Win 1803 / Ubuntu 18.04 dual boot on zBook 15uG2 - cannot boot

[rudolffischer]

I successfully installed Win 10 / Ubuntu 16.04 on a zBook 15uG2. The machine booted to windows and ubuntu was accessible through F9 Boot Menu / Ubuntu.
Now I have done a clean install of Win 10 1803. This worked fine. After I installed ubuntu 18.04 alongside, The machine could not boot anymore, reporting "No bootable image found". 
Going to F9 Boot Menu and chosing ubuntu opens Grub, which then lets me boot to ubuntu or to Win 10 1803 without any issues.But if I just let the laptop boot, it says no boot image found.

Dual boot worked without issues prior to Ubuntu 18.04. Does anyone have a solution to get this to work with Ubuntu 18.04? Going through F9 Boot Menu for every boot is not really an option.

[Huffer]

You must have GRUB installed on a partition other than the one Windows wants to boot from. So if you do F9 it gives you a menu to boot from the partition where GRUB is located or to go to the one that it is set to boot from automatically. The Linux install likely messed with the original boot configuration. 

The BCD editor will let you edit the Windows boot parameters to point the process toward the GRUB partition, which is what F9 is doing but in a 2-step process rather than directly. You might also be able to just reorder the boot order in the BIOS to start the boot process from the partition whdere GRUB is now.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/boot-configuration-data-editor-windows

Post back with any other questions or please accept as solution if this is the answer you needed. 

[rudolffischer]

Hi Huffer,

thanks for getting back to me.

My zBook has a PCie SSD (C.\) and a 2.5" HD (Drive D:\). I had put GRUB on D:, because it wanted it to be out of the way. This had worked with Ubuntu 16.04. With 16.04 a straight boot would lead to Windows and booting via EWSC / F9 / ubuntu would lead to Ubuntu. Grub would not appear during the Windows boot.

With 18.04 things seem to have changed. Putting GRUB on D:\ still seems to have hijacked the Windows Boot Loader, getting me the "no boot media found" error message for a "straight" boot. Booting via ESC / F9 / ubuntu gets me to GRUB and then to either Windows or ubuntu.

I tried to repair the Windows Boot Loader using Bootrec /fixboot, but got an "access denied" error message. Ubuntu 18.04 seems to have taken control of something there.

I have now restored an acronis image and I'm back to a working single boot windows configuration. But I'd still like to get dual boot working, like I had it with ubuntu 16.04

Preferred would be to have "straight" boot into Windows (without GRUB) and ESC / F9 / ubuntu into ubuntu (with GRUB, I guess).

Second best would be to have "straight" boot into GRUB and then chose Windows or ubuntu from there.

Grateful for any help. Thanks

[Huffer]

I still think you find out what partition Windows is booting from first. Might be the "system reserved" or the actual C:\> partition and put GRUB there. I am used to having GRUB handle boot chores on dual boot machines and having Windows as the default boot choice so Linux is a conscious selection. 

[rudolffischer]

I have followed your suggestion and put Grub into the EFI partition, where the windows boot loader sits. Unfortunately the behaviour is still the same. This time around I looked at the (quick flash) error message closer. It reads "System BootOrder not found ..... Reset" (could not read the stuff where I put the dots).

F9 / ubuntu still launches Grub.

Did some more searching and found this:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/244261/how-do-i-get-my-hp-laptop-to-boot-into-grub-from-my-new-efi-f...

which talks of issues with dual booting because of the non standard way HP handles UEFI (about a fifth of the way down). 

Several possible solutions are described, but I have no clue which would be the simplest and easiest one (if this is indeed my issue)

[rudolffischer]

Back to Windows Single Boot. I have now just tried installing Ubuntu 16.04 alongside Windows and it works. "Straight" boot goes into Windows, via ESC / F9 / ubuntu into Grub and ubuntu.

Something must have changed between Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04. Absolutely no problem dual booting with 16.04.