Kali Linux 2016.1 and 2016.2 on UEFI (Dual Boot with Windows 10)

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Installing Linux on an Acer System

Dual Booting in UEFI on Acer Systems

Hey guys, writing after a long time....
The method to Dual Boot Linux (Kali Linux 2016.2) alongside Windows 10 which I gave works on most of the systems available

HP -- one of the most compatible
ASUS

, but probably NOT ON ACER && DELL.

If you are able to run it on any such machines, do tell me in the comments, and if not, I'm writing the method to dual boot on an Acer laptop.
So, let's start ...

Keep in mind that I'm giving the method to Dual-Boot on ACER Systems, in UEFI boot mode

Prerequisites

A bootable USB, with the linux live distro of whichever you like, but only in UEFI Mode

Now,

Turn off your System
Power on System, and boot it up using the bootable USB

Follow the method I gave in my other posts, of how to install the linux,

Though I made it for Kali
but, the procedure is more or less the same for most of Debian based ditros,
Fedora & REHL based linux are little bit different

Now, restart the system, but carefully,...
Press the key
```
F2
```
as soon as your system reboots,
You should enter the Boot Menu of your laptop

Now use your Right arrow key to go to the third page ie -- Security
First of all you need to set the Supervisor Password -- set it.

Now go to the Secure Boot Options ---

Selecting an UEFI File as trusted for executing

Press Enter ---
Select your Hard Disk Drive
Goto the folder named
```
EFI
```
Now, there should be a folder with the name of Ubuntu (or Kali or Debian or whatever Linux you've installed)
Press Enter ---
There must be a file with the name of
```
grubx64.efi
```
Select that file ---
It'll now ask you to enter the Name and save it
Do this and exit
Now go to the fourth page
```
Boot
```
Disable Secure Boot
Now restart

First of all boot into Windows, and see that everything is going on well.
Now restart, and press the key

F12

You should be able to see the UEFI Boot entry of your linux installation.

Congratulation on your successful installation of Linux on an Acer Laptop.

Post any problem or anything you need to know in the comments.
I assure you to reply asap.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

KALI Linux 2016.2 on UEFI and Audio problem solved (Dual Boot with Windows 10)

Installing Kali Linux 2016.2 in a UEFI boot-mode laptop/PC (Dual Boot with Windows 10)
The blog is also useful for those who wish to perform Dual boot with Kali Linux and Windows 10 or Windows 8.1

Before going into the setup, let me give you some basics of boot loaders and boot mode.
So what is UEFI and Legacy Boot Mode ....?????
These are two different methods to boot-up the OS installed on the PC.

The Difference between UEFI and Legacy comes in the firmware, they both use for booting up the HDD installed in the PC.
Legacy Mode refers to BIOS firmware. Basic Input/Output System(BIOS) was the first popular firmware for desktop PC introduced in 1975 by IBM for its CP/M OS. Even though it is still widely present, computers have evolved tremendously and BIOS is unable to provide advanced features of modern hardware.
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface(UEFI) is the successor to BIOS. UEFI uses the GUID Partition Table (GPT) whereas BIOS uses the Master Boot Record(MBR) partitioning scheme. GPT and MBR are both formats specifying physical partitioning information on the hard disk.
The basic differences are like -
1. Max size of a single partition in Legacy is ~2TB, but in UEFI it's ~9 zetabytes
2. The number of primary partitions in Legacy is 4, and in UEFI is 128. (still you can go dynamic drives)

A bootloader basically is a program that contains the details of the files which have to loaded on the startup of the computer, so as to make the OS boot-up at the computer start.

3. Legacy mode supports the storage of only one bootloader program, but UEFI enabled the users to store more than one bootloader program.
That means, you can install and keep the Windows Boot Manager as well as the GRUB loader (of Linux) both at the same time in the HDD.
4. UEFI enabled the support for Secure Boot, which is a sort of mechanism to prevent boot-time viruses from loading.

BIOS is pretty much outdated and UEFI offers many useful features. Thus it is recommended to install any operating system in UEFI mode. Note: One can't install in UEFI mode by booting in legacy mode.
Microsoft also started the support of UEFI with all it's OS Windows 8 onwards.

So, let's get started. Before that make sure you have the tools required for this.

Tools required will be

1. Rufus USB Tool, by Akeo................... get it here
2. Kali Linux Live USB Dist. .................. get it here
3. EFI File for booting into UEFI Mode ...................
for the time being just get it from here.... make sure you download both these files..

Okay so let's start..

