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I installed Ubuntu 14.04 onto my Acer Aspire E15. The PC has a 500 Gigabyte HDD.

During the installation it divided the HDD into separate partitions. However every time I turn on the PC it goes directly into Windows 8.1. It doesn't allow you the opportunity to select which OS you want to use.

Question 1: How do I set the PC so it will allow me to select the OS?

Question 2: And if #1 isn't possible. How to I remove Ubuntu from the PC and recover the partition for Windows

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  • Thanks the first answer worked for me. you should accept it as the correct answer. :-)
    – tgkprog
    Jun 19, 2016 at 15:11

4 Answers 4

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Recently, I bought an Acer Aspire ES1-512 for a college course. As it happens this course requires the students to use Ubuntu. After several unsuccessful attempts to install Ubuntu alongside Windows. I believe I have an answer that allows you to install Ubuntu 14.04.2 alongside Windows 8.1 on an Acer Aspire ES1-512.

Some of the steps are from memory, so if something doesn't work please let me know.

Steps for Installing Ubuntu:

  1. Turn on the laptop and press F2 as soon as you see the "Acer Explore Beyond Limits" screen. This will take you into the UEFI/BIOS screen.
  2. If this is the first time you have entered the UEFI/BIOS section there are some adjustments that need to be made.
  3. Using the cursor keys highlight the menu item "Main."
  4. Network Boot: [Disabled]
  5. F12 Boot Menu: [Enabled]
  6. D2D Recovery: [Enabled]
  7. Wake on LAN: [Disabled]
  8. SATA Mode: [AHCI Mode]
  9. Touchpad: [Advanced]
  10. xHCI Support: [Enabled]
  11. Cursor over to the "Security" menu item.
  12. Set Supervisor Password to one of your choosing.
  13. Disable "Password on Boot."
  14. Cursor over to the "Boot" menu item and arrange these items.
  15. Boot Mode: [UEFI]
  16. Secure Boot: [Enabled]
  17. Arrange the boot devices as follows
  18. ATPI CDROM:
  19. HDD:
  20. USB HDD:
  21. USB FDD:
  22. Network Boot - IPV4
  23. USB CDROM:
  24. Network Boot IPV6
  25. Windows Boot Manager
  26. Press F10 to Save your modifications and Exit BIOS.
  27. Open the DVD tray and insert your LiveDVD of Ubuntu. Close the DVD tray and restart your laptop.
  28. When you restart, if the boot order is set correctly you should boot up in Ubuntu. If not go back into the "Boot" item in the BIOS menu and make sure the laptop's DVD is at the top of the boot devices.
  29. Select the option "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows." The installation program will divide the Windows partition. My Acer Aspire has a 500 Gigabyte HDD. The installation program divided it like so:
  30. Files (27.2 GB) /dev/sda4(ntfs) 253 GB
  31. Ubuntu /dev/sda5(ext4) 231 GB
  32. Wait for Ubuntu to install. This will take awhile.
  33. After Ubuntu is installed you will be instructed to reboot your laptop. After you select reboot you will be instructed to remove the Ubuntu DVD from the DVD ROM drive. Warning: If you think the laptop will now boot up and let you choose which OS you want to run. I am afraid you will be disappointed. The only OS recognized by the UEFI firmware at this time is Windows.
  34. Restart the laptop as we did back in Step 1.
  35. Use the right cursor key to highlight "Security" and use the down cursor key to highlight "Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing" and press Enter.
  36. The "Security" window will show HDD0 in white letters. Press the Enter key.
  37. On my laptop two items; they look like folders show up: "EFI and Temp." Highlight EFI and press Enter.
  38. These folders are displayed: ., .., ubuntu, Microsoft, Boot, and OEM. Highlight ubuntu and press Enter.
  39. Another set of folders are listed: ., .., shimx64.efi, grubx64.efi, and MokManager.efi. Highlight "grubx64.efi" and press Enter.
  40. The "Add an new file" window will appear in the middle of the screen with the question: "Do you wish to add this file to allowable database?" In the "Boot Description" type in grubx64.efi and press the Enter key twice.
  41. Press F10 to Save and Exit BIOS.
  42. Now restart the laptop and return to the BIOS menu. Cursor over to the "Boot" item and you will see a ninth boot file added: "EFI File Boot 0: grubx64efi." If you choose to leave the boot order alone. Whenever you turn on your laptop it will boot up in Windows.
  43. Or you can move the ""EFI File Boot 0: grubx64efi" to the eight position and boot up in Ubuntu.

For stealth reasons you can let your laptop default boot into Windows, but if you need Ubuntu when you power on the Laptop press the F12 key repeatedly until the "Boot Manager's" window opens. There should be two options.

  1. Windows Boot Manager
  2. grubx64efi

To boot Ubuntu highlight the grubx64efi and press Enter. For Windows highlight Windows Boot Manager and press Enter.

