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So I bought a new Laptop half a year ago (Acer swift sf-14) with preinstalled Windows. Since my university suggests using Linux for certain things I got myself ubuntu dual boot (installed from USB) and had no problems doing so.
A few weeks ago I decided to try out some other Linux distros and found Zorin OS and installed it (also from USB).
The installer gave me the handy option to replace my ubuntu with Zorin which I selected but now that I wanted to try out a different distro (manjaro) I realized that something went wrong when installing Zorin:
In the boot menu and in the bios I can't select Boot from USB stick anymore, instead, it gives me this:

enter image description here

If I put the Windows Bootloader at front it starts win10 (obviously) and if I select the first ubuntu it loads Zorin OS and if I start the second Ubuntu it starts Windows, too. I'm getting kinda desperate and would be really happy if someone could help me.

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  • And for college do yourself a favor and stick with Ubuntu, recommended and with plenty of support resources. Zorin is a joke. Manjaro is an excellent distro, based on Arch, and that is its strength and its weakness at the same time. You need some stability and stability is what you don't have with rolling releases like Manjaro.
    – user772515
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 16:55
  • How would I make sure it is in uefi mode? I formatted the usb in fat32 and then used some Disk Image software to put the iso on it.Thanks for the advice (and Zorin being a joke is something I realised too), guess I'll just reinstall ubuntu then, but as long as I can't boot from usb I can't reinstall it :/
    – MrFluffy
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 16:58
  • @MrFluffy - Check the contents of the drive. The contents must contain an EFI folder, if it does not, then you have created the disk incorrectly.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 17:02
  • @Ramhound It contains an efi folder with one file in it called bootx64.efi
    – MrFluffy
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 17:06
  • Got it to work but I don't really know how. After trying about 3 different programms for creating the boot usb and after unableing and ableing secureboot in bios it somehow worked using rufus (but it still only worked on the third try...) I literally have no idea why it's working now but w/e, thanks for helping
    – MrFluffy
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 19:37

3 Answers 3

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Linux perfectly boots in UEFI now (see "man efibootmgr" and "man bootctl"), but yes the secure mode is limited to just a few distributions that sign their files with certificates compatible with your UEFI BIOS (also this depends on the presence or absence of a TPM module: beware that some motherboards have UEFI BIOS compatible with secure boot, but the TPM module is actually not installed, you just have a header and you need to buy and install a TPM module on this header; Windows however works in UEFI secure boot because the UEDI BIOS already contains the certificates needed for Windows). Only some professional distribs of Linux for servers are working on motherboards preequipped with a TPM module and a compatible BIOS featured with the certificates needed to start these distribs; and getting signed Linux distribs is quite complicate (and often requires subscribing a support); basically these Linux distribs are used to run hypervisors on which you'll install VMs of your choice (using a virtual TPM module provided by the hypervisor). Some distribs are allowed however, like Ubuntu Could for Azure, AWS, Oracle, or IBM clouds. I don't know any "desktop" distrib of Linux that correctly boots in UEFI secure mode. But UEFI itself does work (as it notably allows installations with disks over 4TB)

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You may be using UEFI Secure Boot (standard on Windows 10 machines now) instead of what some call Legacy Boot. Many Linux distros do not support Secure Boot. You'll need to switch to disable Secure Boot (for EFI/Legacy hybrid boot) or switch to Legacy Boot for it to work properly.

Be warned, switching these modes will most likely break your Windows 10 installation.

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  • After fiddeling around with UEFI/Legacy and Secureboot options at least one of the ubuntu options disappeared, but even in Legacy mode and secureboot turned off the USB-stick didn't show up as option
    – MrFluffy
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 16:55
  • There may also be an "attempt legacy boot" or "enable USB boot" that may need to be switched on when you change these modes. I'm not entirely certain what BIOS your machine is running so the potential options may vary in wording.
    – camxct
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 16:58
  • Disabling Secure Boot might help, but only for those distributions, that don't support it and Ubuntu does. The author SHOULD NOT switch to legacy mode since Windows is was installed while in UEFI mode, which means switching to legacy mode WILL NOT solve the problem (it would create additional problems)
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 17:01
  • I suppose I need clarification on the installation orders and what the desired end-result is.I thought he tried to install manjaro but couldn't boot it, I think that's wrong now though. @MrFluffy, what does your partition schema look like? What if you boot into Windows, what does the partitioning look like in Disk Management?
    – camxct
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 0:46
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In BIOS change from “UEFI” to “Legacy” and turn off Secure Boot (which you may have to do anyway going to Legacy. Also you may have to turn on Legacy dependencies. Apply > Restart > F12 and then your option to boot from USB should show as an option under Legacy devices.

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