How to enable legacy boot mode

AspireA717

My Model is the Aspire A717-72G and I try to figure out how to change the boot mode from UEFI to Legacy in order to install another OS. As I cannot find useful hints I hope that you might find a solution.

Thanks for your help.

Sharanji

AspireA717 
Some notebook models are no longer allowing you to switch to legacy mode!  Please try the below mentioned steps to boot from another OS.

Press and hold the Power key for five seconds to turn off your device.

Plug in the USB Drive that contains the operating system files.

Power on the system and begin tapping the F2 Key to enter the BIOS.

In the BIOS, use the arrow keys to navigate to the Main menu item at the top.

Use the down arrow to highlight F12 Boot Menu and press Enter.

Highlight Enabled and press Enter.

Press the F10 key and press Enter to save the changes and exit. The system will reboot immediately.

As soon as the system begins rebooting, press the F12 key repeatedly to enter the Boot Manager. 

Select the USB HDD and press Enter.

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wis

If the purpose is to install Linux & wipe out Windows or dual boot both operating systems, changing the firmware from UEFI to legacy is dangerous.  More importantly it is unnecessary.  Here is a good explanation of UEFI vs. BIOS.

It's dangerous because you run the risk of making your laptop inoperable by changing the firmware to BIOS.

It's unnecessary because Rufus will burn a UEFI-compatible, bootable flash drive, using these settings:
 
Ignore the business about the Windows 10 .iso.  In your dialog box, it will have the correct name of your image.

I have the opposite problem with my C710 Chromebook, which came with the legacy SeaBIOS; even though the chipset is UEFI-compatible.  I would like to dual boot with the R_W Legacy firmware, as this is the least risky route; but the only firmware available is the UEFI Full ROM.  This means that I would have to disable the firmware write-protect jumper (opening up the back of the device), replace SeaBIOS with the Full ROM & install Linux Mint over Chrome OS (no dual boot).

It's perfectly fine that you are not in my shoes.  Good luck with your new operating system.

AspireA717

wis said:

If the purpose is to install Linux & wipe out Windows or dual boot both operating systems, changing the firmware from UEFI to legacy is dangerous.  More importantly it is unnecessary.  Here is a good explanation of UEFI vs. BIOS.

It's dangerous because you run the risk of making your laptop inoperable by changing the firmware to BIOS.

It's unnecessary because Rufus will burn a UEFI-compatible, bootable flash drive, using these settings:
 
Ignore the business about the Windows 10 .iso.  In your dialog box, it will have the correct name of your image.

I have the opposite problem with my C710 Chromebook, which came with the legacy SeaBIOS; even though the chipset is UEFI-compatible.  I would like to dual boot with the R_W Legacy firmware, as this is the least risky route; but the only firmware available is the UEFI Full ROM.  This means that I would have to disable the firmware write-protect jumper (opening up the back of the device), replace SeaBIOS with the Full ROM & install Linux Mint over Chrome OS (no dual boot).

It's perfectly fine that you are not in my shoes.  Good luck with your new operating system.

I have already tried creating a UEFI-compatible and bootable flash drive by using rufus. Actually, I created a USB-Drive with Qubes OS, Ubuntu and a partition manager but Ubuntu freezes while starting the live version, Qubes OS switches to the verbose mode and then it says that the X window system fails to start and as a result the installation freezes. I get the same results with the partition manager whereas everything works fine on a old PC which runs BIOS. Therefore I wanted to switch to legacy mode.

Perhaps, you know another solution. I appreciate your help.

Gawain

excuse me if this has already been said in the thread, but with uefi bios's and linux, set a supervisor password and that'll let you disable secure boot (that does nothing for security for a linux install anyway).  Try again after that and see what happens

wis

Did you verify both images before burning? If the .iso files are corrupted, the installs will freeze. I would suggest concentrating on this aspect before attempting to installing the BIOS firmware on a $1,000 machine.

 

JackE

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/598047/#Comment_598047

Jack E/NJ

wis

I found this explanation why it's not possible to flash the legacy firmware in the new device.  Apparently there needs to be a  physical slot on the chipset for it to be written.  No reason for Acer to have this slot in a UEFI machine.

You may have to use both devices concurrently until you succeed installing with UEFI.

wis

If the .iso images contain no errors, then change the burn mode in Rufus from ISO Image Mode to DD Image Mode.   

If failure again, return to this forum & we'll think of other solutions.  If we persevere long enough, we'll cut this Gordian Knot (or crack this nut).