I can't boot ubuntu after installing it dual-boot from kubuntu 14.10 CD prallel to windows 8.1, UEFI secure boot, on an Acer Aspire E15.

Please show the output of the following command on the affected system:

sudo efibootmgr

Dear Steve,

in the mean time I tried a new install, an ugrade to the latest version, and boot-repair.
Nothing changed.

$ sudo efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0004,2002,0000,2001
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0001* Unknown Device:
Boot0002* ATAPI CDROM: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ8HC
Boot0003* Unknown Device:
Boot0004* ubuntu
Boot0005* Unknown Device:
Boot2001* EFI USB Device
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM
Boot2003* EFI Network

Best regards,
Peter

<snip>

$ sudo efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0004,2002,0000,2001
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0001* Unknown Device:
Boot0002* ATAPI CDROM: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ8HC
Boot0003* Unknown Device:
 Boot0004* ubuntu
<snip>

This shows that 'ubuntu' is marked in the firmware as the default boot option according to the EFI standard, but is not what was booted (instead, the booted device is option 1, "unknown device").

You're saying that with this configuration, your system boots to the Windows boot manager, and *not* to Ubuntu? If so, that sounds like a firmware bug.

Please also attach the output of 'sudo efibootmgr -v'. (Sorry, I should have asked for verbose output the first time.)

Dear Steve,

> Please also attach the output of 'sudo efibootmgr -v'. (Sorry, I should have

sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0004,2002,0000,2001
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager HD(2,12c800,96000,46e7c798-af89-47a1-89ae-ebc2141a24b5)File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)RC
Boot0001* Unknown Device: HD(2,12c800,96000,46e7c798-af89-47a1-89ae-ebc2141a24b5)File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)RC
Boot0002* ATAPI CDROM: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ8HC ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(1f,2)SATA(1,0,0)CD-ROM(1,83f27,11c0)RC
Boot0003* Unknown Device: HD(2,12c800,96000,46e7c798-af89-47a1-89ae-ebc2141a24b5)File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)RC
Boot0004* ubuntu HD(2,12c800,96000,46e7c798-af89-47a1-89ae-ebc2141a24b5)File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0005* Unknown Device: HD(2,12c800,96000,46e7c798-af89-47a1-89ae-ebc2141a24b5)File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)RC
Boot2001* EFI USB Device RC
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM RC
Boot2003* EFI Network RC

>You're saying that with this configuration, your system boots to the Windows boot manager, and *not* to Ubuntu? If so, >that sounds like a firmware bug.

It boots into a seletion, where I only can select windows, and the sekection menue doesn't look like the
typical grub menus.

However, if I start with the Kubunt 14.10 (64bit) installation disk and instead prompting for Kubuntu
I type 'c' to get into the grub menu, which I then exit again ( sometime I gave to repeat this),
I get a familiar looking boot selection from which I can start linux. Once it started everything is fine.
Currently we just do not switch off the Laptop, we just hibernate.

Best regards,
Peter

On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 09:11:26PM -0000, Peter wrote:
> $ sudo efibootmgr -v
> BootCurrent: 0001
> Timeout: 2 seconds
> BootOrder: 0004,2002,0000,2001
> Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager HD(2,12c800,96000,46e7c798-af89-47a1-89ae-ebc2141a24b5)File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)RC
> Boot0001* Unknown Device: HD(2,12c800,96000,46e7c798-af89-47a1-89ae-ebc2141a24b5)File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)RC
> Boot0002* ATAPI CDROM: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ8HC ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(1f,2)SATA(1,0,0)CD-ROM(1,83f27,11c0)RC
> Boot0003* Unknown Device: HD(2,12c800,96000,46e7c798-af89-47a1-89ae-ebc2141a24b5)File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)RC
> Boot0004* ubuntu HD(2,12c800,96000,46e7c798-af89-47a1-89ae-ebc2141a24b5)File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
> Boot0005* Unknown Device: HD(2,12c800,96000,46e7c798-af89-47a1-89ae-ebc2141a24b5)File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)RC
> Boot2001* EFI USB Device RC
> Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM RC
> Boot2003* EFI Network RC

