Ubuntu on a Toshiba Satellite

[chris]

On 15/10/13 08:24, Jim Byrnes wrote:
> On 10/14/2013 01:02 PM, chris wrote:
>> On 15/10/13 05:56, Jim Byrnes wrote:
>>> On 10/14/2013 11:27 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
>>>> On 14 October 2013 17:07, Jim Byrnes <jf_byrnes at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>>> Liam, in another thread you mentioned that you had a Toshiba
>>>>> Satellite Pro.
>>>>> Does it have Secure boot and EFI?  I am curious as I just had to
>>>>> return a
>>>>> Toshiba Satellite because I could not get Ubuntu to install and run
>>>>> on it.
>>>>
>>>> No, I'm afraid not. It's a P300-1AY - a circa 2008 Core 2 Duo machine
>>>> with a conventional BIOS.
>>>>
>>>> AIUI, SecureBoot is only found in association with UEFI, on x86-64
>>>> PCs, and it's a requirement for MS to confer the precious "Compatible
>>>> with Windows 8" status. It should be possible to disable it in the
>>>> firmware setup, though, which is sadly not possible with ARM hardware.
>>>>
>>>> Also, and again AIUI, only 64-bit Linux can cope with it. 32-bit
>>>> versions will not install (possibly not even boot).
>>>>
>>>
>>> OK, thanks for the reply.
>>>
>>> Regards,  Jim
>>>
>>>
>> Jim, I am running 13.10 on my Toshiba Satellite pro.
>> I had to turn of Secure boot, and efi, then installed win7, and 13.10.
>> as a dual boot system.
>> Running fine with no problems.
>> The win 7 drivers are on the Toshiba web site.
>> Regards Chris
>>
>
> Chris, thanks.
>
> I had nothing but trouble.  I turned off Secure boot and tried with 
> efi disabled and enabled.  I actually had it installed once but I had 
> no networking and Libre Office would not run. I accepted an update 
> hoping that it would fix my problem but after that it would not boot.  
> I tried to reinstall and ended up I messed up Win 8 so bad I could not 
> fix it. Then I wiped the disk and just tried to install 13.10.
>
> First I tried with efi enabled.  The live DVD booted up but the 
> installer would not run.  So I tried to install directly (no live DVD) 
> and that worked but I had no networking.  I tried turning off efi and 
> using csm ( I think it was caled). It would not boot.  No matter how I 
> tweaked the boot order I would get black screen where it mention dchp 
> and pxe, which I guess is trying to boot off a lan?I finally got to 
> the point  where I only had a couple of days left to return the 
> machine so I gave up.
>
> I tried to follow the various how tos on the web, including a couple 
> recommended but no luck.  All of them assumed that Win 8 was up and 
> running, but the first time I tried I did not setup Win8, maybe that 
> effected the out come.  Reading of your success I am tempted to 
> repurchase it and try again.
>
> Regards,  Jim
>
>
ah the big secret was to change the disk using a stand alone version of 
gparted from gpt to mbr.  Then no more issues sorry I forgot to add that 
bit.

so my solution.
using gparted from a standalone disk.
chnage the disk structure from gpt to mbr.
This will delete everything including the obnoxious win8

Install win 7 to a 45gig primary partition.
Install ubuntu to the remainder

works for me