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    at first i thought to give up as i tried too many solutions boot-repair, disable secure boot blah blah.. but when i can to your post and give a another last try and its actually work! thanks dude +1 for listing every single steps..
    – webGautam
    Apr 21, 2016 at 5:06
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    this basic approach helped me get dual boot with Ubuntu 16 on an Acer Aspire R
    – toms
    Apr 28, 2016 at 20:05
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    Thank you, this worked for me. Put the steps on my phone so i can follow when i was re botting. Step 35 had to set a password before it let me change other things. Mpdel : Aspire E 15 E5-573G-34QR
    – tgkprog
    Jun 21, 2016 at 14:08
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    This solution works for an ACER F5-573G-73BD. After disabling system restore and shrinking the main drive using Windows 10 diskmgmt, booted Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS from a USB created from the Ubuntu Live desktop so it was UEFI compatible, installed Ubuntu to the freed up part of the drive from Live, but the system does show up in the UEFI list. Only Windows 10. These instructions added the option to boot to Ubuntu. Utilities run from Windows 10 were not successful in fixing the UEFI boot order.
    – Underverse
    Jan 14, 2017 at 13:11
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    Spent many hours trying various options from forums, until I found this post. The key was step 35 etc. Now it works perfectly :-) (Acer Aspire VX-15)
    – Valette_Renoux
    Mar 18, 2017 at 20:29
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I have an Aspire E15 E5-573G-531D laptop (with WIndows 10) and I was originally unable to boot from CD/DVD/USB stick, but I've now solved it and here's how ...

Obviously, first ensure you're using a DVD/CD/USB stick which is bootable (i.e. that you were able to boot from on a different computer).

Before you can boot from DVD/CD/USB stick, you need to access the BIOS. To do this, reboot the laptop and keep pressing F2 until BIOS is displayed. In BIOS, go to the boot menu and do several things:- 1. Put "Windows boot manager" low down the boot order (e.g. just before network boot). 2. Put whatever device you want to boot from high up the boot order (e.g. position 1). 3. Switch from “UEFI” to “Legacy” boot mode. Now save changes and exit BIOS. When the laptop restarts, you'll get some DOS text with the GUID and MAC address and after a short wait it’ll say “exiting PXE ROM” and will then boot from the CD/DVD/USB stick .... Voila!

(Now do whatever you want to from the DVD/CD/USB stick as you want).

(NB: If you're running an app to wipe unused space on HDD - if that's why you needed to boot from DVD/CD/USB stick - ensure you don't accidentally delete the boot partition(s) which are marked “Primary Unknown”. I deleted several of these partitions by mistake and couldn't restart the computer afterwards, so don't make that mistake).

Now, having run your DVD/CD/USB stick app, you'll want to put the laptop back the way it was so that'll it start Windows as before. To do this, first shut down (not reboot) the laptop. Wait for the lights to go off. Now switch computer on and keep pressing F2 until BIOS is displayed. In BIOS, go to the boot menu and:- 1. Switch from “Legacy” to "UEFI" boot mode. 2. Disable secure boot (It won't boot with secure boot enabled). Now save changes and exit BIOS. It will now restart and run Windows as before. Voila!

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Go to BIOS and set up supervision password. Next go to boot and make security boot from enable to disable. That all.

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Did you install windows after installing Ubuntu. If so then you need to reinstall the GRUB by booting through live disk.

And if that's not the case then:

Did you make a "swap" partition?

The process is like: (lets assume you have one drive with windows on it of 400 GB, other on with Linux with space of 100 GB)

  1. Now divide this 100 GB partition in two parts. Make one of almost 2-3 GB and make it's partition type as "SWAP"

  2. The remaining space, format it as ext4 partition.

  3. Go ahead with installation you won't face any problems.

Note: You can do all these step by booting through live disk of ubuntu and deleting the partition with linux installed on it already and then do as said. Choose Custom partitioning when you're asked for installation destination.

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  • 3
    Swap has no relation to the problem.
    – Pilot6
    May 23, 2015 at 17:35
  • @Pilot6 better answer the question than looking for loopholes in mine.
    – ashish
    May 23, 2015 at 17:54
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    When installing Ubuntu everything seems to work fine, but after Ubuntu is installed; you reboot and it goes directly to Windows 8.1. The last one I tried said to enable the F12 key. If pressed during startup there is no reference to Ubuntu's boot record at all. This tells me the UEFI firmware was NOT updated to recognize Ubuntu as an OS. Even though there is a folder in the installation DVD called UFI that is suppose to update the UEFI firmware. So the direct question is: How do you modify the UEFI firmware to recognize Ubuntu as a legitimate OS?
    – m.mccumber256
    May 26, 2015 at 16:10
  • Refer the link:askubuntu.com/questions/221835/…
    – ashish
    May 27, 2015 at 17:21

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