Cannot see the Grub screen/Kubuntu login after installing Kubuntu 12.04 alongside Windows 7 on Asus U47A Laptop

Mon Aug 20 16:26:32 UTC 2012

Hi,

I tried it but it did not work. But, I got it working and below are the
details:

*Model*: Asus U47A
*Operating System*: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
UEFI mode

So, Windows was installed in EFI mode. The Asus BIOS supported both the
legacy boot and UEFI boot. So, the aim was to install both Xubuntu and
WIndows in the same boot mode. There are instructions to install Ubuntu in
UEFI mode but I was not feeling confident to take that approach. So, I took
the latter one and dual booted Windows and Xubuntu in legacy mode.

*Warning*: You will format your entire computer. So, make sure to make the
back up discs and take the necessary back up. If GPT partitioning or UEFI
boot is important to you, then this method is not for you!

*Steps*:-
1. Go into BIOS and disable UEFI. Save settings and restart and go into
BIOS again.
2. If somewhere there is a setting to delete boot options then delete all
the boot options.  Else skip this step. Even though I am pretty sure that
you cannot delete CD/DVD from boot option but if you can then don’t do it.
Save all settings and restart and go into BIOS again.
3. Put your windows DVD in the optical drive.
4. Somewhere (mostly on the last tab of your BIOS if it’s an Asus laptop)
you will find an option for boot override. Select your DVD drive and press
enter. Remember that this boot over ride option should NOT contain UEFI in
it’s name.
5. You will now boot from windows DVD non-UEFI mode.
6. During windows installation select “custom install” and then delete all
existing partitions on your harddisk. Create partition for windows. When
creating this partition windows will automatically make another small
partition of about 100MB size as system reserved. Leave the rest of the
unallocated space for now. We will take care of that space while installing
Ubuntu. Install windows now,
7. Now even after deleting all the partitions , there will be still some
GPT data left on the hard drive. As, long as you don't remove it, Xubuntu
won't recognize your windows installation. So use a utility called
'fixparts' and delete all the GPT data.
8. Once that is done put your Ubuntu CD in the drive and boot from it again.
9. During installation of Ubuntu select the option “do something else” and
create a primary partition for Ubuntu.
10. Now after creating partition for Ubuntu click on the rest of the
unallocated space and click on create new partition again. But this time
slected extended partition
11. Once you create extended partition you should be able to see all your
unallocated space in a sub menu under this newly created extended
partition. In this unallocated space you make rest of your partitions like
linux-swap (necessary for linux to work efficiently and for hibernate to
work correctly) and other partitions for your data.
12. Make sure that the bootloader device is sda without any partition
number after it.
13. Proceed with installation. If everything goes well you should be able
to dual boot to both Ubuntu and Windows.

*Note*:-
For hibernation/trackpad/other issues , I suggest running Kernel 3.5 or
above as it includes a lot of fixes. Also, intel rc6 graphics power saving
option was disabled by default for me. So, enabling it boosted battery life
by 2 hours!!

I hope this helps someone.

Cheers,
Jayneil.

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 10:05 AM, Jayneil Dalal <jayneil.dalal at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Thanks a lot for replying. I tried that once. I mean I created the 1MB
> partition but did not install the bootloader to it but to /dev/sda. So,
> this time I will create the 1MB partition and install the bootloader to it
> and see how it goes. I will update you as soon as I do that.
>
> Cheers,
> Jayneil.
> On Aug 16, 2012 8:37 AM, "uteck" <theuteck at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It seems like grub is not getting installed.  When it says grub will
>> be installed on /dev/sda it means the Master Boot Record (MBR) section
>> of that disk, the first 512 bytes, not the whole disk.  So it would
>> replace the Windows boot loader and should list both operating
>> systems.
>>
>> I am not that familiar with UEFI, but I would hazard a guess that
>> since you are not installing the 1MB partition like it is asking, grub
>> is not getting installed at all.
>> I think the installer is being overly helpful and detects the UEFI is
>> there and assumes it is active.  I think there is an advanced option
>> somewhere that gives you more control were grub gets installed, but if
>> you can't find it, try again and let it make the partition.
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 7:56 AM, Jayneil Dalal <jayneil.dalal at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I have an Asus U47A Laptop with no discrete graphics. UEFI is disabled
>> in
>> > the BIOS. I had Windows 7 installed by default. So, I installed Kubuntu
>> > 12.04 by creating a separate 300GB partition. During the installation,
>> it
>> > asked me where to install the bootloader. So, I installed the
>> bootloader on
>> > /dev/sda option which selects my entire hard disk I guess. I was also
>> asked
>> > to create a separate 1MB BIOS Grub partition before proceeding but I
>> choose
>> > to ignore it cause I had the UEFI boot disabled. Now, after
>> installation,
>> > the system just loads Windows 7. I cannot see the Kubuntu grub/login
>> screen.
>> > So, I went to the BIOS and saw that under boot options, it is still set
>> to
>> > Windows bootloader option. So, what do I do now? Should I change the
>> boot
>> > entry in the BIOS?If so, then to what(Windows recognizes the new Linux
>> > partition as 'D' Drive)? I don't want to remove Windows but dual boot.
>> Any
>> > help would be really appreciated.
>> >
>> > Cheers,
>> > Jayneil.
>> >
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