I tried to install Netrunner 15 on to my laptop.
I wanted to do a dual-boot of Netrunner and Windows 8.1 on it but after I installed Netrunner, it just booted straight back to Windows, and when I booted into my BIOS, I couldn’t find Netrunner as a boot option either, just the LiveUSB I used, my DVD drive, and Windows Boot Manager.
I used UNetBootin to create the LiveUSB, but I didn’t see till later that this site has ImageWriter or Rufus as the LiveUSB creator, does it really matter?
Netrunner 15 does not offer UEFI support. So if you are running UEFI it won’t show up. You need to install it in bios compatibility mode to boot it after successful install.
So I have to install it in CSM? Or it doesn’t matter?
Yes installing in CSM should work then. It should give you a legacy boot option then (shown in your efi boot hopefully)
So I installed it with CSM enabled, I can see the LiveUSB but I can’t see the NetRunner boot option.
You would need chroot into your installed system and rebuild / install grub since you installed it under UEFI the first time.
So how would I do that?
Luckily for you, under Ubuntu there is a utility you can use to fix this issue for you:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
it says it doesn’t work in CSM mode but I can’t boot the LiveUSB unless i’m in CSM mode
You can not install Netrunner 15 (Ubuntu) with windows 8 using CSM:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/246409/dual-booting-in-csm-mode
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFIBooting
so there’s no way to fix it? 
The links I provided should be able to guide you in installing Netrunner 15 on your system along side Windows 8.
I’m confused because the other moderator said the only way for Netrunner to show up is in CSM, so like which is it…? o.O
Netrunner 15 is based on Kubuntu 14.10, so I would believe the official Ubuntu sources.
This might also be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo2k8pO4O_Y
There is no UEFI support in Netrunner 15. That does not mean it isn’t achievable to boot on it. But I don’t think it will work out of the box.
Netrunner should be bootable in CSM mode. The main problem will be Windows I guess that refuses to boot in CSM. Modern UEFIS allow to choose in the boot menu to boot a partition in CSM or use UEFI for that. If your board UEFI does not support this then you are out of luck
Leszec, why would there be no UEFI support in Netrunner 15 if it based on Ubuntu?
The ISO has no UEFI support so booting into UEFI mode isn’t working which means it uses automatically non uefi method to install. (Remember when not booting with uefi there are no efivars)
The thing is my board does support CSM boot-up because I’m able to boot up Windows in CSM and UEFI, the problem is when I install Netrunner, even when I’m in UEFI mode or CSM mode, it doesn’t show up as a boot option in the BIOS.
That is strange. What is the target you choose or was choosen for the bootloader to be installed to ?
How does the partition scheme look like ? Is it msdos partitionscheme or gpt.
If it is gpt then I guess it is clear why it isn’t booting up. There is no mbr to write to and you need a bios boot partition especially for grub to install to.
The easier approach if you have a second harddrive in msdos partition scheme is installing the system onto it.
I chose /dev/sda as the place to install my bootloader to, and I’m not sure if the partition scheme is msdos or gpt. How would I check this?