Ubuntu – Can’t Dual Boot Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7 on Sony Vaio S 15 (2012)

dual-bootsonysystem-installationvaiowindows 7

I just bought my dad a new laptop for fathers day, a Sony Vaio S 15 (the latest models from Sony) and he wants to dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7. I put Ubuntu 12.04 on a USB drive and went to install it on the computer, but when I got into the partition part of the install there was no option to dual boot. Only to delete everything and install Ubuntu or 'other'. I installed using the 'other' feature by manually partitioning, however once I installed it the computer wouldn't ever go to grub. From inside windows I used Easy BCD to try and fix the boot loader so it would give the option to boot into Windows 7 or Ubuntu 12.04, but it couldn't detect ANY operating systems on the computer (not even windows).

Is it not possible to dual boot on the latest Sony Vaios, or is there a workaround for this?

Best Answer

The following is a rip off from:

Sony VAIO with Insyde H2O EFI bios will not boot into GRUB EFI

This was done for a SONY VAIO S15 (2012) with 12.04 and it seems that everything works OK for me (like suspend from both OSes)

  1. Make sure the machine is booting in UEFI mode not Legacy

  2. Boot from Ubuntu US stick or CD

  3. Make sure you selected the install the boot loader into Ubuntu partition

  4. Install Ubuntu as usual.

  5. Reboot but boot again from the stick

    sudo mkdir -p /mnt/efi_partition
sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda3  /mnt/efi_partition
sudo cd /mnt/efi_partion/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
sudo cp bootmgfw.efi bootmgfw.efi.old
sudo cp /mnt/efi_partition/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi bootmgfw.efi
sudo reboot

    It should boot Ubuntu.

  6. Now that it works, you must edit grub configuration to boot Windows 7

    emacs /etc/grub.d/40_custom

    Add at the end

    menuentry "Windows 7" {
    set root='(hd0,gpt3)'
    chainloader /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi
}

    Then :

    sudo update-grub
sudo reboot
Related Question