Linux 17.2 / Windows 10 dual boot on Asus X550Z laptop

[velky_pivo]

How to install Linux 17.2 Rafaela 64bit Mate alongside OEM pre-installed Windows 10 64bit on Asus X550Z laptop from DVD - Dual Boot UEFI

procedure is somewhat similar to the w8 w8.1 tutorial at
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=163126

it took me a while to figure this out, maybe someone else will find it useful

1) In Windows 10, we need to disable fast startup

right-click Windows emblem in bottom left corner
select Power Options
on left side, choose what power buttons do
at bottom, uncheck Turn on fast startup (Recommended)

Restart

To get to BIOS, hold or keep tapping F2 key as soon as restarting or when power button is pressed.

2) Once in BIOS, we need to disable fast startup and secure boot, and enable CSM
the goal is to get DVD recognized and boot from it, as well as to have the system setup correctly to install and run dual boot

Disable Secure Boot as follows:
Security TAB -> Secure Boot menu (at bottom) -> Secure Boot Control -> change to [DISABLED]

Disable Fast startup:
Boot TAB -> Fast Boot -> change to [DISABLED]

Enable CSM:
Boot TAB -> Launch CSM-> change to [ENABLED]
(leave the oprom option below it alone)

Change boot order to boot DVD first

save and exit

(there may be additional save/exit and reboot back to BIOS via F2 key required between the steps above)

3)Install
insert linux install dvd at some point so we can boot from it

reboot or power on

hold or keep tapping esc key
select to boot regular DVD, not UEFI DVD

at Linux Grub menu select the second line choice:
Linux 64 bit Mate (Compatibility Mode)

once in Linux live desktop, click the Install Linux CD icon to start installation

linux mint used to recognize windows already residing on hard drive
but not nowadays with w8 and w10 uefi boot

so when install screen comes up it says no OSes installed yet

Select do something else at the bottom

when at drive partition screen,
we need to allocate space for linux file system, for swap partition, and let it know where the efi boot partition is

delete DATA partition
this will give us free space about 600GB

normally, one would figure out beforehand which hd partition is efi,
on this Asus it is on sda1

click free space partition and install / (root) as primary partition, ext4 file system...leave enough space for swap partition
click remaining free space and install swap as swap, cca 15000 MB is fine
note that / and swap added together should be equal or less to free space available

select (click on) sda1 and mark it as efi boot on pop-up menu
(sda1 partition is about 270MB)
at this point the sda1 should be marked as efi (not grub boot !)
at the bottom change "Device for bootloader" to /dev/sda1

complete install

remove dvd when asked, and upon restart either F2 or esc to change boot order

there should be one or two Ubuntu boot option(s) in BIOS now,
if there are two, either one should work fine
select it and boot from there

this will not present any menu and will boot directly to linux

when in Linux, find and modify the grub file in /etc/default/ directory

right-click on grub file and select Run as administrator

change GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 to GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=10
change GRUB_HIDDEN_QUIET=true to GRUB_HIDDEN_QUIET=false
leave everything else alone

save file

open terminal -> sudo update-grub

restart

you should now see a grub menu with cca 4 entries like so:

linux -boot mint from here
advanced linux
windows bootloader on sda1 -boot windows from here
system

this worked for me, and hopefully it will for you as well

[austin.texas]

velky_pivo, After you boot into Mint on the hard drive, what is the result of the command:

Code: Select all

[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "Currently in EFI mode" || echo "Currently in Legacy mode"

[velky_pivo]

~ $ [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "Currently in EFI mode" || echo "Currently in Legacy mode"
Currently in EFI mode

and

~ $ sudo efibootmgr
[sudo] password for xxxxxx:
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0003,0000,0004,0001
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0001* CD/DVD Drive
Boot0003* ubuntu
Boot0004* ubuntu

We really need the Linux installation process to auto recognize the PC disk efi/legacy configuration, and provide auto install option for at least single drive dual boot.