Part 1
- Download Refind, and see the question I asked recently dealing with some of the issues you'll face.
- Assuming you're using Windows 8.1, you'll want to use the Refind CD-R Image. Be sure to extract the ISO from the zip file, and mount it in Windows 8.1. Note: You need not burn the image as Windows 8.1 supports mounting ISO files now like Linux has for years. If you choose not to extract it from the zip file, double clicking the ISO from the zip file will mount it while zipped.
Double Click this file. If any helper application appears click OK to accept the defaults. I had no helper application because Windows 8 can now natively mount ISO files
- Notice the newly mounted file (Your Drive Letter may be different):
- You should now be able to follow the directions outlined in the Installing rEFInd Manually Using Windows from the Administrative Command Prompt. I've marked the directory used in the
xcopy
command:
The /s
option mounts the EFI/ESP Drive. More on that shortly.
- Reboot the machine. You should see an image similar to this:
Please note that the Linux options may not exist in your screen because you will not have them installed properly.
Part 2
- Choose a Linux Distribution that supports the UEFI Shim - Fedora. You need the shim installed if you want SecureBoot enabled. The shim certificates are included in refind. See the shim repository for more info.
- From Windows, use LiLi Creator, to "burn" the CentOS ISO to a USB Stick.
- Set the Boot Options in your BIOS Look Alike/UEFI Firmware Setup to the following order:
Floppy (If Available) --> CD-ROM --> USB --> (Disable Network Boot)
--> HDD
- Insert the USB, and follow the setup steps for whatever distribution you chose. Make sure that you choose to install the Bootloader into whatever partition is set as the EFI Directory. Not doing this will cause the option to not show in the screenshot from Part 1
Problem
Windows 8.1, when used on new devices, only installs on devices that use SecureBoot, and the only implementation supported is SecureBoot in UEFI, which means that the device you're attempting to use is setup to use UEFI. You're attempting to use BIOS only/legacy directions that do not support UEFI, or the distribution you chose to install does not support UEFI.. See UEFI Support Matrix.
Regarding your driver issues, please do not cross post issues related to the same problem. i.e the driver issues should be merged into the post I answered, or this post should be merged into the driver issues. Reasons for this include:
- The Driver issue could be caused by the fact that you have not properly setup the UEFI install media, answered by this post.
- The Driver issue could be caused by the fact that CentOS7 doesn't support the Maxwell Chipset, in which case you need to find a distribution that supports the chipset and UEFI. As such, I'll recommend merge.