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With this I am at my wit's end. I would really like to install Ubuntu in EFI mode.

tl;dr

Booting Ubuntu Live USB, EFI does not work. Booting in BIOS mode works. Even though Win10/Lubuntu do boot in EFI mode. On a modern (but not bleeding-edge-modern) system. (Seems to be about GNOME?)

Prerequisites

  • I have a HP ProBook 430 G7
    • Original Win10 install
    • Partition shrunk -> 100GB free, un-allocated disk space
    • SecureBoot disabled, legacy support enabled
    • Processor is Core i5-10210U - reasonably modern, not bleeding edge
  • I created two hybrid (EFI/BIOS) Live USB drives with Rufus
    • Ubuntu 22.04.1
    • Lubuntu 22.04.1
    • In boot menu ("F9" for this HP model) each drive shows up as two separate options for boot: "Legacy" or "Efi" (Sidenote: Up to now, I never had any problems with Rufus or either of those images on other machines.)

Possible Boot Combinations

  • Lubuntu in BIOS mode: works well
  • Ubuntu in BIOS mode: works well
  • Lubuntu in EFI mode: Takes forever and a day to boot. Seems to get stuck during boot for at least ten minutes, then over black terminal background, the mouse pointer appears, and finally the LXDE environment pops up.
  • Ubuntu in EFI mode: Does not work. Starts booting, delivers some terminal output. Lots of green "Started" (or something like that) notifications appear, and suddenly "[FAILED] Setting color scheme", and later on "[FAILED] Starting GNOME"
  • Also, for each combination, starting the live system in "Safe Graphics Mode" does not change the outcome whatsoever.

(all error messages paraphrased, as I am not at the machine right now)

Questions

  • Why? I never had issues with Rufus, the hybrid (EFI/BIOS) USB setup, any of the flash drives in question, or any of the two image files.
  • Where does Lubuntu's hang-time come from?
  • Why does Gnome start well in BIOS mode, but apparently dies in EFI mode?
  • What am I looking for? I don't even really know what set of keywords to google. Googling the error messages leads to unrelated topics.
  • What would you need to help me? I am happy to provide any further infos about my setup or transcripts of error messages, if it helps.
Acasta
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1 Answers1

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So apparently, by putting clues of across the internet together, I eventually came across the nomodeset boot parameter. Some explaination can be found in this question: What does nomodeset do?

With using this boot parameter, Ubuntu was able to boot in EFI mode. But it took a day and a half - at least seven minutes (like it was with the aforementioned Lubuntu live system in EFI mode).

The live system's graphics were were rather low resolution, but I proceeded to install anyway. From there on everything was flawless: Installation went smoothly, I rebooted and was immediately able to select between Win10 and Ubuntu. The on-disk installed Ubuntu booted quickly and smoothly without use of the nomodeset parameter. Graphics were looking great and everything works.

So, this answer provides the solution for how to get Ubuntu to live-boot in EFI mode. On the other hand, I still don't know, why both *buntu live systems take forever to boot in EFI mode. But as the live system was only needed once, and the installed system works great, I won't investigate any further. But if anyone has some insights, I would still be interested!

Acasta
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