7866243 7866305 63 31,5K ea Rufus alignment
