I managed to get back in touch with my luckless friend in Denmark. She
said she was thinking of installing Windows 7 on the machine, which she
thought would give her access to BIOS. I replied as below. Comments and
corrections will be welcome, since after all I know very little.
"Windows 7 won't solve the problem, because it won't give you access to
UEFI. Windows 8 is not just software; it is also the PROM chips that
contain the start-up sequence, which is UEFI. You are stuck with those
PROM chips permanently, so I think you will have to go for dual boot
rather than replacing Windows 8 with Ubuntu, otherwise you'll never be
able to get to the start-up settings, which are in UEFI and are only
accessible from inside Windows 8. That's the way they've designed it.
Therefore, you must:
(1) Reinstall Windows 8, and you shouldn't have to pay for this. There
should be a disk or stick or even an online package to reinstall Windows
8, where you just type in your license key number.
(2) Learn how to access UEFI from inside Windows 8, following these
instructions:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-access-the-bios-on-a-windows-8-computer/
(3) Install Ubuntu 64-bit 12.10 alongside, not instead of, Windows 8.
(4) Once Ubuntu 64-bit 12.10 is installed (which you already know you
can do), then begin to experiment with UEFI settings, starting with
"Secure Boot", until you manage to get Ubuntu booting. You may need to
make further changes in UEFI before Ubuntu will boot. All these
experiments will require that you can boot Windows 8 repeatedly, enter
UEFI from inside Windows 8, change things in UEFI, then try again to
boot Ubuntu, and so on until successful. And you will require access to
UEFI for other reasons, from time to time, even when Ubuntu is working.
So you must choose dual boot, and have both systems alongside each
other. You see?"
--
[email protected]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
