Hi Wen Lin, did you try "vbeinfo" at the GRUB prompt? cheers Douglas
On 6/09/14 5:14 PM, Wen Lin wrote: > Hi, > > I've been trying for weeks to install Ubuntu 14.04 onto my friend's new > Toshiba laptop with the new UEFI secure boot built-in. So far, no luck! > I can't even boot it up with the Ubuntu Live CD, regardless of > SecureBoot enabled or disabled. > > First, some info and what I had done so far: > > Laptop: Toshiba Satellite C50D-A > (My friend bought from JB Hifi for $480 - not a high-end machine) > CPU: AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphic 1.4 GHz 64-bit > Memory: 4 GB > HD: 500 GB > Display adapter: AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphic > OS: Windows 8 (I had since upgraded it to Win 8.1) > > I had: > - Created a Win System Recovery image (using Win 8.1 built-in standard > tool) to a USB flash disk. > - Also used Win 8.1 built-in tool to shrink the C: drive to 255 GB, > leaving me the other half of the disk for my Ubuntu install. > > I had no problem F2 at startup into the laptop's BIOS to change stuff like: > - Boot sequence > - Enable/Disable SecureBoot > - Swap between UEFI Boot & CSM Boot (or Legacy mode) > > I had googled around quite a lot, and had tried several different > approaches suggested, to no avail. > > Most of the forum sites/blogs suggest disable SecureBoot, some said no > need - as newer Distro like Ubuntu 14.04 nowadays have no problem > booting with SecureBoot on. > > I tried both approaches, but the Live CD first could only display a > text-based version of GRUB 2 boot menu, with "Try Ubuntu" & "Install > Ubuntu" among the menu options (rather than the Ubuntu's usual graphical > one). Then when I selected either the "Try" or "Install" options, it > went into a total blank screen, and a moment later, everything stop - I > tried waiting for it, sometimes hours, but it never come back! > > To try to see some messages, I used 'e' in the Grub menu to get into an > editing mode: > set gfxpayload=keep > linux /casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/... boot=casper quiet splash -- > initrd /casper/initrd.lz > > To edit the kernel boot up parameters - generally involved replacing the > "quiet splash" with parameters like "nomodeset", "vga=radeon", > "vga=792", etc - all to no avail. But this time I could see some boot > up messages splashing out, and then stopped at certain point: > E.g. > - [drm] Initialized radeon 1.34.0 ... > - ahci 0000:00:11:0: flags: 64bit ncq ... > - r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver ... > - fb: conflicting fb hw usage radeondrmfb vs EFI VGA - removing generic > driver > - ACPI: Video Device [VGA] (multi-head: yes rom: no post: no) > > In general, it would seem the different boot parameters could only vary > in at most several boot steps, but none of them managed to go all the > way to successfully boot into Ubuntu Live. > > I had also tried other Distros: Ubuntu 13.10 64-bit & Linux Mint 15 > Cinnamon 64-bit - no different. I even tried an Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit CD > - but it boot straight into the Windows 8.1 instead. > > Another thing to point out: I had also tried the CSM Boot option (in > place of the default UEFI). When in this mode, the whole "SecureBoot" > feature disappeared, and I managed to boot into Ubuntu 14.04 Live CD, > all the local programs, WiFi, Internet, the lots, all worked as normal! > I had not tried installing Ubuntu from there. Just as well! As > attempt to boot back to Win 8.1 failed - the error message basically was > saying that the Win 8.1 is not there anymore! I could only boot back to > Win 8.1 normally after I had reverted back to UEFI Boot mode. > > As you can see, no joy at all! :-( > > So my question: Is it a UEFI/SecureBoot problem, or an AMD Radeon > display adapter problem? If it's a display adapter problem, then why I > could boot into Ubuntu when not in UEFI mode? If it's a UEFI problem, > then why couldn't I boot into Ubuntu with the SecureBoot disabled (said > so by all the related forums & blogs I had visited so far - i.e. > secureboot off - no problem)? > > I was pondering, if all else failed, to just install Ubuntu 14.04 into > the partition I had freed up, while in CSM mode. If this worked, then I > could persuade my friend to just stick to Ubuntu, and occasionally if > wanting to go to Wn 8.1, change back to UEFI before doing so. While > this may work (painfully), my friend might one day decide not to go back > to Ubuntu, and my efforts would be wasted. Worst still, installing > Ubuntu in CSM mode may render the Win 8.1 unbootable, and I don't think > my friend want that! > > Any suggestions, comments, or experience in such dual boot adventure > would be welcomed! > > Thanks in advance. > > Wen > > > > _______________________________________________ > luv-main mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main > _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list [email protected] http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
