Acer Revo RL85 Dual Boot - Windows 10 & Ubuntu Linux

JoePublic · May 2016

Hello

I have recently purchased an Acer Revo One RL85. It came pre-installed with Windows 8 which I have upgraded to Windows 10. I chose the option to use a separate installation USB stick. I repartitioned the drive to leave room for ubuntu linux. The Windows 10 installation was fine.

In the space left over I installed Ubuntu Linux 16.04 (I was able to boot from a USB stick). The installation was fine.

When booting, I am not presented with any way to choose the operating system to launch - I am only presented with the "Windows Boot Manager". I have searched various other forum threads and there is mention of "trusting" the Ubuntu EFI boot files. All the forums indicate that I need to enable a Supervisor Password in the BIOS (which I have). Doing so should, apparently, allow me to navigate to the Ubuntu Linux EFI files with the "Boot" tab in the BIOS. This facility does not appear to be available.

The BIOS version is as follows:

System BIOS

Version: P11-A1

Build Date: 01/09/2015

EC Firmware

Version: 1.02

Build Date: 01/12/2015

I can supply further details (e.g. partition layout; files installed into the UEFI partition etc) if required.

Thanks

piloti · June 2016

Hi JP......

In a few words, did you manage to get this sorted ? I'm in the same position. I can get the machine to work running from a USB stick, and I can get the thing to run only Ubuntu, resettng the UEFI restores Windows, but getting the Dual Boot to work is eluding me.

P.

JoePublic · June 2016

Hello

Yes, I did get this going (no thanks to Acer's support who were completely useless and gave me very conflicting infomation as to whether it was even possible to dual boot this machine [they were more concerned with asking when I had bought it rather than helping me whatsoever] nor the "techincal support" that wanted to charge £40 to provide this "secret knowledge" when the device cost £100!!!).

See my post at askubuntu.com to see what I did.

I did a completely fresh installation of Windows 10 (usb stick) - I used the partition editor within the setup programme to leave enough room for linux
I updated the BIOS with the latest from Acer
Installed ubuntu 16.04 from usb (make sure fast boot is off) - I chose to do "something else" and used the space left behind by the windows setup programme to create the linux partitions
Once installed I ran boot-repair from the ubuntu live-usb
I booted into windows and ran bcdedit as per the instructions at the end of running boot-repair
I rebooted and voila - grub is displayed allowing me to boot ubuntu (default) or windows10 (bottom of the list)

So the moral of the story .... don't bother asking the manufacturer (they are only interested in telling you how to launch windows explorer and other nonsense) - look at the free community!

Good luck