Systems that only boot Windows from UEFI.
Per UEFI standard you should be able to boot any entry in UEFI boot menu. But some vendors have modified UEFI code to only boot the Windows efi file. The UEFI looks for the Windows file name and only boots it.
Installing Grub for UEFI secure boot is only possible if you have booted your system using EFI with the 64bit version with secure boot on. A few systems will only boot with UEFI and secure boot on or with CSM (BIOS) if secure boot is off. Best to test system to see which modes it boots in. In secure boot mode it will only show/allow systems that have secure boot. You may have to change UEFI settings or set password to allow other devices to boot.
Backup entire efi partition before making changes.
A: Manually rename files efi hard drive boot files in efi partition /EFI/Boot
Rename /efi/boot/bootx64.efi, copy shim or grub into /efi/boot and name it bootx64.efi Then boot harddrive entry in UEFI menu.
Older rename of Windows efi file not recommended anymore. (old versions of Boot-Repair did rename the Windows efi file)
From live installer mount the efi partition on hard drive, lines with # are comments only: Mount efi partition. check which partition is FAT32 with boot flag. Often sda1 or sda2 but varies.
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
only if /EFI/Boot not already existing, run the mkdir command,
sudo mkdir /mnt/EFI/Boot
sudo cp /mnt/EFI/ubuntu/* /mnt/EFI/Boot
If new folder created, the bootx64.efi will not exist, skip backup command
sudo mv /mnt/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi /mnt/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi.backup
make grub be hard drive boot entry in UEFI. Then boot hard drive entry in UEFI menu.
sudo mv /mnt/EFI/Boot/grubx64.efi /mnt/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi
More examples of users who manually moved efi files
UEFI still boots directly into Windows 8 instead of GRUB
[SOLVED] Ubuntu 14.04 not booting after install alongside preinstalled Windows 8 UEFI
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...9#post13012109
B: Edit Windows BCD
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi
coderwall.com : establishing geek cred since 1305712800
UEFI NVRAM boot entries are cached in the BCD store
BCD has 1:1 mappings for some UEFI global variables
Any time {fwbootmgr} is manipulated, NVRAM is automatically updated
C: Use efibootmgr if only Ubuntu, not dual boot, install to make Windows UEFI description boot grub or shim file
sudo efibootmgr -c -L "Windows Boot Manager" -l "\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi"
If you have Windows to restore Windows boot entry:
sudo efibootmgr -c -L "Windows Boot Manager" -l "\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi"
D: Some install rEFInd which seems to be another workaround and has nice boot icons.
See section below on rEFInd
Other work arounds for UEFI that only boots Windows.
[SOLVED] Boot-Repair ended with errors