To preface this, I would like to say that I am completely new to Ubuntu and have essentially zero programming experience/experience working with command line and terminal. I installed Ubuntu because I would like to get into programming. If you could provide me with the simplest instructions possible, I would be grateful.

I have a Lenovo Ideapad Y500 (Intel i7, NVidia GT 750m, 1TB HDD, 16GB SSD cache, 8GB RAM) with Windows 8 on it. Using a Live CD, I installed Ubuntu 12.04 onto a 75 GB partition. During the installation, I kept all default settings except for one thing; I decided to encrypt my home folder, and so checked the corresponding box. The installation completed, and I restarted.

Once I restarted, I saw the options

• "Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-23-generic"
• "Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-23-generic (recovery mode)"
• "Memory test (memtest86+)"
• "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)"
• "Windows Recovery Environment (loader) (on /dev/sdb3)"
• "Windows 8 (loader) (on /dev/sdb5)"
• "System Setup"

I chose the first option, and was directed to a screen with the Ubuntu logo and the row of five dots below that change from orange to white. Then, I was brought to a full screen terminal that prompted me to login, which I did. I saw no option to boot into GUI at all, and am lost. I've been searching around and have tried the "startx" command to no avail. Should the command have some sort of context or something?

I've also tried selecting the recovery mode option from the boot manager. I've tried the resume option from the following menu, which eventually just shuts down the computer after displaying a lot of scrolling text that's too fast for me to read.

I've also tried the failsafex mode from the recovery mode menu, which only brings up a terminal box at the bottom of the window that covers the entire bottom part of the screen. Commands won't work in this window.

When I try to access Windows 8, I get a message saying that the EFI file path was not specified or something along those lines. I had to enable Secure Boot in order to access Windows 8 (I had disabled it to be able to boot from the Live CD), which is functioning normally. I am at a complete loss for what to do. Any help will be extremely appreciated.

EDIT: Bonus question! If you could figure out a way for me to boot to Windows 8 without having to enable Secure Boot, it would save me a lot of trouble. I can deal with switching every time, but I'd rather not have to.