"No video signal" for 2 minutes before Grub appears, very slow boot
 

I purchased (yesterday) a Lenovo HD Destop Computer, Windows 8.1 64-bit. AMD-7600 3.1 GHz Radeon R7; 7-in-1 Media Card Reader; Gallium 0.4 on AMD KAVERI (DRM 2.43.0, LLVM 3.6.2) Graphics; 802.11ac Wireless.

First, I backed up the system image to an external disk. Then I installed Ubuntu 15.04 alongside Windows (I disabled "secure mode" in bios and disabled Fast startup in power settings). Ubuntu appeared to have successfully installed. But when I start the PC, it boots directly to Windows 8. No grub. I booted again and pressed F12 to get into bios and there it was - Ubuntu was in the boot sequence. But when I choose the Ubuntu in the boot sequence, it would take so long for Ubuntu to load (during that time the monitor screen is black "no signal" displayed).

Anyways, not liking Windows 8, I decided to just delete it and install Ubuntu (15.10) completely over it, hoping that Ubuntu will load better if it doesn't have to deal with any dual boot glitches. The installation appeared to have gone well. Alas, the problem remains. At boot up, the "no signal" black monitor comes on and stays for a good 2 minutes before the grub appears. I go to log on screen and everything works alright.

I am guessing that the problem has something to do with the Ubuntu driver not being compatible with Gallium 0.4 on AMD KAVERI graphics?

Another less important problem: Ubuntu is not acknowledging the 802.11ac Wireless.



I checked the partitions:

sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL

NAME FSTYPE SIZE MOUNTPOINT LABEL
sda 931.5G
sda1 vfat 512M /boot/efi
sda2 ext4 924.1G /
sda3 swap 6.9G [SWAP]
sr0 1024M


When I selected erase Windows and install Ubuntu over it, I thought that it would automatically do everything it needs to install properly...


edit: after the 2 minute wait, sometimes it boots into the grub menu, other times it boots direct to the log in screen....

Anyone know how to fix this? I'd hate to have to reinstall the Windows 8 and return it to the store.

Thanks!


edit (2nd) :
when I type in command: [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "EFI boot on HDD" || echo "Legacy boot on HDD"

I get,
EFI boot on HDD

The site below is the official Ubuntu documentation on dual-booting with windows using UEFI. Take a look at it and compare it to the steps you took.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

If that doesn't resolve it, try getting the boot repair script from the site below. How to use instructions are on the page. Post a link to the output here if you can't resolve the issue.

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

I did install Ubuntu following all the steps here (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI), so I guess the problem lies elsewhere.
Too bad I'm only seeing your link now about the boot-repair. I will definitely use it the next time I run into such problems. Thanks!

In any case, I've already returned the Lenovo to the store because even after I restored the original factories settings and accepted the free upgrade to Windows 10, it became obvious that more problems were just hatching one after the other. If I did not like Windows 8...I hate Windows 10!

Gawd, I'm gonna contribute $20 bucks to Ubuntu now, just to thank them for a SANE operating system and hope they continue their policy and service well into the future!

may i suggest to donate to debian instead.
ubuntu has ties with canonical ltd and is getting their funding already.
but ubuntu is largely based on debian, which is in much more need of funding.

Will contribute to Debian as well, ondoho. I use GIMP, VLC, LibreOffice. I'm grateful for these programs!

The problem being before GRUB says that it wasn't Linux's fault. Maybe Grub's fault, but seems odd it should do that. Sounds more like the firmware's problem.

Thanks, oldtechaa. I was suspecting that the problem was rooted in the lenovo's firmware as well. When I returned it to the shop, I asked their techs about it and said that if they could get it to work with Ubuntu, I'd keep the computer. They opted to just give me a refund.