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I tried to install ubuntu 12.4.03 (64bit) alongside the pre-installed windows 8 (64bit) from a live DVD. The hard drive is HP 110-13 EG desktop computer with intel Core i3-324oT and NVIDIA GeForce 705A graphic card. Before installing I already made space for a ubuntu partition, then proceeded with the following strategy

1) turned off fast boot and disabled security boot. I think I enabled legacy boot (which might have been a mistake I realized now).

2) run the live cd, first with the try ubuntu without installation option and then clicked on install ubuntu. 3) i choose the first option install alongside windows and had updates during the installation activated. The installation was successful and then I was asked to restart. The live disk was ejected and I pressed enter.

4) ubuntu generic didn't boot, I was left with a purple screen. 5) choosing windows to boot resulted in an error

6) I inserted the live disc and tried boot from it. I remember entering a system setting menu (last option in the grub menu, where I could also choose among ubuntu, ubuntu recovery, windows, ..) then I booted from SATA and got back to try ubuntu.

7) I tried to install ubuntu again. Got the message that there is windows 8 and ubuntu on my computer and chose the first option erase and reinstall ubuntu. Resulted to be my second big mistake.

8) after the installation and the restart I didn't reach the grub menu, where I could choose from which OS to boot but only a grub prompt and the message `Minimal bash-like line editing is supported...'

9) typing ls resulted in: (hd0) (hd0,gpt8) (hd0,gpt7) (hd0,gpt6) (hd0,gpt5) (hd0,gpt4) (hd0,gpt3) (hd0,gpt2) (hd0,gpt1) (hd1)

10) ls (hd0,gpt2) results in: system efi

11) ls (hd0,gpt8) results in: ./ ../ lost+found/ etc/ media/ bin/ boot/ dev/ home/ lib/ lib64/ mnt/ opt/ proc/ root/ run/ sbin/ selinux/ srv/ sys/ tmp/ usr/ var/ initrd.img vmlinuz cdrom/ (so I understand that this is my ubuntu partition)

12) according to boot-repair sda4 is the partiton with windows and sda5 the one with windows recovery

13) if I type boot it results in: no loaded kernel.

I do not know how to boot any OS because I am new to Linux.

14) if i insert the live disc and type `exit' after grub> then I get the options: 1) try ubuntu 2) install ubuntu 3) check disc for errors. Checking for errors results in: no errors found, press any key to reboot. then the same problem as in step 8.

15) thus I can only boot ubuntu from the live disc (option 1. from step 14)

16) If I run ubuntu from the disc and open the terminal and try to repair-boot, then I get the message: EFI detected. Please check the options.

The link that repair boot generated for me is this one: http://paste.ubuntu.com/6757167

I am new to Linux and appreciate any help since I don't know how to solve the problem! Sorry if this question has been asked before, I tried to find a solution but didn't succeed.

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  • I cannot succeed to run the boot repair from the live cd. It says that grub is still there and I should try again. If I try to boot from the black window with the grub> and the minimal bash-like.. message using 1. set root=(hd0,gpt8) 2. linux vmlinuz-3.8.0-29-generic efi 3. initrd.img-3.8.0-29-generic 4. boot, I get the error: couldn't terminate EFI services. Is there anything I can do?
    – user236258
    Jan 16, 2014 at 11:28

1 Answer 1

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Purple screen is BIOS boot. When you boot in UEFI mode the installer on the flash drive also uses grub2 menu.

You should always be booting in UEFI mode unless you have one of the few systems that only boots in BIOS mode.

You should use Boot-Repair to convert your BIOS install to UEFI by uninstalling grub-pc and installing grub-efi. But have secure boot off. It looks like Boot-Repair also wants to install the secure boot versions which you can do if you want. Do not run 'buggy' UEFI until all other options are resolved. That is only for a few systems where vendor modifies UEFI (not per UEFI st'd) to only boot Windows.

If you get black screen after boot that is a different issue than booting. Usually nomodeset but depending on video card/chip boot parameter may vary.

Shows install with screen shots for both BIOS & UEFI, so you know which you are using.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

Also shows Windows 8 screens

Installing Ubuntu Alongside a Pre-Installed Windows with UEFI

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    Thank you for the help! Did the boot-repair with advanced options as you suggested and got back into a working grub menu.
    – user236258
    Jan 16, 2014 at 18:23

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