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I previously installed a standalone copy of Windows 10 on my Microsoft Surfacebook. I intend to set up Ubuntu dual-boot alongside it. Unfortunately, after installation following these instructions, it seems that Windows still boots over Ubuntu -- the GRUB loader is ignored?

I have tried the following:

  • Running boot repair from Live Ubuntu USB. This apparently runs and does some things, which prevents both Windows and Ubuntu from booting altogether -- gets stuck with the Surfacebook loading animation, screen flashes, goes into UEFI.
  • Going into windows and trying to change the boot according to this post (Running bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi).
  • Installing Ubuntu by itself -- for some reason, the GRUB refuses to show up, and no boot-repair operations are of any help.
  • Disabling fast boot and hibernation

Here is the info output of my boot-repair program: https://pastebin.com/N1J4H9eF

Tried running this command to rename the boot entry:

sudo efibootmgr -c -L "UEFI hard drive" -l "\EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi" -d /dev/nvme0n1 -p 2

Which gave this error

Could not prepare Boot variable: No space left on device

Here is sudo efibootmgr -c (Which I think may be pertinent): 

GUID Partition Table Header signature is wrong: 0 != 5452415020494645
GUID Partition Table Header signature is wrong: 0 != 5452415020494645
GUID Partition Table Header signature is wrong: 0 != 5452415020494645
GUID Partition Table Header signature is wrong: 0 != 5452415020494645
GUID Partition Table Header signature is wrong: 0 != 5452415020494645
GUID Partition Table Header signature is wrong: 0 != 5452415020494645
Could not prepare Boot variable: No space left on device

Here is a screenshot of GParted screenshot of gparted for my SSD

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Been wrestling with this problem for more than a few days now, and just can't figure it out... would prefer not to do backend development on Windows!

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2
  • I don't really get why people keep creating problems to themselves by using dual boot. For me everything works on VMs for years, and what is most fun you can do it both ways - host windows and VMs whatever or host NIX and VMs - again whatever. Yes may be some one-time issues when setting up for first time if want to use intensive graphics and need to buy a graphics card that supports virtualization, but after that - no stupid reboots to switch between machines and you can have hundreds of them on one pc for each task different.
    – Drako
    May 22, 2017 at 10:08
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    @Drako Because it is painfully slow, depending on what you are doing. I would actually prefer to just run Ubuntu, but for some reason, it just refuses to do so (I get similar errors with EFI's missing, etc)
    – boisterouslobster
    May 22, 2017 at 19:21

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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Insert the bootable linux usb and boot from the usb. Then run

sudo apt-get install grub2

Sometimes, if loader is UEFI it causes problems. At first switch to BIOS and then try this.

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  • Unfortunately, this gives me the following error: pastebin.com/58WcY55r
    – boisterouslobster
    May 21, 2017 at 13:50
  • Try sudo update-grub. If no package was still not found, try it after an apt-get update. Also, are you doing this from the live usb?
    – Rafed Muhammad Yasir
    May 21, 2017 at 13:55
  • You could also try grub if grub2 is not available.
    – Rafed Muhammad Yasir
    May 21, 2017 at 13:56
  • Got the following errors running various commands (after apt-get update, upgrade) pastebin.com/rPCDPSpa. I am indeed running these commands on a live USB
    – boisterouslobster
    May 21, 2017 at 13:59
  • Then install grub-efi-amd64 like suggested. This should work.
    – Hey
    May 23, 2017 at 17:44
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This message :

Could not prepare Boot variable: No space left on device

suggests that the EFI partition is full, although your GParted screen shows only 35/100 MB used. 100 MB is pretty small compared to what I've seen recommended for dual boots, so you could try resizing this partition to 300 or 400 MB.

I'm not sure if this could be done in place though ; you probably will have to wipe the existing partitions and reinstall both systems.

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I had same issue when installed Windows 8 and LinuxMint because Windows 8 was installed as UEFI and LinuxMint as Legacy BIOS mode. Solved the issue chrooting into the installation and installing Grub on it.

Assuming that nvme0n1p5 is your Ubuntu partition, from the LiveCD, run this:

sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p5 /mnt
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys

Then chroot into it:

chroot /mnt

Install the Grub-EFI binaries and install grub to the disk:

sudo apt-get install grub-efi
sudo grub-install /dev/nvme0n1
sudo update-grub

Now exit the chrooted system and umount it:

exit
sudo umount /mnt/dev/pts
sudo umount /mnt/dev
sudo umount /mnt/sys
sudo umount /mnt/proc
sudo umount /mnt

Reboot.

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0

Oddly enough, none of the responses posted worked for me. However, for whatever reason, after installing a bunch of updates on Windows 10 (to the latest build, 1607) everything fixed itself...

The one key thing I noticed was that 'Windows Boot Manager' was once again shown in the boot order (previously missing, for reasons unknown). I am not sure why updating Windows would have had such an effect -- running windows boot repair via the USB did nothing to help (it would exit with an error indicating boot repair is not possible).

Afterward, I was able to install Ubuntu without any issues whatsoever. Wish I knew exactly what happened and why, but it seems this will have to be one of those happy accident situations.

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