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(Lots of info in the title so that other people with the same problem may find it.)

I bought an Acer Aspire ES1-132, knowing that installing Linux might be a bit of a hassle.

What I have done so far:

  • Updated BIOS (InsydeH20) to version 1.09.
  • Disabled "Secure Boot" in BIOS.
  • Ran the Ubuntu Live-USB and installed on the HDD (eMMC).
  • Did not use guided partitioning and created 3 partitions according to this guide: How to use manual partitioning during installation?
  • Got "No bootable device" on startup.

This is where I am: If I start the computer with the live-usb I can access the grub cli (c key at the usb boot loader menu) and by running these commands I can mount access the installed Ubuntu desktop, seemingly without other problems:

set root=(hd1,2)
linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/mmcblk0p2
initrd /initrd.img
boot

And if I just put the computer in sleep mode it "starts" as usual. The annoying thing is having to carry a usb-drive around every time I need to restart the thing.

If I run lsblk I get:

NAME           MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
mmcblk0rpmb    179:24   0    4M  0 disk  
mmcblk0boot0   179:8    0    4M  1 disk  
mmcblk0boot1   179:16   0    4M  1 disk  
mmcblk0        179:0    0 58,2G  0 disk  
├─mmcblk0p2    179:2    0 18,6G  0 part  /
├─mmcblk0p3    179:3    0 35,8G  0 part  /home
└─mmcblk0p1    179:1    0  3,8G  0 part  
  └─cryptswap1 253:0    0  3,8G  0 crypt [SWAP]

and df:

Filesystem          1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev                  1913736       0   1913736   0% /dev
tmpfs                  387044    6472    380572   2% /run
/dev/mmcblk0p2       19091584 5867364  12231352  33% /
tmpfs                 1935208   63800   1871408   4% /dev/shm
tmpfs                    5120       4      5116   1% /run/lock
tmpfs                 1935208       0   1935208   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p3       36819652  872108  34054168   3% /home
tmpfs                  387044      12    387032   1% /run/user/121
tmpfs                  387044      92    386952   1% /run/user/1000
/home/jens/.Private  36819652  872108  34054168   3% /home/jens

So when I restart the computer I get a "No bootable device".

What I have tried that didn't work:

  • Set "trusted file" (or whatever it's called) in the BIOS, since that option isn't available to me, even after setting supervisor password.
  • Running boot-repair, when I do I can no longer use the method I have now to access the OS.

Any suggestions?

share|improve this question
    
Because you mention "secure boot" we know you have UEFI, not BIOS. Installing in UEFI mode always requires a ESP (EFI System Partition), a small (>500MB) FAT partition where the boot entries (files) for this method are stored. More details at help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI . The partitioning scheme you used applies to old BIOS only. – MichaelBay May 23 '17 at 12:10
    
Thanks for taking the time to comment! Could I use the instructions for "Converting Ubuntu to UEFI mode" on this page? help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI#Creating_an_EFI_System_Partit‌​ion – Jens Hendar May 23 '17 at 12:14
    
Don' t know, never did it, but looks promising. – MichaelBay May 23 '17 at 12:24
    
I'll give it a go. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. :) – Jens Hendar May 23 '17 at 12:31
    
Okay, tried it without luck. I created a /boot/efi partition, edited fstab and set boot flag with gparted, but nothing. – Jens Hendar May 23 '17 at 13:11
up vote 2 down vote

Okay, I have no hair left, but a solution. If you are in the same state that I was this might work.

Here is what I did.

  • Enter BIOS. Set an admin password and then disable secure boot.
  • Install Ubuntu and use manual partitioning. Follow this post: How to use manual partitioning during installation? but also add a third partition that is 200mb, mount point /boot/efi, type fat32 and a boot flag.
  • Create the /boot/efi/EFI/boot directory.
  • Download rEFInd from here and install it. Then move and rename the /boot/efi/refind/refind_x64.efi file to /boot/efi/EFI/boot/grubx64.efi.

After that it COULD work. As I said, I've been back and forth with this and I might've missed something. If anyone else has something that I missed or any part of this ^ that looks stupid then please enlighten me, because I'm fairly lost.

Edit: If you do do this and then have the double login screen issue, try to fix it any other way than by removing gnome-screensaver. That just put me back at square one.

Luckily I was able to fix it by moving the refind boot-loader to /boot/efi/ubuntu/grubx64.efi.

share|improve this answer
    
If you do this: don't try to fix multiple login screen issue by removing gnome-screensaver... back to square 1. – Jens Hendar May 24 '17 at 9:52
up vote 1 down vote

Recently I installed LinuxMint in this laptop, and this is the link helped me to install...

I have found a way to boot Ubuntu on a russian linux forum, where the reason for this problem is explained. The reason for it is that someone naughty has hardcoded all possible paths you can use to boot your system ('thanks a lot'). The paths are:

\EFI\Linux\BOOTX64.efi (Linux)
\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi (Windows Boot Manager)
\EFI\ubuntu\shim.efi (ubuntu SECURE)
\EFI\ubuntu\shim$cpu$.efi (ubuntu SECURE)
\EFI\ubuntu\grub.efi (ubuntu NORMAL)
\EFI\fedora\shim.efi (Fedora)
\EFI\android\bootx64.efi (Android)
\EFI\opensuse\grubx64.efi (topenSUSE)
\EFI\redhat\grub.efi (Red Hat Linux)
\EFI\SuSE\elilo.efi (SuSE Linux)
\EFI\ubuntu\grub$cpu$.efi (ubuntu NORMAL)

Referring to this post on community.acer.com

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