Ubuntu installation on computers with Intel(R) RST enabled

Documentation
89

I found the same thing today. When does the actual webpage get updated?

90

I found a workaround to boot windows after changing to AHCI easily.
I wasn’t able to make it work (no troubleshooting in the page worked) until I manually setup a safeboot minimal mode with an elevated cmd right after I changed the registry values.

Apparently the regedit changes for the “ RST enabled, Windows installed” scenario were being reset on the first fail cycle, so when entering repair mode they wouldn’t get loaded. I’ve read somewhere that the StartOverride changes only lasts for one boot cycle.

The solution was to set the safe mode (safeboot) manually. Right after the regedit changes:

  • With a cmd with admin rights (windows search: cmd, then right click, run as admin):
    bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
  • Reboot to BIOS.
  • Change from RAID (RST) to ACHI in the BIOS.
  • Reboot.
  • Windows enters safe mode correctly and setups the “new” hardware using the temporarily enabled drivers. New hardware connected sounds and all.
  • Then before restarting, revert the safeboot mode:
    bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
  • To go back to normal boot.

Tested with a Dell XPS 13 7390 (model P82G)

Also found a typo: The activate diskpart command should be changed to active (and add a note that it might fail with an error message about the volume not being “Fixed MBR”)

15 Likes
91

That’s a good question. The actual webpage is a static HTML page, which I committed at the request of @igorljubuncic. But there is no good procedure in place yet for maintaining it.

Myself don’t know the topic. Possibly, if you would submit a merge proposal with obvious things like typos, I might be able to merge it (it’s this Bazaar branch). But I have a feeling that the changes you would like to see are bigger than that, and if so they need to be reviewed by somebody with sufficient knowledge.

92

Yes.

Agreed.

Unluckily I’ve never used bazaar and it would take too much of the company’s time just to fix two typos.

The change proposal is to manually enable safeboot right after the registry changes, which reset each boot cycle by design, to avoid the failed boot (prior to the repair one) resetting them. Or at least that’s the working theory.

EDIT: Apparently reading further I ended up in this specific guide for my laptop model which does something similar (although not through command line but via the msconfig app)
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Dell/XPS/XPS-13-7390-2-in-1
Maybe the msconfig approach is easier on the user and to add to the RST guide.

93

Thank you, man!! Thank you very much.
@igorljubuncic can you add this to the post, please?

Happy, I found this right before editing Bcdboot.
Asus ROG Strix G17 G712LWS-WB74 with UEFI, GPT, Intel RST

1 Like
94

Hi. I just wanted to make you aware that tutorial from this post does not work at all for me (Dell Latitude).

  1. Changing registry in Windows didn’t help (Windows didn’t boot)
  2. While trying to repair Windows: none of bcdedit /deletevalue commands worked. Error:

An error occurred while attempting to delete the specified data element. Element not found.

  1. Bcdboot section: none of the two configurations describe volumes on my device (I’ve got Windows freshly installed, no changes on disk after installation). I’ve got one C volume (with Windows), one volume NFTS 508 MB and one FAT32 100 MB.
  2. None of those volumes contain boot folder I could cd into.

To sum up: hardly any steps from this tutorial worked as expected. Moreover, you’ve got even more outdated version of it here: Intel RST (containing non-existent commands like activate). This is the link Ubuntu propose to user when installation fails due to this storage incompatibility.

I suggest you either fix this post or delete it, because it doesn’t help anyone and create confusion to users how want to install Ubuntu.

1 Like
95

Worked flawlessly on my Acer A515-55G. Thanks!

96

11 posts were merged into an existing topic: Intel RST Issues

97

worked like a charm! @nitram-mural thank you!

Dell G7 7700

99

This saved me as well (Dell Optiplex 5090). I’m hoping this addition can make it into the official page soon.
Confirmed: the correct diskpart command is active (and it failed for me as well with the not-a-Fixed-MBR disk or similar)
Confirmed: if you screw up and change your bios back to RST, after a few reboots windows will revert and find its disk like nothing happened (this should definitely be in the notes)
Confirmed: without manually setting the safeboot, this process does not work for me

thank you!

100

Worked like a charm… I think the same “Safe Boot” can be enabled via msconfig. Also the second step in the main instructions storahci didn’t even exist for me. I only have an internal nvme. All in all, there were only 2 steps inside windows to get everything set to then safely change BIOS to AHCI. Cheers!

101

Thanks.
Does this mean there is no need to change registry values?

104

Folks,

Please remember that the purpose of this thread is to improve the documentation.

It was not really intended to be a support thread or a complaint thread or a I-found-a-bug thread or a thank-you thread.

Wherever you find your answer, please come back and make specific recommendations to improve the strings and images of the documentation to save other users the hassle you encountered.

1 Like
108

The main article really needs to be updated with the steps in this comment. Landed on this after struggling with the steps in the main article and landing on the blue screen. I had to set my BIOS back to RST and get windows booted properly. I then updated the registry as suggested in the main article and then used the steps in the comments to put it into safe mode - ensured that the change to AHCI was successful - and then booted back to normal mode. Thank you for this!

109

It fills my heart with joy knowing my little comment is helping so many people : )

110

Hello, I have finally succeeded to swich from RST to AHCI (after trying very long in vain). The documentation was missing crucial information for my special case: I had to disable Intel Optane Memory Acceleration before restarting into safe mode and switching from RST to AHCI in Bios. Before that, diskpart did not find any volumes and so I could not proceed from there.
The necessary steps are described here (scroll down to the last comment): https://askubuntu.com/questions/1433786/install-ubuntu-as-dual-boot-deactivating-intel-rst-leads-to-disk-drive-not-dete
Please include into the documentation, that Intel Optane Memory needs to be disabled in case the computer’s hard disk has it enabled.
Further remark to be added in the documentation: Bitlocker seems to need to be disabled before the BIOS-step (not relevant for my computer, though).

1 Like
111

… Or, you can use the Debian installer and face no such issue(s). Strange, isn’t it…:wink:

112

I could install ubuntu near windows. On Acer A515-54G you need to press Ctrl + S in BIOS to have option to enable/disable RST.

But now I need to change RST to AHCI every time I need to switch from Ubuntu to Windows and I need to change AHCI to RST every time I need to switch from Windows to Ubuntu…

What can I do to avoid it? I will be grateful for the answer.

113

Worked for me as well. Asus ROG.

114

Thank you very much! Your solution worked for me and made my headache go away. Much appreciated!