Problem Description:
I installed Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on the computer (HP Elite) of my aunt, where there was Windows installed until then. The installation (from a Live USB) went well but after restarting the computer, booting failed. I had a message from the BIOS telling me to install an OS because it didn’t find a Device Boot. Yesterday I used Boot Repair to have a summary info then made the repair, it still wouldn’t boot. It indicated that the problem could be that the boot files where too far for the BIOS to detect them, so I created a boot partition closer to the start of the disk, reran Boot Repair, still didn’t work. This morning I reinstalled Ubuntu, this time choosing manual installation to set my partitions, and I did (more or less) as told in the (french) Ubuntu documentation on manual installation (https://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/tutoriel/partitionner_manuellement_avec_installateur_ubuntu). Following the doc, I created a 36Mo partition in ext4 (since I had no option to select FAT32) and a 35Mo partition (intended for the BIOS-Boot), then a 2Go partition mounted to /boot, then the rest of the Mos (100+Go) mounted to the root /. Installation again went successfully and restarting again failed. Reran Boot Repair, still doesn’t work… I’m really not a hardware person and I’m at loss for solutions, so I hope finding help with you. My aunt tells me it could come from the computer itself, which is an “old” (at least 6 years) company computer (it belonged to the French social security), which she bought in a repair shop. What could be the solution?
If it is really 6 years old, then you should install in UEFI mode with GPT
Power on and quickly tap F10 to access the HP BIOS/UEFI set up
Main > Born on date?
System Configuration > Boot Options > UEFI Boot Order or Legacy Boot Order?
Yes it’s at least 6 years because she bought it in 2019 and it was not new. I didn’t find “Born on date”, but “Current BIOS Release Date” which is 04/12/2018. There’s also “Video BIOS Revision” which is ATI 08/22/14 (maybe it’s not a date actually). Boot Mode is set to Legacy, and Legacy Boot Order is indeed in black font (when UEFI Boot Order is in gray). Should I change Boot Mode to UEFI and reinstall Ubuntu? (What is actually the difference between these two modes?)
UEFI mode offers faster boot times, support for modern hardware, including drives larger than 2TB
Plenty of info on the internet when you have time to investigate
It will probably be simpler with a GPT disk to install in UEFI mode and to do that, you need to have that option in the BIOS and select it on boot.
Installing in legacy mode on a GPT disk requires a 1-2MB partition that must be unformatted and is generally best near the beginning of the drive. I don’t know what the first 2 partitions are, maybe one a separate boot but your bios_boot is sda4.
Microsoft has required vendors to install in UEFI boot mode to gpt (only) partitioned drives since 2012. The old BIOS mode required MBR partitioning. Newer laptops since about 3020 are UEFI only, even if called “BIOS”. My Dell says BIOS, but once in BIOS it says UEFI boot only.
HP also has a unique requirement. When grub installs in UEFI mode, it uses efibootmgr to ad an entry to systems UEFI one time & default boot entries. But HP resets back to Windows. Those with HP have said they can go into HP’s system setting & under boot, select Ubuntu as first in boot order. Grub will boot working Windows, but that means, no hibernation, no fast startup, no bitlocker & no chkdsk required. If you want those you should be able ot dual boot from HP’s one time boot menu. Windows is known to turn fast startup back on, so if grub does not boot Windows, you can directly boot from HP’s UEFI one time boot menu to make repairs.
Thanks for your answer! Yeah I forgot to tell but there was indeed this 1-2MB partition that was automatically added one the first automatic install of Ubuntu, and then automatically added in the manual partitioning after I had added the sda3 partition mounted on /boot. (sda1 and sda2 I created to “match” what was asked in the documentation on manual installation, but I clearly missed something because it seems there weren’t used in the end)
Before you install, don’t forget to back up your aunt’s data
During the installation, choose Erase Disk and Install, allowing the installer to automatically create the necessary partitions.
Splendid - I hope your aunt is pleased with your efforts
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and I’ve just installed Ubuntu on her second laptop!