Linux Mint Forums

Okay, getting very frustrated recently trying to install Linux along with Windows on my new laptop, which unfortunately, is being run by this new EFI crap.

Anyway, it came with Windows 8, which is okay - I would get rid and switch to Linux entirely if I didn't need windows for work-related things.

Anyway, I tried to install on a new partition, which worked fine, but then Grub would not show-up at boot time and instead it just loaded Windows. Seems to be a common problem and my interpretation of what I'd read elsewhere was that it was something to do with the fact that the drive was formatted as a GPT partition table and that Grub required an MBR partition table.

So I formatted the whole drive as MBR (ms-dos) using GParted on the live CD and then installed Mint. I then tried to install Windows 8 and it says that it can't be installed on a n EFI system unless the drive is formatted in GPT .

Anyway, all I really really want is very simple - I want windows 8 on one partition, Linux on another, and a nice Grub menu at the start to let me select which system. WHY IS THAT SO DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE?!?! Bloody EFI systems favouring one operating system over another... it's an absolute disgrace! It's MY machine, why can't I decide what to install on it and what to boot up with?!?!?!

Anyway, could somebody with patience please give me a road map to what I want to achieve. I have my machine, I have windows 8 on disc, and I have my Linux distro on a USB stick. How to I format my drives and do the install procedures so I can have both OSes behaving nicely and have the computer giving me the boot option at start up...???

I'd read elsewhere was that it was something to do with the fact that the drive was formatted as a GPT partition table and that Grub required an MBR partition table.

Completely wrong.

It's MY machine, why can't I decide what to install on it and what to boot up with?!?!?!

Because Microsoft knows what is best for you, you don't.

Anyway none of that helps you.

Basically if you have uninstalled it, you reinstall windows 8 in Uefi mode. You then go into the bios and switch off Uefi mode (and secure boot and fast boot if you have it) and install MInt in non-uefi mode. At this point you won't be able to boot Win 8 (shock, horror - Live with it for a while, you might see just how much you are being ripped off by the piratical B's). You then install boot-repair and convert your mint install to Uefi. You then go back into the bios and switch Uefi back on and if you are lucky you have a dual boot in Uefi mode. The whole process is explained in more detail here:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 12#p669573

viking777 wrote:

I'd read elsewhere was that it was something to do with the fact that the drive was formatted as a GPT partition table and that Grub required an MBR partition table.

Completely wrong.

It's MY machine, why can't I decide what to install on it and what to boot up with?!?!?!

Because Microsoft knows what is best for you, you don't.

Anyway none of that helps you.

Basically if you have uninstalled it, you reinstall windows 8 in Uefi mode. You then go into the bios and switch off Uefi mode (and secure boot and fast boot if you have it) and install MInt in non-uefi mode. At this point you won't be able to boot Win 8 (shock, horror - Live with it for a while, you might see just how much you are being ripped off by the piratical B's). You then install boot-repair and convert your mint install to Uefi. You then go back into the bios and switch Uefi back on and if you are lucky you have a dual boot in Uefi mode. The whole process is explained in more detail here:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 12#p669573

Okay. But at the moment I'm sort of between distros. I'm trying a lot of different distros before settling on a flavour... are you telling me I'm going to have to go through this horrible process to install/try any distros I want to take for a spin (assuming I don't want to boot them from a live media)?

Is this EFI/UEFI thing a hardware thing? Or is a software thing where I can somehow get rid of it and go back to whatever was the system on older machines?

Is this EFI/UEFI thing a hardware thing? Or is a software thing where I can somehow get rid of it and go back to whatever was the system on older machines?

If you have got Windows 8 and you want to keep it then I think you are stuck with Uefi for ever (although I don't use windows at all so I can never be 100% sure because I can't check it myself).

There are some distros that are supposedly better at Uefi than Mint. Fedora is supposed to work - although it didn't for me. And Ubuntu definitely works, I installed that in Uefi mode before I removed Uefi from my machine. Secure Boot is another matter all together, I don't know if anything actually works with that yet. I have also read the Fast Boot does not work with LInux at all. But like I said I don't use Windows so I can't verify any of that.