No bootable device on single boot ubuntu for Acer Aspire ES14

I had Windows 10 on my Acer aspire ES14 (1T hdd, 4Gig RAM, Intel celeron N3350), but due to the latest update, it created a conflict where the update would happen, but not complete, and that would create a 100% disk usage problem.

After repeated re-installs, it led to re-installation problems with Windows recovery.

So I decided to rather install Ubuntu. I was a novice wrt Ubuntu and clueless. I have since learnt a little bit.

I installed Ubuntu 19.10 as a single boot, thus wiping the hard drive completely. All went well with the installation, and when asked to restart and remove the installation media (live usb drive), i found the message appearing, no bootable device.

I have tried using UEFI to address the issue: 1. I disabled SECURE BOOT and even re-installed ubuntu (a clean install, wiping the hard drive again), but this still shows no bootable device. 2. I attempted to switch to LEGACY, but do not have the feature that allows such a switch. Basically i'm stuck in UEFI.

I ran a boot info, and as follows, is the report:

Basically I can only use Ubuntu, by leaving the live USB in, which gives limited functionality.

Please can anyone help me to ensure Ubuntu loads directly from the HDD? Please include step by step instructions as Im still very new to this, and even copying boot loader files to the ESP leaves me bewildered...

Paul

2 Answers

The problem appears to be this, from lines 570-579 of your Boot Repair output:

=================== efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 2001,2002,2003
Boot0000* Unknown Device: HD(1,GPT,0d8e467f-f6a9-4029-a832-f87387ec93df,0x800,0x100000)/File(EFIubuntushimx64.efi)RC
Boot0001* USB HDD: Generic Flash Disk PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x15,0x0)/USB(2,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x94cd578,0x800,0xf40800)RC
Boot0002* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,0d8e467f-f6a9-4029-a832-f87387ec93df,0x800,0x100000)/File(EFIubuntushimx64.efi)
Boot2001* EFI USB Device RC
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM RC
Boot2003* EFI Network RC

Basically, your computer's boot order (BootOrder: 20001,20002,20003) includes only the USB device (Boot2001), the optical drive (Boot2002), and the network (Boot20003). To boot Ubuntu, the boot order must be amended to include the ubuntu item (Boot0002). There are several ways this can be done. The three easiest are likely:

• From the firmware
  1. Boot into the firmware setup tool.
  2. Locate the option to change the boot order.
  3. Add the ubuntu item to the boot order. (Details of how to do this depend on the firmware implementation, so I can't be more specific.)
• From Ubuntu
  1. Boot an Ubuntu installation/recovery/emergency disk in EFI mode. (Your Jan. 1 comment reveals that you booted at least one recovery attempt in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode -- see here for details on the perils of the CSM.)
  2. Open a Terminal window.
  3. Type sudo efibootmgr -o 0002,2001,2002,2003.
  4. Reboot.
• Using Boot Repair
  1. Boot the Boot Repair tool in EFI mode (see the caveat above about not using BIOS/CSM/legacy mode).
  2. In the Boot Repair tool, use the option to repair the boot process.
  3. Reboot.

There is one very big caveat: Some computers, especially from a few years ago, have very buggy EFIs. Yours may be one of them. Such computers may ignore attempts to adjust their boot order. On such computers, you may be left having to cope by using some hackish workaround, such as installing a Linux boot loader using the filename normally used by a Windows boot loader (EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi) or by the default/fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi). IIRC, Boot Repair has an option somewhere to make this adjustment, but I don't recall precisely where it is, offhand. Since you've already run Boot Repair, you've either neglected to actually use its option to repair the boot process or your firmware is afflicted by this problem.

I have Acer Aspire ES 14 laptop. After trials & errors, I found out that in your EFI folder must have "LINUX", not ubuntu, not other names. So what you need to do are:

1. Bootup using live ubuntu and use DISK UTILITY to mount your EFI partition.
2. Rename ubuntu folder to LINUX.
3. Go LINUX folder, copy grubx64.efi and paste as another file.
4. Rename that copy as bootx64.efi.
5. In same folder, make sure UUID in *.cfg is referring where your ubuntu partition is.
6. Reboot.

Hope it help. Remember to disable SECURE BOOT in BIOS.