Can't Dual Boot Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7 on Sony Vaio S 15 (2012)

I just bought my dad a new laptop for fathers day, a Sony Vaio S 15 (the latest models from Sony) and he wants to dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7. I put Ubuntu 12.04 on a USB drive and went to install it on the computer, but when I got into the partition part of the install there was no option to dual boot. Only to delete everything and install Ubuntu or 'other'. I installed using the 'other' feature by manually partitioning, however once I installed it the computer wouldn't ever go to grub. From inside windows I used Easy BCD to try and fix the boot loader so it would give the option to boot into Windows 7 or Ubuntu 12.04, but it couldn't detect ANY operating systems on the computer (not even windows).

Is it not possible to dual boot on the latest Sony Vaios, or is there a workaround for this?

Solution 1:

The following is a rip off from:

Sony VAIO with Insyde H2O EFI bios will not boot into GRUB EFI

This was done for a SONY VAIO S15 (2012) with 12.04 and it seems that everything works OK for me (like suspend from both OSes)

1. Make sure the machine is booting in UEFI mode not Legacy

2. Boot from Ubuntu US stick or CD

3. Make sure you selected the install the boot loader into Ubuntu partition

4. Install Ubuntu as usual.

5. Reboot but boot again from the stick

   sudo mkdir -p /mnt/efi_partition
   sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda3  /mnt/efi_partition
   sudo cd /mnt/efi_partion/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
   sudo cp bootmgfw.efi bootmgfw.efi.old
   sudo cp /mnt/efi_partition/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi bootmgfw.efi
   sudo reboot
   

   It should boot Ubuntu.

6. Now that it works, you must edit grub configuration to boot Windows 7

   emacs /etc/grub.d/40_custom
   

   Add at the end

   menuentry "Windows 7" {
       set root='(hd0,gpt3)'
       chainloader /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi
   }
   

   Then :

   sudo update-grub
   sudo reboot
   

Solution 2:

After days of trying, I finally found a solution to realize the dual boot. I am using a VAIO 13A and trying to install the Ubuntu 16.04 alongside the pre-installed Windows 7.

If you have tried all the other solutions found in other posts but not yet succeeded, maybe you could try my solution. I have first tried the solutions provided in the following links:

Sony VAIO with Insyde H2O EFI bios will not boot into GRUB EFI

and

https://askubuntu.com/a/180857/537309

However, either the vaio would still boot the Windows directly, or it can only boot Ubuntu. In the latter case, if I select the "Windows 7" option (which I had added to the grub menu), it will go back to the grub menu again instead of booting the Windows 7.

Here is how I finally solved the problem. First, follow the steps described in ( https://askubuntu.com/a/180857/537309):

1.Make sure the machine is booting in UEFI mode not Legacy

2.Boot from Ubuntu US stick or CD

3.Make sure you selected the install the boot loader into Ubuntu partition

4.Install Ubuntu as usual.

5.Reboot but boot again from the stick

then type in the following commands in the terminal:

    sudo mkdir -p /mnt/efi_partition
    sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda3  /mnt/efi_partition
    cd /mnt/efi_partion/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
    sudo cp bootmgfw.efi /mnt/efi_partition/EFI/Microsoft/bootmgfw.efi
    sudo cp /mnt/efi_partition/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi bootmgfw.efi
    sudo reboot

Note that the forth line is different from the original solution. It would just copy the bootmgfw.efi file one level up to the Microsoft folder for later use.

Now your vaio should run the grub and allow you to select the operating system. Choose Ubuntu, open a terminal and type in:

    sudo emacs /etc/grub.d/40_custom

A window would pop up. Add the following lines to the end of the file:

    menuentry "Windows 7" {
        set root='(hd0,gpt3)'
        chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/bootmgfw.efi
    }

Here we tell the grub to use the bootmgfw.efi file we have backed up in the previous step to boot the windows. Save and close the file. In the terminal, type in:

    sudo update-grub
    sudo reboot

And now you should be able to boot either system from grub.