Alienware X51 R3 Dual Boot

Question

Hi, I have a fully loaded Alienware X51 R3. Yesterday I installed a new SSD drive next to the existing one adn the existing HDD. I installed Ubuntu onto this new drive, hoping to have a dual booting system, but once the installation ended 'succesfully' the machine just rebooted to the Windows partiition. I tried this several times, disabling secure boot, with the same result. When I check the partitions, it seems Linux is installed correctly but Windows boot manager just won't let it boot. I tried to change the boot sequence from BIOS, but the only HDD boot option says 'Hard drive: Windows boot manager'. Why can't I boot froma another drive? I also tried the 'bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi' order, with no luck either, as the cmd prompt says it is not a valid command. How can I specify this command when my efi partition is located in another drive? Has anyone succesfully created a dual-boot system with this machine? I had never any problem with the X51 R2 setup. Thanks.

Alienware - Rodrigo · Answer

Hi,

Unfortunately, we can only provide support for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 with this system. For assistance with an Ubuntu operating system, we recommend you try posting on the Ubuntu community forums.

derkomai · Answer

It's OK, but at leeast could you tell me if it's possible to boot from another drive? In the BIOS only Windows Boot Manager appears to be recognized. What If I install another version of Windows in a secondary drive and I want to boot from there?

Tesla1856 · Answer

I'm pretty sure Ubuntu now supports SecureBoot, but not sure about Dual-Booting Windows/Linux on UEFI machine though.

Remember, there is always Legacy-Mode.

Sounds like Purple397 might be able to help. Let us know what you figure out.

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19670055/20870646#20870646

I also like his suggestion to ask Ubuntu users. There is nothing particularly unique about your AW desktop.

derkomai · Answer

Yes. I've previosuly asked in elementary os forums and have followed tutorials in the Ubuntu forums but no luck so far. Could be the new m.2 nvme drives support in the Ubuntu installer. I know there is Legacy mode, and that's what I want to do, but I have to wipe my Windows drive and reinstall it, but no usb drive or cd came with my machine, so I don't what to do to keep my Windows 10 license. That's why I was asking for a solution here.

Any advice? Thanks.

en.community.dell.com/.../19670055

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