Dual Boot (Windows 10) installation on ASUS Zenbook UX330UA-AH55

[pkay42]

I managed to install SolydXK as a dual-boot system with Windows 10 on my ASUS Zenbook UX330UA-AH55 laptop. I had a few fits getting it to install, so I thought I would share with people how I got it to work:

Windows Preparation:

1. Downloaded the 64bit iso
2. Downloaded and installed UNetbootin (as per USB tutorial) from https://sourceforge.net/projects/unetbo ... Netbootin/
3. Used UNetbootin to unpack the iso on the USB stick to make bootable USB stick
4. Side-Quest: had to uninstall ScanDisk software from the USB stick to make it actually bootable

[*]Use Windows Disk Manager to resize main Windows partition to desired size (can resize still smaller later if desired)
BIOS Preparation
This took a while to figure out. No judging. This was all done using American Megatrends BIOS Version 300 VBIOS Version 1051.I021UX330UAR.001 - if you have a different BIOS, good luck. (This one has animated graphics that made two different people say "Oooo, Matrix!")

1. Use the <esc> escape key to get into BIOS
2. Press <F7> to switch to Advanced Mode (the animation stops)
3. Boot->Fast Boot->Change to Disable
4. Security->Secure Boot->Secure Boot Control->Change to Disabled (do NOT change back - more later)
5. Boot->CSM Support->Change to Enabled. This is required to allow booting to the USB stick...

Booting to SolydXK

1. Plug in the USB stick
2. Reboot laptop
3. Hit <esc>
4. I ended up going to Boot->Boot Option #1 (Windows Boot Manager) and marking it DISABLED
5. With the only option the USB stick, boot to the USB stick.

Installing SolydXK

1. Partition the HDD
   1. I went ahead and used the GParted software to resize the windows filesystem still smaller
   2. Made a linux swap space partition - I went with 16 gig (I open a lot of tabs...)
   3. Make the rest of the space the / partition (ext4). You may also do /home, etc.
2. Made sure /dev/sda1 did indeed have boot flag (right click, there was a flags option)
3. Made sure /dev/sda1 had the grub checkmark (There are other approaches that did not work well for me)
4. Install!
5. Reboot and remove USB stick

Cleanup

1. Go to the BIOS and change CSM-Support back to disabled (Optional, but seems good)
2. Do NOT turn back on Secure Boot (not optional, unless you have a better bootloader installed by default than I got)

Dual Boot!
The system now happily boots into SolydX! If I want to boot into Windows, I hit <esc> in the short time the ASUS prompt is there, and the BIOS lists Windows Boot Manager as an option. I pick that, and Windows happily boots!

What went wrong for me...
When I reset the BIOS to use Secure Boot, Windows 10 removed the grub bootloader and re-installed its own, and I could no longer boot into Linux. This was a pain. Hacked steps to get back to functionality (I am SURE there is a better way to do this; no judging):
Reinstall the Bootloader (Grub2's EFI (UEFI?) settings)

1. Boot back to the USB stick. I could not get it to boot in UEFI mode.
2. Mount the SolydXK installation and the boot partition: (used sudo fdisk -l to list the partitions)
   1. sudo mkdir /s
   2. sudo mkdir /b
   3. sudo mount /dev/sda1 /b # /dev/sda1 is the boot partition
   4. sudo mount /dev/sda6 /s # /dev/sda6 is my SolydX Linux / partition (only ext4 in the list!)
3. Put a linux efi file back into the bootloader:
   1. find -name "*.efi" /s # only one option came up
   2. sudo mv /b/EFI/Boot /b/EFI/MS #in case I need to restore the MicroSoft efi bootloader
   3. sudo mkdir /b/EFI/Boot
   4. sudo cp /s/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi /b/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi # /s/usr/lib/etc was where I found the file
4. Take a deep breath
5. Reboot
6. Magic! It works! Linux boots by default, Windows 10 on demand.

If people have better ways to solve my problem, do suggest them, but be aware I have no intentions of touching my BIOS or boot partitions again.

Hope that helps someone, and looking forward using my laptop again!

--Peter

[pkay42]

For what it's worth, part of the difficulty I experienced was due to inability to boot to my USB stick in UEFI mode - that makes the linux installation legacy mode, which does not play as well with the windows bootloader.

--Peter

[ilu]

For what it's worth, part of the difficulty I experienced was due to inability to boot to my USB stick in UEFI mode - that makes the linux installation legacy mode, which does not play as well with the windows bootloader.

That's a common problem. Every BIOS type has its own secret, sadly. But there are some Linux-savvy guys at Asus support, at least in Europe, if you manage to get through to them. You need to somehow trick the first helpdesk into connecting you with tech support.

If I remember correctly from my Asus adventures you need to set a bios admin passwort first before you can boot in UEFI mode. (Pro tip: If you try this write down the passwort and don't lose it )

Even if you did not fully succeed I'm moving this into the tutorials section. Thank you for the write-up.

[pkay42]

YES! Yes yes yes!

That got me booted into EFI mode. It turns out I had to get a new laptop due to a flawed fan, so I went ahead and installed SolidX from EFI. I will see about making an updated post, if I can edit the original. I am much happier with this approach (but I will leave the original steps in case someone cannot find a way to boot to their USB in EFI mode.)

Thanks a lot,

--Peter

[iridesce]

Tripping though the Boards here and ran across this post.

Thanks for a well laid out procedure @pkay42 !!!

Dealing with EFI for the first time kind of scared me, this looks much better than my attempt.

I did a similar install to a Zenbook a few years ago and achieved success more through sheer persistence and luck than the technical knowledge demonstrated here. ( though thankfully have Win 8 { only use it to update my Garmin } )

My only addition would be to be sure to use the live version and an external hard drive to back up all the partitions of the Zenbook before beginning.

We appreciate all those who take the time to create such tutorials !!!