Ubuntu – Bootable device not found Ubuntu 16.04 – no option in BIOS to select an UEFI file

biosbootgrub2uefi

I have the same problem as many others after installing a fresh Ubuntu 16.04. The fix suggested in all cases I can find online is to select a custom file that will auto load grub. The problem I have is that my BIOS does not offer this option to boot.

The problem is discussed here: Bootable device not found after clean install of Ubuntu 14.04 UEFI

But I have no "Security – Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing"

What can I do to get Ubuntu to start in any way? Is there a way to boot into Ubuntu via startup disk to upgrade BIOS or force grub to auto load?

The laptop model is Acer Aspire ES 15 and also called ES1-533-C0L4

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Best Answer

After several hours I finally found a solution, and I cant believe how mind boggling this was. This is what you should do for your Acer Aspire ES series if you want to install Ubuntu.

The main problem is that the BIOS is preventing you from booting anything up but UEFI compatible systems, such as Ubuntu.

  1. Start BIOS by pressing F2.

  2. Disable Secure Boot and change the order of the boot sequence to boot on USB. (My particular Laptop does not have a CD-ROM drive and requires USB as the only option.)

  3. Boot on USB and select to run Ubuntu in live test mode that allows you to get access to terminal commands.

  4. Open terminal and run sudo ubiquity -b to run the installation process for Ubuntu.

  5. Select "Something else" to customize your own partitions.

  6. Create the following partitions as a minimum:

    • The / to store the file system
    • The swap space
    • The UEFI space

  7. Install Ubuntu and press Continue Testing after installation is over.

  8. Mount newly installed file system into:

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

    (where sda2 is the root partition and sda1 is the efi partition)

  9. Load efivars: sudo modprobe efivars.

  10. Reinstall GRUB:

    sudo apt-get install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64
sudo grub-install --no-nvram --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

  11. Update the installed GRUB:

    sudo chroot /mnt
sudo update-grub

  12. Move and rename the installed bootloader:

    cd /boot/efi/EFI
cp -R ubuntu BOOT
cd BOOT
cp grubx64.efi bootx64.efi

Thanks to Sladek90 for the grub tutorial here: Unable to install Ubuntu on Acer Aspire ES1-533

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