This shows a few interesting things:

- The disk path for both Boot0000 (the Windows boot entry) and Boot0004 (the
  Ubuntu boot entry) match, which indicates that the Ubuntu boot entry is
  correctly set up to use the same ESP that Windows was using. Please
  confirm that /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi and
  /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi are both present on your system.
- The currently-booted option, Boot0001, is also pointing at the Ubuntu
  bootloader on the hard disk. Can you describe exactly how you booted this
  system to Ubuntu?
- All of the boot entries in your list show "junk" characters, "RC", at the
  end of the device definition - *except* for Boot0004, which is the
  (non-functional) boot option created by the Ubuntu installer using
  efibootmgr.

I don't have a straightforward way to include this 'RC' for testing, and I
don't know what this is supposed to mean. But since you have two other
ubuntu entries that do have the 'RC' appended already, we could try making
one of those the default and see what happens.

Could you try running:

  sudo efibootmgr --bootorder 0001,0004,2002,0000,2001

and rebooting, and see if this takes you to the grub menu on boot?

Please also attach the raw binary file /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/Boot0001-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c to this bug report.

Please also attach the raw binary file /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/Boot0001-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c to this bug report.

Dear Steve,

 > confirm that /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi and
>/boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi are both present on your system.

 : sudo ls -l /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1617240 Jun 14 2014 /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

: sudo ls -l /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1276984 Mär 29 16:21 /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi

 >Can you describe exactly how you booted this system to Ubuntu?
Well this is somehow strange I I just founs the way accidently:
(0) Of course I've changed the boot orde in the BIOS to first start from DVD, then HDD, then Window-Boot manager.
    I also disabled Windows fast restart.
   I installed kubuntu from the 14.04 image. Everythign went fine, except, that after the reboot the
  system booted into windows.

In order to boot the installed kubuntu I need the follow steps:

(1) Start the Laptop with the 14.04 installation disk
(2) Once the boot menu appears press 'c' to enter the grub 'shell' or whatever it is called.
(3) type exit 'exit' to leave the grub shell.
(4) Sometimes I do now get a boot selecetion, a blue top with white font 'Boot Manager' .
  I have a selection black letters on strange grey:
    1. Unknown device (ST...)
    2. ATAPI CDROM
    3. Windows Boot Manager (ST..)
(4a) sometime I have to repeat step '3' as I get back to the boot menue of the install dvd,

(5) I select the defualt entry 1. Unknwon Device ..
(6) I get Grub boot menue, not the one from the install dvd, and it boots into the installed kubuntu.
  (Remark: the time from this boot menue till I see the login manager is astonishingly short)
(7) Everything semms to run fine now.

> Could you try running:
: sudo efibootmgr --bootorder 0001,0004,2002,0000,2001sudo efibootmgr --bootorder 0001,0004,2002,0000,2001
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0004,2002,0000,2001
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0001* Unknown Device:
Boot0002* ATAPI CDROM: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ8HC
Boot0003* Unknown Device:
Boot0004* ubuntu
Boot0005* Unknown Device:
Boot2001* EFI USB Device
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM
Boot2003* EFI Network

--> Same procedure as above. It boots directly into windows. Using the dvd I can boot the installed linux.

Best regards,
Peter

I have an Acer Aspire E 11 E3-112-C6YY which shows the same probably-buggy firmware behaviour.

As Peter found, it'll boot from an Ubuntu USB mass storage device without a problem, but will never show an Ubuntu installation on the same EFI system partition as Windows Boot Manager. But it will reliably show the "Unknown Device" in the same menu when it is reentered awkwardly from GRUB: F12, select USB HDD, c, exit, <boots into USB GRUB automatically>, c, exit, <same boot option menu, but this time with "Unknown Device" which boots to the HDD GRUB>.

