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I can install Ubuntu as sole OS and it will boot/work, but dual boot with Windows its like the UEFI is programmed/locked to ignore anything else if it detects windows and just boots straight to windows.

I found this online and describes my problem perfectly https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/w2yc0w/cannot_dual_boot_gptuefi_nvram_locked/

I tried ubuntu Boot Repair option of "Back up and Rename Windows EFI to fix hardlocked Efi error" This works and lets me load Grub menu to boot ubuntu the problem is Windows doesnt boot anymore

So if i revert this im back to square one with the computer booting straight to windows and ignoring ubuntu once again

Any suggestions? or methods for dual booting on lenovo laptops with locked UEFI firmware that is set to ignore other OS if Windows is present? Can lenovo provide a Bios firmware unlock?

Computer is a ideapad1 14igl05, Cpu: Intel N4020, 4gb ram

I managed to solve this issue, see my answer below for details, hopefully it saves others hours of troubleshooting on these crappy laptops

OmegaMDL
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1 Answers1

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Thankfully i found a solution to the problem of the UEFI locked default bootloader option set to prioritize Windows. The solution is to trick the UEFI into booting grub by redirecting windows boot loader to grub loader using this command:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi (use shimx64.efi instead of grubx64.efi if you want to use secure boot on)

I will note however i tried this command on the Windows install itself and it did not work. I used https://www.hirensbootcd.org/ live USB and opened a command prompt from there to type the command mentioned above. That change managed to take effect and trick the UEFI into booting Grub by redirecting the windows bootmanager to it.

Also worth mentioning before using this command I ran Boot Repair on a live cd either from ubuntu or https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home/Home/ to reinstall Grub (used the recommended repair)

OmegaMDL
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