Comment 2 for bug 1341944

I can confirm this affects me as well. I have an Acer Switch 10 and an Asus T100. Both of them have the same Intel Atom 64-bit processor, but require a 32-bit bootloader in order to boot. These machines are UEFI only and have no legacy BIOS support.

I was able to get Ubuntu 64-bit installed and running by following the workaround detailed on http://www.jfwhome.com/2014/03/07/perfect-ubuntu-or-other-linux-on-the-asus-transformer-book-t100/ but after careful review, it seems that simply adding a 32-bit grubia32.efi or equivalent to the 64-bit livecd alongside the 64-bit version of the loader, half the problem is solved. Then it's just a matter of making grubia32 a default part of the distribution alongside the 64-bit version. UEFI is designed to load the appropriate .efi for the expected architecture, and because these low-cost devices ship with 32-bit Windows 8.1 to save space on the device by eliminating WoW64, the UEFI on these devices expects a 32-bit bootloader. Linux (including Ubuntu 14.04 and possibly earlier) supports booting a 64-bit OS from a 32-bit bootloader.

Anecdotally, I learned from a friend of mine that they weren't able to install Ubuntu on their Core 2 Duo MacBook because the UEFI on their MacBook wouldn't load the 64-bit version of grub. Turns out some MacBooks are UEFI-only, have 64-bit CPUs, but require a 32-bit bootloader just like these newer Atom tablets. I suggested he try following the workaround listed above.