Ubuntu – “invalid EFI file path” while booting Windows

dual-bootgrub2windows

I just got my new working notebook with Windows 8 pre-installed. After installing Ubuntu 12.10 the grub menu says that there is an "invalid EFI file path" and it won't boot Windows. Ubuntu works fine…

Is there anything I can do about this?

Best Answer

you should try to add windows as workaround manually to grub.

At first run

sudo blkid

Here you should see the UUID from your windows partition

open /etc/grub.d/40_custom and paste/edit following code but replace UUID_FROM_WIN8 with your UUID mentioned above.

menuentry "Windows 8 UEFI" {
    search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root UUID_FROM_WIN8
    chainloader (${root})/efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

The chainloader should look the same for all windows versions, as far as i know..

After editing grub files you have to run

sudo update-grub

Please test it first and give me some feedback because it could be possible that the efi file won't be found.. but i don't want to give multiple advice in one answer..

hope this helps!

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Invalid EFI file path

Your GRUB entry for Windows is appropriate for a BIOS-mode boot, but not for an EFI-mode boot. This is a GRUB bug. You can try replacing the entry with something like the following:

menuentry "Windows 7" {
    insmod part_gpt
    insmod chain
    set root='(hd0,gpt5)'
    chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

I make no guarantees that this will work, but it might. If it does, add that entry to /etc/grub.d/40_custom so that it will be created again whenever Ubuntu updates its GRUB configuration.

Another option is to use a different boot manager in addition to or instead of GRUB. rEFInd, for instance, will auto-detect both Windows and GRUB; and if you're using 3.3.0 or later kernels (as shipped with Ubuntu 12.10, but not with Ubuntu 12.04), you can boot Linux directly with rEFInd, bypassing GRUB entirely. gummiboot is another option with similar boot capabilities, but it requires more manual maintenance if you wanted to boot Linux directly with gummiboot.

Ubuntu – Invalid EFI file path on windows 8

First, I recommend you go into your firmware and disable Secure Boot, if you haven't already done so. This isn't always required, but Secure Boot seems to cause a lot of problems with many Ubuntu installations, so IMHO it's best to disable it. This will not solve the specific problem you're reporting, though.

Second, do one of the following things:

In Linux, install my rEFInd boot manager. There's a Debian package that you can install quite easily. The result is that when you reboot, you should see rEFInd rather than GRUB. rEFInd should enable you to boot Windows or Linux (and to boot Linux either directly or via GRUB).
In Linux, install and run the Ubuntu Boot Repair tool. This should fix your problem, but it will probably leave stray and non-functional boot entries. Some users find that it doesn't create bootable Windows entries, but it does for others.

If you try Boot Repair first and it doesn't work to your satisfaction, be sure to run it again and restore the backup files it created before trying rEFInd. There's an option in the advanced menu of Boot Repair to restore its backup files.

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – Invalid EFI file path

Ubuntu – Invalid EFI file path on windows 8

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