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On my HP laptop with windows 8, I installed Lubuntu as a dual boot from a live CD. At first, I could only access grub through hitting F9-ubuntu, so I tried Boot Repair to no avail. Then I tried manually loading grub's MBR file where Windows' was, but it didn't help. I tried turning off secure boot in the BIOS (UEFI), and it opened GRUB straight away. However, when I try to open the windows option, it flashes black and the same menu comes up, no matter how many times I hit it. When I turn secure boot back on, it repairs Win8 and I can boot into it until I turn it off again.

I have tried fixing grub, fixing the BCD from the Windows side through recovery and through third party apps, and tried every permutation of all this at least once. All I want is for my computer to open grub, give me a choice between Lubuntu and windows, and boot the one I ask for. This is a last ditch effort; I've been working on this about 12 hours straight to no avail. If anybody can help, I would really, really appreciate it! :)

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  • Post link to BootInfo report from Boot-Repair.
    – oldfred
    Jul 12, 2014 at 0:00

1 Answer 1

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That's a very common problem ..
In fact, if you had Lubuntu already installed, and then installed Windows 8, that'd render Lubuntu unbootable!
I'll provide solution for both cases, though ..

For Windows after Ubuntu:

You simply need to re-download the ubuntu image or use the one you've downloaded if you haven't deleted it like you'd probably do ..
Then you have to boot to ubuntu using a flash drive ..
From there, fix grub ..

For Ubuntu after Windows:

You can do this from Ubuntu first, just to make sure you tried ..
You have to use the rescue disk or the installation disk using the repair option ..
Then, repair bcd and bootloader from commandline ..
You're done !

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  • Windows came pre-installed, and then I installed Ubuntu. I already tried repairing bcd and bootloader like it said, and it didn't fix it. Jul 11, 2014 at 23:37
  • Are you sure you didn't format the Windows partition by mistake when installing Ubuntu ?
    – Amr Ayman
    Jul 12, 2014 at 0:29
  • BootRepair: " An error occurred during the repair. Please write on a paper the following URL: paste.ubuntu.com/7786954 In case you still experience boot problem, indicate this URL to: [email protected] You can now reboot your computer. The boot files of [The OS now in use - Ubuntu 14.04 LTS] are far from the start of the disk. Your BIOS may not detect them. You may want to retry after creating a /boot partition (EXT4, >200MB, start of the disk). This can be performed via tools such as gParted. Then select this partition via the [Separate /boot partition:] option of [Boot Repair]. Jul 12, 2014 at 23:55

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