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Recently I tried to dual boot Ubuntu 16.04 with Windows 10 on my Acer aspire laptop UEFI and ran into many issues. The main issue being after installation of Ubuntu 16.04, grub2 bootloader worked only the first time and never again even when I tried reinstalling and several workarounds. Ended up having to format the hdd and install Ubuntu 16.04 by itself.

I just picked up an HP Laptop and I definitely want to dual-boot but am afraid that Windows 10 is the problem as I have worked with UEFI many times and never had an issue.

I read on several forums that Windows 10 breaks grub. This was a few months ago. Nothing worked and many others complained of the same issue.

Many suggested reverting back to Windows 8 or 7 and it worked for them.

My question is, now that a few months have passed. Has this issue been resolved?

Does anyone know of a guaranteed method that works?

Has Canonical possibly fixed the issue?

When I first tried my Dual-Boot, Windows 10 was just released.

Is this no longer an issue?

Appreciate any help! I really do not want to even start the process if I am going to run into the same issue.

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  • The way to make it work the first time guaranteed is to install both Windows 10 and Ubuntu in legacy mode. Some may disagree, but UEFI is just a pointless pain in the neck.
    – You'reAGitForNotUsingGit
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 0:41
  • Windows 10 and 8 doesn't work correctly on my laptop, there are a lot of booting problems and it's worst when shutting down. Why don't you try to install Windows 7? On my machine works 100% better. Give it a try man.
    – user609581
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 1:40
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    This is most definitely not a proper solution. Asking OP to downgrade to a technically unsupported OS, without actually giving advice as to the root issue (Legacy/UEFI).
    – negusp
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 1:43
  • @AndroidDev Its very possible OP has only a UEFI/CSM computer, and in that case, he/she will have to install Ubuntu as UEFI (CSM is a bunch of crap). As for OP, I would try anything twice just to get Ubuntu to work :). If you still have issues I guess you could try dual-booting with Wubi for UEFI, here: github.com/hakuna-m/wubiuefi/wiki
    – negusp
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 1:45

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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You seem to think that there is one issue that wreaks havoc with Windows 10/Ubuntu dual-boots. That's not true; there are many issues, most of which occur on only a small subset of computers. Thus, the only way to completely answer your question is to write a book on the subject. Literally, a book. As the author of over 20 published books on computers, I'm not exaggerating.

In some cases, you can install with little preparation and everything will work normally. Other times, you'll run into one of those many problems. To minimize the risk of your encountering a problem, or to help you recover should you do so, you can read up on the way EFI works and how Ubuntu (or other Linux distributions) works with it:

I know that's a long reading list, and you probably don't want to read all of those pages. If you can read just one or two, I recommend Adam Williamson's blog post and/or my page on installing Linux on EFI systems.

Beyond that, you get into specific problem areas. The biggest of these is buggy EFIs that forget their settings. This problem used to be very common but is now less common -- but more common than it should be. HP used to be a known offender in this area, but I get the impression that recent models are fixed. Dell and ASUS seem to be above average in their EFI implementations. Less-popular brands are often troublesome, as a general rule.

Bad instructions are also an issue. In particular, many sites and posts (especially older ones) recommend enabling BIOS/CSM/legacy mode; but if Windows is already installed in EFI/UEFI mode, enabling BIOS/CSM/legacy support is asking for trouble. My page on the CSM describes why in detail.

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  • Gentlemen thank you. One thing. I am not a novice. I know it is not one issue. To keep my question short I left out what I tried and I understand the architecture very well.
    – nexogen.io
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 3:34
  • Well, you have me mistaken. I am not novice to UEFI nor EFI. I have my own how to blog on UEFI. I am wise enough to know another may have a solution I overlooked. Legacy mode is out of the question. I did not ask how EFI/UEFI works. I also understand no system is guaranteed to install properly. I have installed many Linux distro even on non-pae CPU. Now if I can receive some advanced advice. My question was put out there hoping someone has a solid solution. Looks to me like Ubuntu alongside Windows 10 is still a guessing game? Thank you. I will solve this myself and post the solution.
    – nexogen.io
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 4:05
  • You posted a vague report of "many issues" with a previous attempt at installing on an Acer laptop and asked if you'd encounter the same issue (you switched to the singular at this point) with different hardware. It's impossible to provide a fix for whatever problem(s) you had with the Acer, given the lack of specifics; and it's even less possible to predict whether you'll have similar problems on an HP, given both the lack of specifics and the different hardware (and firmware).
    – Rod Smith
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 17:07
  • @Patrick Negus You are very rude. I attempted many times. I'm not lazy I love this stuff. I have tried with windows 10 several times on my Acer aspire hybrid laptop intel Celeron processor. 64-bit. I do not have the model number off hand right now I'm at work. I asked about windows 10 + UEFI because I wanted to be safe before installing on my HP laptop intel core i3 64-bit model number not on hand. I didn't think the model number mattered in this situation. Only the architecture. I'm sure I will have no problems on my HP as I said. I ran into many issue with the Acer. Can we not be so rude thx
    – nexogen.io
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 21:30
  • Never intended for this to turn into insults. Simply put, I never had issues with dual boot on UEFI and then I failed on my first attempt alongside Windows 10. If Windows 10 is the same procedure as Windows 8 on UEFI then I can narrow it down to the device. I appreciate the help. Thank you Rod Smith you left a lot of information sorry I came across ungrateful. I will adjust my questions in the future. I am new to this. The gentleman who insulted me can learn that process of elimination is an engineers best tool. I'm glad he had no issues on his install.
    – nexogen.io
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 22:10
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If Ubuntu still boots but you CANNOT change OS's I have encountered this problem once. If this is the case I think your GRUB is not showing itself long enough or is just not showing itself meaning the show menu option is off. You can fix this by installing grub customizer

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

After installation open grub customizer and navigate to the 'General Settings' tab and under 'visibility' check 'show menu' and increase the 'Boot default entry' value to however long you want in seconds.

Hope this works :).

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  • Thank you. I appreciate you're input. After Ubuntu install everything seemed fine, grub worked and I selected Ubuntu. Then I did a reboot and the system booted directly into Windows skipping the grub menu entirely. Grub broke that first time and then never installed properly again. I started completely over as sometimes the ISO. File becomes corrupt. I trouble shoot for two days. I could still get into grub rescue but to no avail it would fail over and over. I'm going to try on my HP now and maybe it will work fine. The Acer was the first device I failed to dual-boot out of many!
    – nexogen.io
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 4:56

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