Acer Aspire ES 15 (ES1-533-C3UW): Legacy BIOS Missing

MegasBaladoros · May 2017

Double post.

MegasBaladoros · May 2017

Hi there!

A little background:

I bought an Aspire ES1-533-C4WF and faced the same problem. The workaround proposed here by Sladek90 and Pueseso was exactly what I needed. Unfortunately it did not go well. I think it can not work any more because the ESP (EFI System Partition) is damaged. Maybe it was damaged by my previous attempts, before I found this thread. One idea would be to try and fix it but this will take a lot of research. It would be easier to just format the whole disc (including the ESP) and install Ubuntu from scratch. I did not dare to do it yet because I have been warned that this could be dangerous and brick my new laptop. Maybe I am being silly but please bear in mind that this UEFI thing is new to me, I have been warned to be careful with it and frankly it has not been kind with me so far...

So my (double) question is:

1) Is it safe to format the whole disk, including the ESP, and install Ubuntu?

2) Can the Ubuntu installation process recreate the ESP?

Note that after the format I will still have to follow this thread's instructions, with "obiquity -b" and so on, and not a normal linux installation, but let's supose that I will do it right this time.

Sladek90 · May 2017

Hello,
1) It is absolutely safe to format complete disk erasing also the ESP. I have done it at least 10 times during my attempts to install linux and finally the computer works well. ESP is in fact nothing special but usual disk partition.
2) The ESP can be recreated automatically from within the Ubuntu installer or you can do it manually by some partitioning tool as for instance Gparted. There are lots of guides on how to partition your hard drive for linux EFI installation across internet.

Wish you successful installation.

MegasBaladoros · May 2017

I knew it! They got me scared for no reason. Thank you Sladek90! I will do it first thing in the morning.

----- EDIT -----

It worked perfectly, no need to change anything. Kudos to everyone who worked for it.

Sky_ · October 2017

> @HarvardNot said:
> Ok, I will want a beer from everyone who got helped from my message:
>
>
>
>
>
> You don't need to change to legacy.
>
> Use Rufus to create a GPT/UEFI compatible USB drive from your Windows 8/10 ISO.
Won't work. Tried it already with VN7-793G. Bootloader doesn't seem to find any Windows 7 installation.

Sweta · November 2017

Simple question can we change uefi to legacy in es1533, when uefi not highlighted

December 2017

I tried to tepepjenen ia windows 7 64, but the hdd driver could not find how to install it I read sludek90 but the google translator is not fair enough.

Vicky007 · January 2018

I tried many Linux distro like Ubuntu Debian Kali manjaro arch

Some distros are get freezes while installing or not able to install

Every times I got fail

Even I tried now
To install Ubuntu
Given steps above

But failed ........!

Any one tell the correct step to install Ubuntu or any distros

Or some one make YouTube videos
To install Linux distros like Ubuntu for Acer es1 533

Very difficult to install

Plz any one tell me the correct steps.....

Step by step process

Vicky007 · January 2018

Sweta said:

Simple question can we change uefi to legacy in es1533, when uefi not highlighted

You can change

Vicky007 · January 2018

Sorry for my above mistakes

Hey

Tell me how to downgrade my BIOS
For Acer es1 533

Am in 1.13 so I want to downgrade it

Let the process

Step by step to downgrade it.....

Treache · February 2018

I have had the same problem and I just solved it. Downgrade your BIOS version to BIOS Improve System Performance" from the link below. Then you would be able to change the Boot mode from UEFI to Legacy.
Acer Support Page to download the BIOS for Aspire ES1-533

Quabra · March 2018

Pueseso said:

Hi

I have successfully installed Ubuntu 16.04.1 in my laptop ES1-533-C6C1 following Sladek90 advise.
The only drawback is that it is horribly slow (probably becouse of some bug, have tried a Live-USB with MINT and it was OK...
This is the full tested process:

-- Boot Ubuntu Live USB
-- open terminal
sudo -s
ubiquity -b
-- Press Continue testing after installation is over.

