I have an Acer Aspire M laptop, which comes preinstalled with Windows 8, so it has this new UEFI stuff.
To get the Ubuntu LiveDVD running, I had to disable the UEFI completely and switch to legacy BIOS mode. But after that I couldn't boot Win8 anymore.
In many questions here I read that ubuntu 12.04.2 works with EFI but not with Secure Boot. But since I can't disable just one, I'm pretty much in a dead end.
Also it seems that UEFI boots faster than legacy BIOS, so it would be nice if I could keep all this for both Windows and Ubuntu :\
Best Answer
Dual Boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu 13.04 on Acer TravelMate
I was at the same dead end: I could not disable secure boot in the UEFI-mode in the BIOS of an Acer Travelmate P253-E with pre-installed Windows 8. The Secure Boot option was just gray and could not be reached with up/down keys. With secure boot enabled, the attempt to install Ubuntu 13.04 from LiveCD ended with the message: "DVDRAM has been blocked by the current security policy"and I could not boot the LiveCD.
I tried a lot (set supervisor password in BIOS...) but in the end I guess the Windows 8 factory reset did it (described here: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/3443121/how-refresh-reset-windows-8/?pn=2). I did the "Clean drive fully" option, it took a whole night to run! After that I could change the Security Boot to "Disable" in the Boot Section of the UEFI-BIOS.
I installed Ubuntu 13.04 64bit with a LiveCD and chose the windows boot partition "fat32 EFI system partition boot" as "device for boot loader installation".
After installation, the Notebook booted directly to Windows 8. No chance to boot Ubuntu...
I booted Ubuntu 13.04 via my Ubuntu13.04 LiveCD and installed and run the Boot-Repair ("recommended repair") as described here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
And this it is: Now booting the Notebook, gives me a screen on which I can choose to boot Ubuntu 13.04 or Win 8. With Ubuntu as default system, of course! :)
Hope I could help someone... Cheers!!