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alvgom
Asked: 2015-03-04 07:30:44 +0800 CST

This computer currently has no detected operating systems (no UEFI)

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I am trying to install Ubuntu in a laptop with Windows 8.1, but after launching from a USB, I obtain the message “This computer currently has no detected operating systems”. I’ve seen a lot of similar problems in this forum, but all of them are solved in a similar way, as they are related with the UEFI or Legacy mode. However, my laptop had Windows 7 preinstalled, and I installed Windows 8 later, and when I try to modify these options in BIOS I don’t find anything related with UEFI or secure boot (I’ve already checked a lot of forums but I realized this option doesn’t exist on my BIOS). However I found strange that the USB is detected in BIOS as “UEFI: USB Flash Disk 1100”. Windows 8.1 is installed in Legacy mode, and the partition is MBR.

After a lot of time trying in this way, I created a partition (shrink space in Windows, there are also a lot of tutorials on how to do it in this forum) in order to install linux in that partition. However, when I click “Something else”, all the space is detected as free space. It is, there are no partitions. The only idea I have is to create the partition by using this assistant, but as everything is detected as free space, I will indeed lose everything I have in Windows.

Any idea? Thanks for the help!

boot

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Chances are your partition table is damaged, or at least has something quirky about it that the Ubuntu installer doesn't like. The Ubuntu installer relies on libparted, and I wrote a Web page about this problem in parted and related tools here:

    http://www.rodsbooks.com/missing-parts/index.html

    If I'm right, the easiest way to fix the problem is to run fixparts, which comes with Ubuntu in the gdisk package. It might ask you some questions or simply fix the problem. You may need to type w to save the changes it makes (which it mostly holds in memory until you OK a change).

    Note that fixparts can't fix every problem that might cause the symptoms you're seeing. If you're unlucky you'll need to do more extensive repairs. If that's the case, you'll need to post detailed partition information, which you can obtain by typing the following commands:

    sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda

    If you've got multiple disks, repeat those commands for all of them.

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  2. In order to dual boot 8.1 must be in UEFI boot mode. Legacy and UEFI cant run together. Backup your data then install in UEFI mode. UEFI sees only in GPT partitioning system where as CMOS is only able to see in MBR.

    USB installs are UEFI only. Where DVDs are CMOS only.

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  3. I have already solve the problem, thanks to you all!

    I explain what I did in case someone else have a similar problem.

    Essentially I used fix part as Rod Smith said. For more details I followed the instructions in this webpage (sorry, it's in spanish, but you can understand the basic by using google translate):

    http://www.taringa.net/comunidades/ubunteros/8206876/Solucion-sencilla-para-instalar-Ubuntu-Xubuntu-con-Windows.html

    To sum up:

    sudo apt-get install gdisk sudo fixparts /dev/sda Press 'w', and then 'Y'

    After this Windows 8 was not recognized, but it recognized the partitions. So I could install Ubuntu in the free space. The problem then was that I couldn't change to Windows (but I still had it, of course). This part was easy, I just had to use Boot-Repair, more details here:

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

    I hope this helps!

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