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I am attempting to dual-boot Ubuntu 12.04 with Windows 8.1, but I am unable to run a LiveUSB without turning on legacy mode first. In legacy mode I was able to install. I planned to fix the legacy mode problem by running boot-repair from the 'Try Ubuntu' option on the LiveUSB. However, boot-repair gives me the following error in an infinite loop:

"The boot of your PC is in Legacy mode. You may want to retry after changing it to EFI mode. Do you want to continue?"

I press yes, it says it is applying changes, then it gives me this prompt again, over and over. But it doesn't fix my boot. I have the 'Separate/boot/efi partition' option ticked.

So, if I can't run Ubuntu in EFI mode, and I can't run boot-repair in legacy mode, what am I supposed to do?

The strange part is, I had Ubuntu-Windows8 dual boot set up on this machine before and it worked fine, but I broke my Ubuntu side and had to do a fresh install. I remember that I had to run boot-repair to fix the legacy mode problem before, and it worked. Is there something I'm missing?

lcdavis13
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1 Answers1

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First, disable Secure Boot in your firmware. That might enable you to boot the live CD (or installer, for that matter) in EFI mode.

If that doesn't help, then I recommend you try my rEFInd boot manager. This lowest-risk way to do this is to download the USB flash drive or CD-R image and try booting from it. It should give you options to boot both Windows and Ubuntu. If both work, boot into Ubuntu and then install the Debian-package version of rEFInd. It should then launch from the hard disk when you restart the computer in EFI mode.

Rod Smith
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