Installing Ubuntu 15.05 alongside Windows 8.1

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I've been trying to install Ubuntu 15.04 alongside Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 is currently installed, the computer has two drives, both of which (as near as I can tell), use GPT. The first drive is an SSD, and I managed to resize it and add a partition for Ubuntu. The second is a disk drive.

I initially tried to install 14.04, but couldn't get it to boot, even after trying tools like easyBCD and easyuefi and gdisk.

So after spending many hours on that, I found this question. I switched from 14.04 to 15.04, ecstatic that all my woes would soon be forgotten.

Unfortunately, I cannot even install it as it hangs at the "Preparing to install Ubuntu" screen.

I am really at my wits end here. Why would it hang at that screen? What can I check to make this dual boot work?

MirroredFate

Posted 2015-09-03T22:27:35.067

Reputation: 111

Since you got further with 14.04 than with 15.04, and since 14.04 is a long-term support (LTS) version, I recommend you go back to 14.04 and tackle the boot problem. Note that gdisk will do little or nothing to help you boot. Depending on the nature of the problem, EasyBCD and EasyUEFI may not help, either. Read my page on EFI-mode Linux installs and, if that doesn't help, post a new question providing details of what's not working, including Boot Info Script output.

– Rod Smith – 2015-09-04T22:12:38.773

Answers

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I could not get 15.04 to stop hanging, so I switched back to 14.04.

I managed to make 14.04 work when I saw an "Advanced Boot" option under the boot option during the initial UEFI options menu on boot (like the BIOS menu, you just hold down a key like delete or whatever your computer uses to open the menu on boot). In the Advanced Boot options, it turns out I could choose the bootloader installed on the ubuntu partition. That bootloader correctly showed ubuntu alongside the windows loader, so I have the option to boot into either.

I'm still not entire sure I understand UEFI and it's various idiosyncrasies, but for anyone having a similar problem, I suggest looking for an Advanced Boot option or something similar in the UEFI options menu.

MirroredFate

Posted 2015-09-03T22:27:35.067

Reputation: 111

Asked: 2015-09-03T22:27:35.067

Viewed: 262 times

Active: 2015-09-10T17:03:11.217