Acer Apsire E3 112 - Ubuntu install doesn't!

gordonbp
gordonbp Member Posts: 26 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
Hi all,
I’ve just purchased an Acer Aspire E3 112 that came with Windows 8.1 with Bing.
I have a good bootable USB stick with 14.04 on it, from which I have installed several times on different machines.
Here’s what I did:
 
  1. Created unallocated space on the HDD within Windows
  2. Booted from the USB
  3. Clicked on “Install”
  4. Chose “Something else” in the next dialog
  5. Created a / partition, a “Home” partition and a Swap area.
  6. Clicked on “Install”
 
The install went just like any other install that I’ve done over the last few years.
When it finished, I clicked on the “Restart” button.
The machine restarts, and goes straight into Windows. No sign of the Ubuntu install at all.
If I examine the HDD in Disk management within Windows, there are no formatted partitions in the unallocated space at all.
(I’ve tried the same procedure both with Ubuntu 14.04 and Xubuntu 14.10 - both had the same result).
AFAIK Windows 8.1 with Bing is no different at all to “normal” Windows 8.1 so can anyone tell me what’s going on?
 
 

Best Answer

  • gordonbp
    gordonbp Member Posts: 26 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Answer ✓

    Wow, that took an age.

    I noticed that I wasn't able to access the Secure Boot settings in the BIOS until I set a Supervisor password.

    That being done, I was able to access the Secure Boot settings and add an entry for Ubuntu into the Secure Boot database.

    Having done that, I went into the Boot tab, and set Ubuntu as the first boot and Windows Bootloader as the second.

    the result?

    It now boots straight into Grub, and, believe it or not, the menu option for booting into Windows actually works with no other actions needed!

     

    Hurrah! Smiley Very Happy

Answers

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    can be an issue with EFI?

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

     

    Creating an EFI partition

    If you are manually partitioning your disk in the Ubuntu installer, you need to make sure you have an EFI partition set up.

    • If your disk already contains an EFI partition (eg if your computer had Windows8 preinstalled), it can be used for Ubuntu too. Do not format it. It is strongly recommended to have only 1 EFI partition per disk.
    • An EFI partition can be created via a recent version of GParted (the Gparted version included in the 12.04 disk is OK), and must have the following attributes:

      • Mount point: /boot/efi (remark: no need to set this mount point when using the manual partitioning, the Ubuntu installer will detect it automatically)

      • Size: minimum 100Mib. 200MiB recommended.

      • Type: FAT32

      • Other: needs a "boot" flag.

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • gordonbp
    gordonbp Member Posts: 26 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    There's already an EFI partition, which is where I told the install routine to install the GRUB Bootloader, which is what I've done in all my other (successful) installations of Ubuntu on machines that had come with Windows 8 pre-installed...

     

    I'm just baffled as to why the install routine didn't do a thing, although it looked on the surface, just like any of the other installs I've done, and indeed took about the same length of time....

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    Have you tried to boot from the live Ubuntu and check if this partition is really missing or just windows hiding.

     

    by the way, very strange behaviour.

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • gordonbp
    gordonbp Member Posts: 26 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    I always boot from the Live USB first, just to check everything works!

    And yes the partition creator function in the install routine saw the EFI partition...

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    No other ideas, sorry.

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • gordonbp
    gordonbp Member Posts: 26 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    Just tried again. This time I set the Boot sequence in the BIOS to HDD instead of Windows Boot loader.

     

    Same result - BUT - the HDD now has three partitions on it (which it didn't before), the ones I created using the Ubuntu installer - BUT - they are completely empty!

    this gets more and more bizarre by the minute...

  • keith111
    keith111 Member Posts: 79 Troubleshooter

    What are the sizes of the three partitions?

  • gordonbp
    gordonbp Member Posts: 26 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    30Gb for /

    80Gb for /Home

    16Gb for swap.

    My standard partitioning...

  • keith111
    keith111 Member Posts: 79 Troubleshooter

    I do not see your windows SYSTEM RESERVED partition. (File system: NTFS)

  • gordonbp
    gordonbp Member Posts: 26 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    That's because those three are the ones I created in the unallocated space to install Ubuntu in...

  • keith111
    keith111 Member Posts: 79 Troubleshooter

    Use Recovery procedures to original factory conditions, then follow IronFly's instructions below on "can be an issue with EFI".

  • gordonbp
    gordonbp Member Posts: 26 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    I don't think it's anything to do with EFI, I've installed Ubuntu 14.04 on several EFI systems with absolutely no problem at all. Unless Acer EFI is different to any other...

  • keith111
    keith111 Member Posts: 79 Troubleshooter

    Since this is your first 8.1 as you have already transcribed, let's start over with the Recovery intstructions with the knowledge you have gained from this incident. Ubuntu may automatically recognize the partition requirements without the old procedures you followed previously.

  • gordonbp
    gordonbp Member Posts: 26 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    I'm sorry I must have misled you - this most certainly is not my first install of Ubuntu on UEFI Windows 8.1....

    Which is why I'm so baffled by what's happening...

  • keith111
    keith111 Member Posts: 79 Troubleshooter

    The recovery infrastructure involves auto partitioning at it's core, and upgrade functionality improvements may be now in place. Let's start over with the Recovery intstructions. Ubuntu may automatically recognize the partition requirements without the old procedures you followed previously.

  • ambival
    ambival Member Posts: 4 New User

    Experienced same behavior(boots directly Windows) after ubuntu 14.04 installation.

    While booting pressed F12 to go into boot menu(probably you need to enable it via BIOS) then i could see two entries: windows boot manager and ubuntu, selected ubuntu and was able to boot Ubuntu.

    To fix grub you could you use:

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

    or

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/

    I used boot repair cd, now i can see grub boot loader and choose between two OSes.

  • gordonbp
    gordonbp Member Posts: 26 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Answer ✓

    Wow, that took an age.

    I noticed that I wasn't able to access the Secure Boot settings in the BIOS until I set a Supervisor password.

    That being done, I was able to access the Secure Boot settings and add an entry for Ubuntu into the Secure Boot database.

    Having done that, I went into the Boot tab, and set Ubuntu as the first boot and Windows Bootloader as the second.

    the result?

    It now boots straight into Grub, and, believe it or not, the menu option for booting into Windows actually works with no other actions needed!

     

    Hurrah! Smiley Very Happy