I am trying to install Ubuntu 13.10 as a dual boot on a laptop with pre-installed Windows 8.1
After learning how to disable Secure Boot and switch from UEFI boot to CSM boot I managed to boot UbuntU from a USB drive and go through the installation. But when I try to boot the machine from the hard drive it either boots Windows 8.1 (when UEFI boot and Secure Boot are turned on), or just hangs, seemingly trying to boot from Ethernet.
I then tried Lubuntu 13.10, and it did install in the CSM mode. Now my laptop boots Lubuntu when in CSM mode and Windows when in the UEFI.
Another detail: when I go through the installation Ubuntu does not notice Windows 8.1 at all, so I have to choose "Something else" option to avoid erasing Windows.
The laptop is Toshiba P55-A5312, and the BIOS is American Megatrends with Aptio Setup Utility.
I'll really appreciate your help after spending many hours on reading bits and pieces on the Net and trying every variation I could think of. Thanks a lot.
Another data point: I also tried to install Ubuntu 12.04, Mint 16 and Fedora 20 with similar success rate.
For extra info here is the output of the 'parted' command in Lubuntu:
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ01ABD0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 750GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 1075MB 1074MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag
2 1075MB 1180MB 105MB fat32 Basic data partition boot
3 1180MB 1314MB 134MB ntfs Basic data partition msftres
4 1314MB 373GB 372GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata
6 373GB 673GB 300GB ext4
7 673GB 683GB 10.0GB bios_grub
8 683GB 703GB 20.0GB linux-swap(v1)
5 741GB 750GB 9572MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag
Best Answer
The reason you are having trouble is that if you install an OS under CSM mode then it's only able to boot in CSM mode. CSM mode is when the computer acts like it's got BIOS. Operating systems then boot from the MBR of a hard drive rather than from the UEFI (fat32) partition. You must install both operating sytems under UEFI or CSM, not 1 one way and the other another. When you install ubuntu it's going to make itself primary boot but you will be able to select windows from the list.
If you are concerned about messing up windows boot ability as many Windows 8 users have, you can always backup your UEFI parition before installing Ubuntu, that way if anything goes wrong you just restore the UEFI data and you can boot into windows like it never happened. I would recommend using DISM for this which is best run from a free tool called WinPE, specifically version 4 which is built using WADK, you can download that from the microsoft website for free, but DISM is also installed on Windows 8 and 8.1 by default, however if you can't boot windows that doesn't do you much good, so I recommend building the WinPE disc. MAKE SURE TO USE DISM, NOT IMAGEX for capturing images, because Dism supports extended file attributes, Imagex doesn't. If you want to do a restore never delete the parition in question, only re-format it.
Using Dism:
Capture a .wim: Dism /Capture-Image /Compress:max /CaptureDir:b:\ /ImageFile:d:\backup.wim /Name:"backup"
Apply a .wim: Dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:d:\backup.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:b:\
Create A WinPE 4.0 iso using Wadk For Windows 8:
Copype amd64 c:\location
imagex /mountrw c:\location\media\sources\boot.wim 1 c:\location\mount imagex /unmount c:\location\mount /commit
MakeWinPEMedia /ISO c:\location c:\location\winpe4x8664.iso
For more information about DISM type "Dism /help" in the Windows 8 terminal...run the comand prompt as an Administrator. You can do so by right clicking the icon and choosing "run as admin" from the bottom bar of the start screen.