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I have an Acer Aspire F5-572G; and, I recently shrank the volume of my C: drive (running Windows) to create a partition for Ubuntu. I also used Rufus to load Ubuntu onto an external USB drive, which I then used to install Ubuntu on the unallocated partition.

Since then, however, I have been unable to access the Ubuntu distribution installed on my machine. As my image (see "create a partition") shows, the 44.38GB partition containing my Ubuntu distribution appears to be uncorrupted; but I do not know how to access it. I have accessed my UEFI numerous times and sought to change my boot order priority, but in every case, my laptop always boots up Windows.

How do I access the Ubuntu Linux distribution on my machine?

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  • Welcome to Ask Ubuntu: Did you use the GPT option in Rufus? This will ensure the Live install is UEFI mode only, thus the install to HDD will also be UEFI. If the previous install to HDD was successful, you can boot a Full install USB on the computer and then run sudo update-grub. the next time you boot the USB there will be an option to boot the internal install of Ubuntu on the GRUB menu. If so you can then (re)install grub on the HDD. askubuntu.com/questions/1217832/…
    – C.S.Cameron
    Sep 30, 2020 at 5:38
  • @C.S.Cameron: I originally used the "MBR" option in the "Partition scheme", but have just re-run Rufus on the USB and set the "Boot selection" to "UEFI:NTFS". This seems to be the only "Boot selection" with "GPT" in the "Partition scheme". When I boot via the UEFI now, however, I get the message: "[FAIL] Could not locate 'efi\boot\bootx64.efi': [14] Not Found". Am I still getting the options in Rufus wrong?
    – Daniel Chen
    Sep 30, 2020 at 9:29
  • I have posted an image of Rufus showing the setup for a UEFI only install using Rufus.
    – C.S.Cameron
    Sep 30, 2020 at 10:15
  • Acer models all are similar: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2437702 Most also need "trust" setting once installed. Acer Aspire E15 will not dual boot, many details Trust settings in step 35 askubuntu.com/questions/627416/…
    – oldfred
    Sep 30, 2020 at 14:33
  • If the buffet of options in Rufus are too much, or if you're confused, you might want to try etcher to flash installation media. It's more user friendly and doesn't give you "wrong" options that would result in invalid installation media. Also, don't use Windows to create your partitions for Ubuntu. If you're trying to install Ubuntu, it's best that you use an app like "Disks" or gparted. Don't even bother creating a partition - instead, you should start the installer with unpartitioned free space. This will give you the install alongside windows option.
    – Nmath
    Oct 2, 2020 at 20:31

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Rufus Settings for UEFI Only Ubuntu Install

Note Partition scheme and Target system for UEFI only install.

enter image description here

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  • Thank you, @C.S.Cameron! This was just the right guidance that I needed.
    – Daniel Chen
    Oct 6, 2020 at 6:55
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Boot your system from a Ubuntu live-cd.

You would require an active internet connection.

  1. Install Grub. For UEFI installation install grub-efi. For others, install grub2
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ( grub-efi or grub2 ) #Based on your installation.
  1. Follow from step 2 from this answer.
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Acer machines appear to all have boot code which automatically looks for a Windows boot directory. I've found you can fool them into thinking they're running Windows, whereas they're actually running Ubuntu simply by a directory copy & one file rename.

This is how I did it,

  1. Make Ubuntu installation USB

  2. Boot from installation USB & install Ubuntu (given choices I prefer to scrub the whole of the hard drive and do minimal install). At this point you'll probably find you get boot fails if you try to re-boot from hard drive

  3. Boot once again from your Ubuntu installation USB and run a Live Ubuntu session

  4. Open a terminal, then go through these steps to copy the Ubuntu boot directory into Microsoft boot directory space

     sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt
 cd /mnt
 ls
 cd EFI
 ls
 sudo mkdir Microsoft
 cd Microsoft
 sudo mkdir Boot
 cd Boot
 sudo cp -r /mnt/EFI/ubuntu/* .
 sudo mv shimx64.efi bootmgfw.efi

and hey presto! it boots, and the 'Windows Boot Manager' magically puts 'Windows Boot' (which is now actually Ubuntu 20.04) to the top of the list in the F2 boot menu.

Note: I've got an Acer ES1-132 but suspect most Acer machines are the same

Warning: You may need to run through steps 3) & 4) again if the boot directory changes in the future, but this can be done without loss of data or any need to re-install Ubuntu. This happened to me once in last 4 years.

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