I’ll try to keep this as detailed and consiece as posible:
I want to dual boot my HP Laptop with Ubuntu, it already has Windows 10 Pro, using MSInfo32 through Windows+R I identified that the pc runs on Legacy mode (Although when pressing ESC at the start of the computer I see UEFI and Legacy mode related options which I really don’t understand how they work besides they apparently make no difference when changing, yes I tried several combinations.).
So I watched a lot of hard disk partition videos and articles on Stack Exchange, as well as dual booting tutorials from lots of places, once then I did the following (I want to install Ubuntu in the same hard disk):
Installed Rufus to put the ISO file of Ubuntu 22.04.2 into a 64Gb pendrive.
Insterted the pendrive into the laptop, ran the OS in the pendrive and proceed to install Ubuntu.
Beforehand, the hard disk I have is MBR, I made some errors doing the partitions (Which I’m not going to detail unless someone asks for it.) but ended up doing many attempts; one by making primary and logical, second attempt full primary (Apparently I was making primary partitions inside an extended partitions but somehow this shouldn’t have been possible and still happened) and third attempt doing all logical and this time I could confirm that they were all on the same extended partition.
All three attempts ended in the same problem.
Once I had this problem, I tried different methods to fix it (as I was learning through the internet and finding out solutions) until I managed to boot windows: this is when I began making more attempts.
Now the actual problem I’m having:
When installing the ISO image, there’s an error saying “Unable to install GRUB in /dev/dsa”, there’s only one hard disk and its address is /dev/dsa, then when I close that windows the system says I have succesfully installed Ubuntu, then the so called installer crashes and attempts to send a crash report to Ubuntu.
Now, I’m left with a USB booted ubuntu (“try” version) where I can manipulate files, here’s when I tried turning off my pc and booting in Windows, first I have the issue where the screen at the top left says “Reset system”. This problem is covered by the following Stack Exchange question: “Reset System”, bootloop after attempting to dual boot
In the first attempt of this, I tried manually installing GRUB with the following instructions via USB booted Ubuntu: https://www.programmerhat.com/executing-grub-install-dev-sda-failed/, after then I reset the pc and same error, then I try checking partitions with GParted from USB booted Ubuntu and stuff seems normal, this is where I thought I was doomed but after searching I found the f12 function when starting up a pc, so I spammed that key and it directly boots Windows out of nowhere, completely normal.
Now, a detail; Windows 10 Pro in this pc had no EFI partition, so while installing Ubuntu it would ask me to get an EFI partition, so I made an EFI partition in the first attempt and that partition has been there for the rest of the time and the attempts.
Continuing, I once again could boot into windows after the second attempt, deleted all stuff and went back to do the same, this time doing all logical partitions for Ubuntu inside an extended partition (Before this process is where I find out my hard disk is MBR and NOT GPT, which is non-sense as I also saw a GPT description somewhere in that pc.), now I again thought I was doomed as, after installationg of Ubuntu, I have the same fatal error, successful installation but then when I press f12 at the start of the pc, it ends up saying there’s no Bootable Device, so I wonder if the computer is not able to recognize the operating systems (My guess was that the failed Ubuntu instalation corrupted windows or else it was making the windows boot program unrecognizable, which seemed to be the case from what I explain later.), this is when I get into USB Booted Ubuntu and delete the /root and /home partitions, it would not let me delete the SWAP partition and I decided to leave the EFI Partition there as it didn’t seems to affect anything. Now I try starting the pc, pressing f12, and it just boots into Windows out of nowhere, again, completely normal, this when I should have entered a UI where I could select bootable devices, which did not happen and instead just booted into Windows 10 Pro.
I have been researching for an extensive amount of time, yet I still want to do this operation, I will answer questions as fast as I can and any help or advice is welcome.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT care about the files in this pc, nor the contents of the data, I only care about keeping both Windows and Ubuntu in the same hard disk, this is my first option, if I have NOTHING else to do, I WILL CONSIDER installing Ubuntu entirely in the hard disk, deleting Windows 10 Pro, which is NOT my main goal. I plan on installing Ubuntu on several other hard disks as a side note, and also other Linux Distros of interest.
Another important thing is that I am TRYING Ubuntu in an OBSOLETE HP laptop that I barely use, so please SAVE YOUR COMMENTS if you’re going to “advice” me about safety and secure actions, for which I have ZERO INTEREST when operating with this Laptop as I have a main computer I currently work in.
The reason I use this laptop is because Windows has made it run much slower and I need a better OS to work with with barely 4GB RAM.
Lastly, I made this post this long to avoid unprecise answers.
