How do I install (to dual-boot) Ubuntu on this UEFI MSI GE40 2OC-218USK laptop?

I have a GE40 2OC-218USK laptop. I am trying to repartition the hard drive to have it dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 8.

Nothing but endless problems. I’ve been progressively turning more and more things off and it still won’t boot the LiveCD.

I’ve tried the following scenarios, booting into the Ubuntu 13.10 64-bit LiveCD and the LiveUSB with the following options turned off in this order:

FAIL == Black screen after moving past the bootloader screen, with ANY Linux

Turning off Secure Boot – FAIL

Turning off Secure Boot and Intel Rapid Start Technology – FAIL

Turning off Secure Boot, Intel Rapid Start and Win 8 Fast Startup – FAIL

Switching from UEFI to UEFI with CSM, with all the other previous stuff still off – FAIL

Turning off UEFI and Switching into Legacy Mode – It will boot gParted and Fedora, but still won’t boot Ubuntu or Lubuntu. Both *buntus get to the loading screen that says *buntu and has the progress bar made of dots below it and then they just sit there. This is not a tenable option either from what I’ve read because Windows 8 won’t boot in Legacy Mode anyways.

I should say, I installed the Windows 8.1 upgrade prior to attempting any of this.

So it sounds like there are two problems here. The UEFI issue and something else preventing it from loading properly even in Legacy Mode.

For the UEFI issue, I am trying to get a BIOS update for this laptop, but MSI’s website is poor.

I have also heard of a boot manager called reFind. Will this assist me?

And I don’t know what the problem is with the Legacy Mode? Perhaps an nVidia issue? Is there a set of boot parameters I can use? The laptop uses a nvidia gfx controller.

Any assistance PLEASE would be appreciated. I haven’t had so much problems putting Linux on anything in a long time.

EDIT 2013/12/12:

So I hit escape on the loading screen when booting the Ubuntu LiveCD in Legacy mode and it showed the stack trace off the kernel panic during boot it is the following below. It seems to indicate a problem with the nouveau kernel module during LiveCD boot. Anyone know what the right kernel parameters that I should with this are?:

[   26.154100] divide error: 000 [#1] SMP
[   26.154179] nouveau E[    PBUS][000:01:00.0] MMIO write of 0x00000000 FAULT at 0x418880 [ IBUS ]
[   26.155172] Modules linked in: btrfs(F) raid6_pq(F) libcrc32c(F) zlib_deflate(F) xor(F) x86_pkg_temp_thermal coretemp kvm_intel(F) kvm(F) crct10dif_pclmul(F) crc32_pclmul(F) ghash_clmulni_intel(F) joydev(F) snd_hda_codec_hdmi aesni_intel(F) snd_hda_codec_realtek aes_x86_64(F) lrw(F) gf128mul(F) glue_helper(F) msi_wmi snd_hda_intel ablk_helper(F) cryptd(F) snd_hda_codec sparse_keymap snd_hwdep(F) snd_pcm(F) snd_page_alloc(F) snd_seq_midi(F) snd_seq_midi_event(F) arc4(F) dm_multipath(F) rts5139(C) snd_rawmidi(F) rt18723ae rtl_pci rtlwifi scsi_dh(F) mac80211 snd_seq(F) snd_seq_device(F) snd_timer(F) cfg80211 snd(F) soundcore(F) btusb mei_me lpc_ich mei psmouse(F) serio_raw(F) mac_hid intel_rst microcode(F) parport_pc(F) ppdev(F) lp(F) parport(F) bnep rfcomm bluetooth squashfs(F) overlayfs(F) nls_iso8859_1(F) dm_mirror(F) dm_region_hash(F) dm_log(F) usb_storage(F) nouveau i915 ttm i2c_algo_bit ahci(F) drm_kms_helper libahci(F) drm alx mdio mxm_wmi wmi video(F)
[   26.158381] CPU: 5 PID: 2346 Comm: Xorg Tainted: GF        C   3.11.0-12-generic #19-Ubuntu
[   26.159108] Hardware name: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. CR42 2M/GE40 2OC/MS-1492, BIOS E1492IMS.10N 11/14/2013
[   26.159840] task: ffff880221358000 ti: ffff880222810000 task.ti: ffff880222810000
[   26.160556] RIP: 0010:[<ffffffffa0206cb0>]  [<ffffffffa0206cb0>] nve4_graph_init+0x250/0x7e0 [nouveau]
[   26.161322] RSP: 0018:ffff880222811c10  EFLAGS: 00010246
[   26.162069] RAX: 00000000007fffff RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000
[   26.162808] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffc90016303018 RDI: 0000000000000000
[   26.163563] RBP: ffff880222811ce8 R08: 0000000000000007 R09: 0000000000000000
[   26.164314] R10: 000000000000902d R11: ffff88021e234000 R12: ffff88021e234000
[   26.165055] R13: ffffffffa0270080 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffff88021e2340eb
[   26.165794] FS:  00007f277c762980(0000) GS:ffff88022fb40000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[   26.166549] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[   26.167300] CR2: 00007f27760d2f50 CR3: 0000000222fa9000 CR4: 00000000001407e0
[   26.168013] Stack:
[   26.168756]  ffff880222811c20 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
[   26.169521]  0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
[   26.170280]  0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
[   26.171032] Call Trace:
[   26.171805]  [<ffffffffa01b1fad>] nouveau_object_inc+0xbd/0x1b0 [nouveau]
[   26.172574]  [<ffffffffa01b2170>] nouveau_object_new+0xbd/0x230 [nouveau]
[   26.173353]  [<ffffffffa0213730>] nouveau_abi16_ioctl_grobj_alloc+0x70/0xe0 [nouveau]
[   26.174136]  [<ffffffffa0030212>] drm_ioctl+0x532/0x660 [drm]
[   26.174920]  [<ffffffff816f06a4>] ? __do_page_fault+0x204/0x540
[   26.175727]  [<ffffffff8116e9d5>] ? do_mmap_pgoff+0x305/0x3c0
[   26.176522]  [<ffffffff811b8ba5>] do_vfs_ioctl+0x2e5/0x4d0
[   26.177317]  [<ffffffff811b8e11>] SyS_ioctl+0x81/0xa0
[   26.178116]  [<ffffffff816f521d>] system_call_fastpath+0x1a/0x1f
[   26.178923] Code: 7d 11 89 f8 c1 f8 03 48 98 44 8b 84 85 30 ff ff ff eb a0 8b bd 30 ff ff ff 8d 83 ff ff 7f 00 45 31 f6 4d 8d bc 24 eb 00 00 00 99 <f7> fb bb 14 09 50 00 8d b0 80 89 41
[   26.180694] RIP  [<ffffffffa0206cb0>] nve4_graph_init+0x250/0x7e0 [nouveau]
[   26.181584]  RSP <ffff880222811c10>