Putting ubuntu in BootOrder doesn't work, but BootOnce does. I haven't completely verified that BootOrder is respected properly in general, but it seems to be (eg. putting USB HDD above Windows Boot Manager). I also haven't yet tried adding/removing RC, renaming ubuntu to Windows Boot Manager, removing Windows Boot Manager from the EFI system partition, using a separate EFI system partition, or removing Windows entirely.

When all boot options are exhausted it will automatically enter some Windows repair thing. I'm not quite sure how that works yet.

As a workaround, a "bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi" in an elevated Windows cmd gets things booting to GRUB, and from there you can select Ubuntu or Windows. I'm not 100% sure what that does, but it may just change the "Windows Boot Manager" path in the EFI config.

The firmware is buggy in most intriguing ways that I haven't quite been able to completely determine yet. The Secure Boot status doesn't noticeable affect the dodginess. There's one easy workaround that doesn't involve hacking things from Windows:

 1) Hit F2 on boot to enter setup and switch to the Security tab.
 2) Set a supervisor password.
 3) Choose "Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing" and select HDD0\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi.
 4) You can choose between Windows and Ubuntu at the F12 menu, and choose a default in setup.

The firmware automatically adds entries for Windows Boot Manager and the nominated Secure Boot trusted file to the menu on boot no matter what the OS-visible EFI variables say.

Alternatively, I've also managed to get a proper EFI variable entry to stick in some circumstances, but it's not for the faint of heart:

 1) Boot GRUB from USB media
 2) Hit "c" and run "exit" twice. You should you end up in the boot list, with an Unknown Device option that starts Ubuntu. If you end up in Windows instead, try pushing Windows Boot Manager down the boot priority list.
 3) Use efibootmgr to delete all the boot entries starting with "Boot0".
 4) Create a fresh entry for ubuntu with "sudo grub-install" -- or manually create one, but the name must be "ubuntu". The firmware will create an entry for Windows on reboot. Don't reboot before the next step, or it won't work.
 4) In /sys/firmware/efi/efivars, append the bytes 41 30 31 20 09 AE to the value of the boot variable corresponding to the fresh ubuntu entry. I have no idea what this does, but it works unless you happen to flip one of the bits.
 5) Reboot and hit F12 to confirm that ubuntu shows up as a boot option.
 6) Reboot and hit F2 to tweak the boot order if you desire.

Beware that changing the boot order through the EFI variable can cause the firmware to overwrite some boot options with "Unknown Device" and write them back to the EFI variables.

The names "ubuntu" and "Windows Boot Manager" appear to be special, but it's so incredibly inconsistent that it's possibly a coincidence that "ubuntu" works. For example, some strings will never appear in the list, but others will appear only if they appear before "ubuntu" or "Windows Boot Manager". If you include both "ubuntu" and "Windows Boot Manager", the entries before the first and at least some of the entries between them will work. Everything after the last occurrence of a special name will be hidden, and sometimes clobbered to "Unknown Device" in the variables. You can have a totally working set of many entries, then flip BootOrder around and half the entries will either be clobbered or ignored. I've never managed to get an unsuffixed entry to show up, and it's not possible to add the suffix after a reboot without recreating the variable (identically or otherwise).

BootOnce works reliably, at least. Once.

I stole the 41 30 31 20 09 AE sequence from the end of the entry automatically created for the manual Secure Boot trust option.

[Expired for efibootmgr (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Dear William,

sorry for the long silence, but I didn't want mess with my daughter's Laptop.

I tried your suggestion:

 1) Hit F2 on boot to enter setup and switch to the Security tab.
  2) Set a supervisor password.
  3) Choose "Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing" and select HDD0\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi.
  4) You can choose between Windows and Ubuntu at the F12 menu, and choose a default in setup.

and it works fine.

Thanks a lot for your help,
all the best, merry christmas and a happy new year,
Peter

P.S.

Note that I wanted to update to 15.04 today, but the kernel didn't boot, although it started to do so.
After applying the steps 1) to 4) I could immeadiatly boot into 15.04. I'm now switching to 15.10.