F12 boot menu, second monitor- possible?

[CarvedDuck]

Hi, I have an Acer laptop with win8.1 dual boot with Ubuntu 14LTS. When used at home it is sitting at the side of my desk using a USB-3-hub for external mouse and keyboard plus network and I have a 23" monitor plugged into the HDMI port.

At start up I tap the F12 (external keyboard works fine) and get the boot menu to choose windows/Ubuntu -- but it only displays on the out of view, laptop screen.

I tried installing various boot managers but none I found like the UEFI and therefore do not allow me to Add the Ubuntu as a boot option. Even though Ubuntu boots just fine with UEFI.

Is there some way I can use the 23" monitor at that F12-point so I can make a selection? Currently, I blindly tap the down arrow for Ubuntu and hope I get it right.

Thanks

 

[TechnoMage]

I guess I could just say nothing and go on to the next topic, but here I am anyway, with a question/observation.

I've never used dual boot for two OS's, but I've definitely used the F12 to allow me to boot from different sources, and I've never equated that with selecting whether I want to use the native monitor or an external one. I'm thinking, (till I'm proven wrong) that the two are NOT related at all.

In the few instances where I've wanted to use an external monitor, I just use the Keyboard combination that will allow me to switch monitors.
That can vary, on different brands and ages of laptops.

Good Luck!
TechnoMage