how to access my kubuntu 14.04 installation? Or how to set up dual booting

[52ROSt]

Lenovon z50, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD with several partitions.

Partitions:
100MB "Reserved BIOS boot area" recommended by the installation SW. 1MB wa recommended
(/dev/sda8; type: biosgrub)
50 MB /Root
12GB Swap PC has 8GB RAM
562 GB /home

Installation went well, but after shutting down the PC after installation and booting the PC again. there was no choice to boot on W8.1 side or kubuntu side. What do I need to do to be able to choose on which OS shall boot?

[Qqmike]

Difficult to say, could be several possibilities. For now, though, fairly quick, why not first try

Boot-Repair
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
Burn that to CD or USB, following their directions, then run it on your system, see if it can sort this out for you. It seems to work more often than not.

(Issues, later, maybe, if Boot-Repair doesn't work or if others try to sort this out: Is that ALL your partitions, none that look like esp,boot? When you installed Kubuntu, where did the installer place GRUB 2? Your PC: sounds like sda8 is a Protective Master Boot Record partition. Your PC Manual didn't mention anything about BIOS or UEFI? I assume Windows 8.1 was installed FIRST? Unfortunately, I don't have recent experience with Windows dual-boot w/UEFI. Here's the dedicated thread for such issues, btw:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forumd...EFI-assistance )

[Qqmike]

I fixed a bad link, this one:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

[52ROSt]

Thanks already for the first hints. I will follow the boot repair and report thereafter.

Answers to your questions:

Grub2: I don't know where it is installed. During the graphical installation there was no shown, seen, asked. (or I missed it)

UEFI/BIOS: I changed the UEFI to "support legacy" which is indicated to be needed to boot Linux.

W8.1 was installed first.

Notes:
/ (root) partition is not 50MB but 50GB. This is a typo.

w8.1 boots normally as if there is no kubuntu installation on the machine

If a re-installation with special countermeasures would be a better solution don't hesitate to mention it. It will take me 1/2 - 1 h only.


************************
Update 1/2:

Created the Boot-Repair-Disc (BRD) on a USB stick using the Rufus.

Booted this BRD and run it while the booting was set to Legacy Support.

Got status message for support
paste.ubuntu.com/10625669/

Aditionally I clicked attempt to repair; resulted in message:
"The boot of your PC is in Legacy mode. Please change it to EFI mode. Please use Boot Repair Disc 64bit (which I
do use) Use BRD from live USB (which I do)

Changed boot from Legacy Support back to UEFI

W8.1 started without problem

Change boot to USB, BRD started without any problem but, the scanning running already for a felt half an hour. I will keep it running for a measured another 30 mins and try to report here more details.


*********************************
Update 2/2 and solution:

After setting boot from Legacy Support back to UEFI, I simply re-installed kubuntu. Compared to a http://www.intowindows.com/dual-boot...-8-and-ubuntu/ I did not find any possibility to tell kubuntu that it will be installed parallel to W8.1.

Partitions used are the same as indicated above. (Note the correction that root is 50 GB)

When all setting was done, I left the installation unattended and when I came back I had a screen which allows to select booting of kubuntu and windows as well as some additional settings.

I tested booting of windows and kubuntu several times and system appears to be stable.

I hope my problems help some other to reach their goals faster!

Thanks also for the support I received. Again, I am convinced my choice (actually it was my brothers recommendation!!!) of kubuntu is the right one.

[Qqmike]

Good. Sometimes the BRD serves as a guide, helping to indicate what each next step should be, and that's how it's helped here.

After setting boot from Legacy Support back to UEFI, I simply re-installed kubuntu.

Thus, you've installed the 64-bit Kubuntu in UEFI mode, it sounds like.

Glad you got it. Not a bad idea to keep that BRD handy! Especially as you have a mixed dual boot (Windows + Linux). If it is all in UEFI mode, you should have on the disk a special partition, called the ESP partition (EFI System Partition). Recently, I did a UEFI installation of ONLY Kubuntu (no Windows). If you have time, sometime, you might wish to explore your UEFI setup using some commands. See this write-up, if you wish:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post368216
-- Exploring the Kubuntu UEFI Setup, or messing around ;-)
--How to know you are running in UEFI mode--Several ways to check it--

Glad you got it.

[Qqmike]

and this from SteveRiley:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php?65253

[52ROSt]

Thanks for the last replies with again valuable information.

Final version:

The dual boot worked very well when W8.1 was shut down using a right click on the left bottom icon and choose start shut down from there. However, when my grandson shut W8.1 down, he went to the very front page of W8.1 with the squares and links behind the squares. He shut down W8.1 from there. The way he did it looked perfectly fine as an alternative to my way. But, thereafter the machine booted only in W8.1. My grandson saw my frustration and asked to delete W8.1 completely. A great decision of a 10 year old being fed up with all the junk popping up in W8.1 default installation.

Now the PC runs entirely on kubunu and my grandson is also very happy. I customized kubuntu to the needs of a 10 year old. Particullary I set up 4 activities (school, games there are quite some games in the kubuntu repository), images, and the default desktop. With an activity bar widget at the bottom of each activity screen I enabled quick switching. Added also the needed folders as widgets. Replaced the standard launcher with anothter one which name I forgot (there was an abbreviation in the name) and made some other adjustment for easy use of the system. And my grandson is happy.

For games he likes to play with friends he might need windows. Thus, I will set up a virtual machine (VB from Oracle) with simply W8.1 in it; a windows game VM. On my own PC im running kubuntu and XP VM using the Oracle VB. Runs perfect

UEFI - kubuntu gave me a message that I need a paritition for EFI and I just used a size like the orginial.

In summary my recomendation is: Don't make a dual boot W8.1 and kubuntu machine but only a kubuntu and if Windows is needed run it in a VM from Oracle.

[vinnywright]

the reason that the box would only start win8 after your grandson shut it down is because of the way he did it ,,,,it suspended the session instead of closing/shutting down the system .
VINNY

[52ROSt]

Thanks for your comment. Now as you say this I think this is the reason.

As mentioned above the final solution we made is installing only kubuntu. Next time I see him I will install him an Oracle VB with his w8.1 for some Windows only games.

[Qqmike]

I think a Kubuntu-only PC is a good decision
It does simplify things. I think, though, with SteveRiley's how-to and other supporting guides around here, one can get set up with both Windows and Kubuntu. But why? In your case, you've got experience/expertise with VB, so that's the way to go. IMO. Glad you got this.

[52ROSt]

The reason for setting up dual boot system was only to leave my grandson the original installation to 1st not require too much change and 2nd leave him his favorit game. I was very happy when HE asked me to remove W8.1 and install only Linux.

There might be some reasons for a dual boot system but in most cases a pure linux system is sufficient and the best.

I have in my kubuntu installation a VM (Oracle VB) with XP running, simply because of a SW I heavily need, and which runs only on XP. Thus in this VM there is the basic XP, my workflow modelling SW and a pdf-Writer running not more. I just hope that I can fix soon my external monitor problem and complete the final setup.