--Now we will return to the CLI ( https://wiki.debian.org/GrubEFIReinstall )

sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt #sda2 is the root partition
sudo mkdir /mnt/boot/efi
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi #sda1 is the efi partition
for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done

modprobe efivars # make sure this is loaded

-- notice the bootx64 file
efibootmgr --verbose

-- We will reinstall grub-install for a 64bit version
apt-get install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64

grub-install —no-nvram —root-directory=/mnt
chroot /mnt
update-grub
cd /boot/efi/EFI
cp -R ubuntu BOOT
cd BOOT cp grubx64.efi bootx64.efi

-- You are finished, reboot the system.

After much troubles and looking around on the internet when wanting to install Ubuntu on a Acer Aspire, I found this topic. And it works, almost. I do get the installation completed, where using other methods it crashes at installing grub2. But I have problems when I give the command

grub-install --no-nvram --root-directory=/mnt

This error occures then:

grub-install: error: install device isn't specified

It seems I need to add a place on de harddrive? Could you help out?
I hope someone can help me out, untill now I have not found a solution yet.

avare · April 2018

hi alls... My Leptop aspire es 15 es1-533-C3N9. bios v1.07. insydeh20 rev 5.0;
Dont see MY usb boot HDD (win 7 64bit ) now; no boottable device mode
i was makig 4 days, very agry and unhhappy...
are you can help me? My world, Türkey / istanbul...

mamun181 · June 2018

JirkaKonca said:

Hi I tried that with no luck. Actually, the secure boot is displayed as Disabled, but BIOS still requires supervisor password before entering the BIOS editing tool... Before setting Supervisor password access to BIOS was not restricted, now the password is required to access BIOS settings edit and Secure boot disable/enable seems to have no effect on that.

Anyway, the main problem - that UEFI is the only option in Boot Mode - still persists. Secure Boot settings didnt change anything.
thx Jirka

Same issue someone help...............

cosmo0093 · July 2018

Treache said:

I have had the same problem and I just solved it. Downgrade your BIOS version to BIOS Improve System Performance" from the link below. Then you would be able to change the Boot mode from UEFI to Legacy.
Acer Support Page to download the BIOS for Aspire ES1-533

can you please give me some steps on how to do this? or kindly point me to some walkthrough

Mathieu_Leocmach · October 2018

The method by Pueseos almost worked for me on ACER Aspire ES 17 but ...

Pueseso said:

cd BOOT cp grubx64.efi bootx64.efi

... is not enough. Actually Acer and Microsoft tightend their relationship even more since this post, and Acer's UEFI (v1.17 for me) go look for .efi in Microsoft defined path and not standard path.

What I had to do in addition is

cp -v ubuntu/grubx64.efi OEM/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
mkdir Microsoft
mkdir Microsoft/Boot
cp -v ubuntu/grubx64.efi Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi cd /mnt/EFI

With secured boot disabeled from UEFI (BIOS) interface, Ubuntu now boots through GRUB

Source was this topic (in French) https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=2020977

ArjendB · November 2018

I have succeeded in installing Ubuntu 18.04.1 on an Acer Aspire ES 17 (ES1-732) using Sladek90/Pueseso's method, with a slight modification at the end of the script.
Original script: cp grubx64.efi bootx64.efi
Modified to: cp grubx64.efi BOOTX64.efi
Necessary because the CLI is case-sensitive.

ArjendB · November 2018

Installing Ubuntu 18.04.1 could only be done on the ES 17 with secure boot disabled.

On using the Ubuntu update manager for the first time, the system hung on an update of secureboot-db. It could only be unfrozen with a hard reset. From then on, I was prompted to enter 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' in terminal mode to fix the resultant mess, but that just froze the system again.

Re-installed 18.04.1, rebooted, installed Synaptic in Software Centre. In Synaptic I found the troublesome secureboot-db and manually excluded it from update. All other packages were updated succesfully.
Finally, I excluded secureboot-db from update in terminal mode by 'sudo apt-mark hold secureboot-db'.
The Ubuntu update manager did not freeze again.

jayaseelan150386 · December 2018

My acer aspire ES15-533 series model laptop, ,not working,,,windows10 to change win7 but bios setting options fully hide ..any options no change ,,,how to solved the problem ple.
Contact no-7010089714

Firas · May 2019

jayaseelan150386 said:

My acer aspire ES15-533 series model laptop, ,not working,,,windows10 to change win7 but bios setting options fully hide ..any options no change ,,,how to solved the problem ple.
Contact no-7010089714

did you find the solution? I also have the same problem