[SOLVED] Uefi selected in bios - pc unusable

[kdeuser]

Hello,

Kubuntu 18.04 is installed first and wish to add 2 more OS , mac, lastly windows 10.

Having an mbr partition with the 4 primary partitions max is a pain and so went into

the bios to disable legacy for uefi .

On reboot i was presented with a black screen with many text lines reading :

- blk1 ( some text here ,sda something )
- blk2 ...
-
-
- blk5 ...etc.

shell>

Rebooted , this time with my bootable usb3 and every-time back to this black terminal.

I must be doing something wrong.

The goal is to partition a 480 ssd drive using the gpt partition table.

Please help , thank you.

[Qqmike]

Hmmm. I'm not even sure where to start (if I am reading you correctly)! You do have courage, as a compliment to you.

So many issues come to mind.

ssd:
I have heard that you don't have to do anything to use your ssd. Then Vinny addresses the AHCI issue:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post422027

Your existing Kubuntu:
It sounds like you have a Kubuntu on a hard drive, set up on a Legacy MBR drive, and you want to convert that to UEFI setup. If so, Rod Smith--the UEFI expert--tells how:

Linux on UEFI: A Quick Installation Guide
http://www.rodsbooks.com/linux-uefi/
(read down to "OOPS ...")

(But ... you already made a change to your MBR <-- UEFI settings ... Can you simply change your BIOS back to Legacy, and then use Rod Smith's conversion? But ... you will want a GPT disk with an ESP on it, not an MBR disk ... make sure Rod's conversion handles that, and fact is, you CAN convert an MBR to GPT: simply use Rod Smith's gdisk program, explained in detail on his website.)

Mac:
I have no experience with it, but again, Rod Smith (one some of his many pages on his website) addresses some considerations.

http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/

To search his site for Mac, use Google like this, for example -- the search string would the following:
site:www.rodsbooks.com Mac

What you see:
shell >
That is the UEFI/EFI shell, a specialized shell environment that you need some expertise to use (and most people never use it or have to use it). It is popping up because, I think, your UEFI firmware can not find any viable UEFI bootable files to boot. You "switched" to UEFI, but there are as yet no UEFI bootable files set up or even an ESP.

UEFI setup:
It requires, as you note, a GPT and on that GPT you need to set up a special partition called an ESP (EFI System Partition) that will hold all your boot loaders.

Windows:
Again, I avoid Windows, and it usually is the culprit when we have UEFI boot problems. But you can manage it. I think when you install Windows (in its turn after Kubuntu and after Mac), it MAY want to make its own ESP, although you will already have made an ESP for your hard drive (ssd). You'll have to watch for that. You only need one ESP on your disk to boot all your OSs.
Also, for Windows, you must not disable Secure Boot, although for convenience and such, we usually disable secure boot when booting Linux, but you can boot Linux in dual boot with Windows with Secure Boot turned on (turned on in UEFI/BIOS firmware settings). So watch for that.

Limited experience with Windows:
About the only thing I have done with Windows is set it up in dual boot with Kubuntu on an ASUS laptop:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post418607


What to do:
Not sure! I think you want to save your existing Kubuntu installed to that drive that you made UEFI (instead of MBR). Rod Smith showed you how to make such a conversion, but I'm not sure now that you can easily salvage your existing Kubuntu. I'd be tempted to start from scratch. Start with what Vinny said about ssd's. Then use GParted Live CD/USB to make that drive a GPT, make an ESP on it, and go from there, carefully observing what Rod Smith says. Fwiw, I have a library of how-to's I wrote on UEFI (but, again, nothing on Windows or Mac), and it covers the ESP:

UEFI, GPT, ESP, GRUB2-EFI, (dual)-booting, fixing things
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...-fixing-things

There's a start. I tend to be somewhat academic. You may want to wait for others to chime in and help you get a quicker handle on this from where you stand at this instant.

[kdeuser]

@Qqmike, lord have mercy, you scared the bejesus out of me...!

Just read your post and think i know what the solution is...it`s called virtualbox.

I have already installed mac and windows. Seems to be ok.

Thanks for your tremendous help.

[Qqmike]

it`s called virtualbox

Nice move, kdeuser! Sure glad you got this one covered