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I am using Windows 10 on HP Pavilion. I want to use Ubuntu as primary OS. I made a bootable USB stick using RUFUS, but I can't boot into Ubuntu OS.

I am tired of changing USB as my 1st preference in boot option!

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  • Did you burn the Ubuntu ISO to the USB?
    – user423626
    Jun 22, 2016 at 14:42
  • I think this may be a UEFI issue.
    – user423626
    Jun 22, 2016 at 14:42
  • You used an Ubuntu ISO to create the USB with Rufus yes? When your computer starts booting up, keep pressing F9 for the boot selection menu and see if you have 2 options. You might have USB Legacy and USB UEFI, try both.
    – Delorean
    Jun 22, 2016 at 14:44
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    When you say that you are tired, you really mean tired or it is a typo and you wanted to write "tried"? This is important because it can change the whole meaning of the sentence. (I have just edited your question and I need this information in order to be sure that the actual form of the text reflects the reality.)
    – Cristiana Nicolae
    Jun 22, 2016 at 14:49
  • Not yet i get the correct answer . i tried both UEFI installation and Normal ubuntu installation. But every time i needed to press F9 and change select ubuntu in boot option. Why didn't it boot to GRUB while i power on my laptop ?
    – Balaji
    Mar 16, 2017 at 18:20

1 Answer 1

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You should install Ubuntu in the same mode as the existing Windows install (UEFI or legacy) -- regardless of what capability your machine has. If the machine came with Windows 8-10 pre-installed from HP, it's in UEFI mode. From an OEM, who knows. An upgrade from Windows 7, probably legacy (Even if it's a UEFI maachine). You can select which mode it boots from the BIOS/?UEFI Settings. If you just let the machine decide (compatibility mode, or an ordering like "legacy first, then UEFI) it may decide wrong, since the Ubuntu install media will boot both ways. Sometimes the mode selection can be made from the name of the USB device (might have UEFI in it).

Creating the USB for 16.04 seems to be harder than for earlier versons. Basically, using a block for block copy like dd seems to be the only successful way -- versions of "startup-disk-creator" before 16.04 will likely have problems, 14.04 will certainly fail.

After install, You may have problems with the boot order always putting Windows first, even after you change it to Ubuntu (grub or shim) first with efibootmgr. Many possible solutions, but one seems to be to rename the Windows bootloader 9/EFI/Micerosoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi to something so it's not found, and have the Ubuntu bootloader (shim) replacing the default bootloader /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi. A copy of grubx64.efi needs to be present in that /EFI/Boot directory too for shim to work.
--- Edit------
The UEFI bootloaders are just files, so you may easily copy, move, and rename them. The Ubuntu installation location is /EFI/ubuntu, and the bootloader file(s) are grubx64.efi and optionally shimx64.efi (if installed with secure boot enabled).

If shimx64.efi is not present, just copy /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi to /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi.
If shimx64 is present, copy /EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi to /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi, and also copy /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi to /EFI/Boot/grubx64.efi (no rename on this copy).
Leave the grub.cfg file in the /EFI/ubuntu directory, that is where grubx64.efi expects to find it.

Some machines really remove the USB from the bootorder when the machine is booted without it present. This is inconvenient, but easily worked around by using the one-time boot selection from some function key at power-up.

Supplying the model how you made the USB are all relevant to your problem, so I'm just guessing here from other people's problems.

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  • Can you please tell me the detailed explanation to change boot file ??
    – Balaji
    Mar 16, 2017 at 18:22

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