First thing I had to do was to disable Fast Boot and disable Secure Boot. From inital power on, press ESC repeatedly until small blue boot menu appears, then select "Enter Setup". Goto Boot -> Boot Configuration and disable Fast Boot. Change boot order so that DVD is 1st. Goto Security and disable Secure Boot Control. Press F10 to save and exit. This allows the install media to boot (in my case a DVD). Install went fine, selected the "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows 8" option.
After install, the system booted to grub, but when selecting Ubuntu, screen would go blank (but not off) and all HDD activity would stop. Numlock/Capslock keys worked, so system was not hung. Pressing Enter a few times would cause HDD light to flicker, but otherwise nothing.. Ctrl-Alt-Fn would not do anything. Strange thing was that if I rebooted, pressed ESC to get blue boot menu, and selected the "ubuntu" option (created by installer), it would goto grub and then boot fine!
To fix this, I installed and ran boot-repair.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && (sudo boot-repair &)
I just selected the "recommended" option in boot-repair. After doing this, I had to add another boot option as per the instructions - had to add sda1/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi. Pay attention to what it tells you, as it may not be identical, depending on your partitioning.
Reboot and press ESC on boot to get blue menu, Enter Setup, goto Boot -> Add New Boot Option -> Add boot option and give it a name (i used "ubuntu13.04"). The filesystem was pre-selected for me, the path for the boot option I entered as follows: fsx:sda1/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi - have no idea what the fsx: is about, but it was given in the help text. Scroll down to Create, and press enter. Press ESC to go back, and then move the newly created boot option to #1 position. Reboot and enjoy. Fully functional dual-boot system with Win8 and Ubuntu 13.04.
Why the Ubuntu folks don't learn from the boot-repair folks is really a mystery to me...
NOTE: I ended up having to delete the Windows 8 boot option in the BIOS, because after booting from grub into Win8 once, it did something to bypass grub.. frikin Windows!
are you able to use the ethernet port??
ReplyDeleteYes - I used the ethernet port to apt-get install boot-repair.
DeleteHi Bob
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post.
I've installed 13.04 (removing windows 8) on an X55A. It is mostly working great, but my DVD/CD drive seems to have stopped working; it can tell me what the DVD is called, but can't play anything.
Is your DVD/CD working on yours?
Any help really appreciated.
cheers
james
If you are just wanting to play a regular video DVD, open a terminal and try: sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
DeleteThen try playing dvd. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs for more info.
thanks bob - i'm a novice and would never have worked that out.
Deletecheers
james
Thanks mate,
ReplyDeleteI did exactly what you did and got the machine working.
I wonder why does it have to be so tedious to get Ubuntu working? On another laptop (Acer 5536 - again an AMD 64 machine), I installed OpenSUSE and it worked like charm. It's only with Ubuntu that I have faced such issues (even in the past).
Anyways, it's done now and I hope I get to earn a few extra brownie points for having done this. You see, the new machine is for my wife :)
Hi Bob
ReplyDeleteJust wondering if you could give me some help re-installing ubuntu on my Asus X55A.
I have 13.04 installed an I'm trying to install to 12.04. I'm having real problems setting the BIOS to boot from USB or CD drive. I've disabled Fast boot and Secure boot. - A bootable USB stick is being recognised and I can set it to be #1 in the boot order. I save and exit from BIOS and then the machine ignores the new order and boots from hard drive anyway!?
The CD drive is even worse - It isn't even listed as an option in the boot menu. There is an option to create a new boot device, but i don't understand how to do this.
Something I have noticed is that the Hitachi hard drive is listed twice in the boot menu.
Any help much appreciated.
james
panic over - i found another post with how to do it.
Deletein bios enable "launch CSM" and dissable "secure boot control"
save and exit
go back into bios and set boot order
james
James, genial tu aporte. Saludos desde Trelew (Chubut) Argentina !!!
ReplyDeletejames, help.. i have an asus a55x, ive erased w8 completely and intalled w7 x64 instead.. actually ive erased this one too, now im on @trying ubuntu@ options.. the thing is that i just cant make dual boot work, i dont get the message @install linux alongside windows7 i just keep having in ubuntu like one partition, even when i shrink from windows..i get the same from ubuntu, i just cant get this dual boot working, im thinking that maybe if there is a chance i could downgrade my bios.. that uefi.. damn, already more than 72 hours tryin to make this work.. and my w8 recovery disc is not working, like its not finding something, i guess its about the harddrive drivers, im so lost. help
ReplyDelete