Now let's build up our bootable media.............. a USB
Preferably take a 4 GB or 8 GB USB
Now open up Rufus Tools

1. Select your USB Media

2. keep the Partion System and Target System Type, File System and Cluster Size in default settings

Now let's come to fact what these EFI files are. They are the EFI files, made for the boot-up process of the linux distro FEDORA. Since they both are linux distro's so they can be easily modded to suit other linux live distros as well. I took them from the live-disk of Fedora 23, and editted them to work with Kali Linux 2016.1/2016.2.

Now restart your PC...
Get into the boot menu, using F12 or F8 or F9.
Make sure that the bootable USB in the USB 2.0 slot and is in FAT32 file system. After that open up
Do keep the secure boot disabled.
Iff, you encounter any problem disabling the Secure Boot, comment below.....

After doing this successfully, Kali Linux Boot Menu should show up...

Select the graphical install in the menu and follow the installation wizard....
After it's completed...
Reboot
You'll see the Kali Boot Loader installed on your PC in UEFI boot mode

Iff, by any chance, you happen to encounter a problem, saying
Some of. your hardware requires the installation of non-free firmware
then, select NO and proceed. This problem comes up when an unsupported hardware is detected.
You need not worry about this, because you can definitely install these firmwares later on after the installation of the OS is done.
Yeah but, beware, due to this error, you may find that some device of the PC may not work. (like the WiFi driver in most of the laptops with 6th gen Intel Core i Processors, do not work on Kali Linux).

(the missing firmware may be different, on different PC)

Now, let's come to a very big problem, which supposedly appears due to the failure in loading up drivers in root mode.

This is the problem, which most of you would be facing, if you are working with root (admin) account on KALI LINUX 2016.2. The problem is that the Sound and Audio drivers (and may also be any other driver) won't load up, and you won't be able to hear any sound.
Solution to this is quite simple. You just need to go to the Settings, and make and account of any type, (preferably ADMINISTRATOR).

Make sure that the new account is ADMINISTRATOR, if you require it

Now Sign in using that account, and you should see all the audio drivers, (and any other driver which was not working previously), working as usual.

So that's all for this blog....

You encounter any problem......... ??????????
feel free to post it below in comments...
I assure your queries will be resolved asap...

author Chinmoy,

Allahabad, India
Check me on........

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Kali Linux 2016.1 on UEFI (Dual Boot with Windows 10)

Installing Kali Linux 2016.1 in a UEFI boot-mode laptop/PC (Dual Boot with Windows 10)
The blog is also useful for those who wish to perform Dual boot with Kali Linux and Windows 10 or Windows 8.1

[UPDATE: January 12, 2022] THE GOOGLE DRIVE LINK FOR EFI FILES HAS BEEN UPDATED.

A bootloader basically is a program that contains the details of the files which have to loaded on the startup of the computer, so as to make the OS boot-up at the computer start.

So, let's get started. Before that make sure you have the tools required for this.

Tools required will be

Now let's build up our bootable media.............. a USB
Preferably take a 4 GB or 8 GB USB
Now open up Rufus Tools

1. Select your USB Media

2. keep the Partion System and Target System Type, File System and Cluster Size in default settings

4. Select the ISO of Kali Linux

5. Now click on start

Now let it complete....

After it's done...........
Now open up the USB in Windows Explorer
And Create a folder with name EFI in capital
Inside EFI.... create a folder Boot
Copy the contents of the EFI folder, that you downloaded from my google drive..... into this folder..
That's all....
Now restart your PC...
Get into the boot menu, using F12 or F8 or F9.
Make sure that the bootable USB in the USB 2.0 slot and is in FAT32 file system. After that open up
Do keep the secure boot disabled.
Iff, you encounter any problem disabling the Secure Boot, comment below.....

After doing this successfully, Kali Linux Boot Menu should show up...

(the missing firmware may be different, on different PC)

The above can be used for the installation of Kali Linux 2016.2, although I've written a seperate blog for that, but in 2016.2 you'll face a problem, which I've discussed below.

Now, let's come to a very big problem

This is that most of you would be facing, if you are working with root (admin) account on KALI LINUX 2016.2. The problem is that the Sound and Audio drivers (and may also be any other driver) won't load up, and you won't be able to hear any sound.
Solution to this is quite simple. You just need to go to the Settings, and make and account of any type, (preferably ADMINISTRATOR).

Now Sign in using that account, and you should see all the audio drivers, (and any other driver which was not working previously), working as usual.

So that's all for this blog....

You encounter any problem......... ??????????
feel free to post it below in comments...
I assure your queries will be resolved asap...

author Chinmoy,

Bengaluru, India