WAIT! Don't scrap your Linux-Windows Dual Boot setup yet. Give this a try.
Before I start with the actual guide, I shall mention that this guide is for beginners/intermediate users who tried ever so hard to get their Linux-Windows dual boot setup up and running, but couldn't. The chances that these people have a computer that has SecureBoot? 100%
I recently tried to Dual Boot Kubuntu 16.04 LTS with Windows 10 and spent 4 hours trying to get Kubuntu to boot. It was hell to say the least.
So, I shall begin from a point in time where you have just finished installing Kubuntu and have just rebooted the machine, and BAM! straight into Windows you go, no sign of your brand new Linux operating system.
You have just googled desperately for solutions, and have tried boot-repair (which apparently works for many people), but it didn't work for you. You are now sad, exhausted, discouraged and wondering what on earth you did wrong.
Truth is, you didn't do anything wrong.
Before we go on, here is a Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage you may cause to your machines. The instructions below are safe to follow and have not caused any issues on my machine, but I cannot guarantee results for you. Follow along at your own risk. You must already have installed a version of Linux that supports SecureBoot and have a machine that supports SecureBoot to follow this guide.
My machine: Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition 2016
BIOS/UEFI: InsydeH2O revision 5.0
Step 1: Access your BIOS/UEFI settings by pressing the appropriate keys at boot time. You can find the specific key(s) for your machine by looking for it on your search engine of choice.
Step 2: SCROLL OVER USING ARROW KEYS TO THE "BOOT" TAB AS SHOWN BELOW.
ENSURE THAT THE BOOT MODE IS SET TO "UEFI" AS SHOWN ABOVE AND THAT THE SECURE BOOT IS "ENABLED". IF NOT, USE THE ARROW KEYS TO HIGHLIGHT THE LINE AND HIT ENTER AND CHANGE THE VALUE TO "ENABLED" IN THE BLUE BOX THAT SHOWS UP.
Step 3: Scroll over using Arrow Keys to the Security Tab. Ensure that Set Supervisor Password is highlighted in white, if not, use the Up and Down arrow keys to highlight the line as shown in the image below.
Then hit Enter. You will be presented with a blue box where you will be required to enter a password. Think of a decent password that you will remember easily. if you forget it, you will be unable to access your BIOS/UEFI anymore, so keep it simple. there is also no way to recover the password. the only way would be resetting the bios which you would need to take to the service center to do.
Once you have chosen one, input it once and hit enter and input the same password again and hit enter to set the password.
Step 4: scroll down to "Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing", then hit enter.
you will be taken to a screen as shown below:
there will be as many options as you have drives connected to your machine. i had one memory stick and internal hard drive connected so you see 2 options there.
highlight the option that indicated where you installed the linux bootloader (grub). usually it is installed in the same place as the os unless you specified otherwise.
in my case it is installed into the internal hard drive, so we will highlight "HDD0" and hit enter.
the screen below is what is observed.
select "<EFI>" and hit enter.
we now see this:
scroll down to "<ubuntu>" and hit enter.
Note: You will have to select the option pertaining to your OS, for example, if you installed Fedora, you will have to select "<fedora>", I installed Kubuntu, which is a flavour of Ubuntu, so my option was "<ubuntu>".
after hitting enter, we expect to see this:
scroll down to "grubx64.efi" (this is standard for all linux distributions) and hit enter.
enter a name for it and then hit enter and hit enter once again to save the record.
You might see a warning that says "File is Exist".
in this case, just hit enter and follow the next steps below.
Step 5: Do the same for "shimx64.efi" and hit enter. we are almost done. piece of cake wasn't it?
Step 6: now press escape till you go back to the main bios/uefi settings security screen.
Step 7: Note: This step is optional and is just for convenience. Scroll to the "main" tab using the arrow keys. and ensure that the "F12 boot menu" is enabled.
(This may/may not be only for acer, you may have a different key)
Note: by enabling this option you can choose to hide the Linux bootloader and only use it when needed, recommended if you are dual booting a family laptop.
Step 8: scroll over to the "Boot" tab.
you should now see a new boot option "EFI File Boot". now move that "EFI File Boot" up to the top of the list.
if you followed step 7, then leave "EFI File Boot" as the second in the list.
Step 9: Scroll to the "Exit" tab and "Exit saving changes".
We are now done and Linux will boot without any further issues provided the installation was done correctly.
Step 10: If you followed step 7 and want to boot into Linux, then keep pressing the boot menu key as the machine starts up, in my case it is F12.
you will be taken to the boot manager where you can choose the bootloader to use.
select the linux one to use your fresh install. enjoy!
For those who did not follow step 7, you will be automatically presented with the Linux (GRUB) bootloader. choose the option that has the Linux distro name to run the Linux distro or select Windows bootloader to run windows.
enjoy!
I hope you found this post useful.
If you have any queries, don't hesitate to contact me.
Thank you!