SOLVED Windows 10 Dual Boot but MX Linux doesn't show up

[ronjnk]

Hello Forum,

I'm a new user of Mx Linux. I'm a novice and this is my first attempt at dual boot systems. I have a brand new Lenovo desktop computer w/windows 10 installed on a 240 G SSD. I also have a 500 Gig HD for data. I spent days researching all the steps and had no problem resizing my partition essentially in half. I took that unallocated space and created 3 partitions for root, home and swap. All went well.

I installed from my bootable USB and went through the process. On the installation screen I had the following:
SDA 5 31.7 Gig EXT4 Root
SDA 6 50 Gig EXT4 Home
SDA 7 16 Gig EXT4 Swap
Boot: Root

Then when it all installed, I got to the GRUB installation screen. ESP was greyed out and not an option. I thought with the Windows 10 ESP partition at the very front of the disc, it would be an option but it was not. So I chose MBR and the only drop down selection that made any sense was to install on SDA 240 Samsung SSD. Fast boot was disabled, secure boot was disabled as well before installation.

I finished the installation just fine. However, when I shut down, remove my USB MX18 drive and restart, it goes right to windows every time and doesn't know MX exists anywhere.

Obviously, at start up, whatever tells the system there are 2 operating systems isn't working. I did go back into the live MX USB and I tried the repair GRUB by changing MBR to ESP but was unsuccessful. Right now, I believe MX is installed but I have no way to get to it unless I put the USB back in. Any help greatly appreciated. From everything I've seen of MX Linux, I'm very impressed and if I can get this working, it will be my main system. Windows is purely for a couple oddball programs. Thank you!

[BitJam]

Since this is a new machine it is probably booting via UEFI. If you booted the live-usb via legacy then you can only install a legacy bootloader. This is a limitation imposed by how UEFI works. If installing on MBR was your only option then you most likely booted the live system via legacy.

There should be two ways to get to your installed MX system. If you go to the BIOS setup menu then you must choose to boot via legacy rather than UEFI. You might also be able to get to the installed MX system via the BIOS boot menu (often triggered by the F12 key) but in some systems you will have to enable legacy booting in BIOS in order for legacy bootloaders to show up in boot menu.

If you want to do an MX install with a UEFI boot loader then you must boot the live-usb in UEFI mode. Not all usb creation tools allow for this option. Our live-usb-maker tools do allow it. You could try to see if there is an option to boot the live-usb in UEFI mode. If not, you can easily create a live-usb that does boot in UEFI mode if you have a 2nd usb stick. Boot your current live-usb, plug in your 2nd usb stick and run the live-usb-maker tool. This should offer you a "clone" option to copy the current live system to a new usb stick. Do this, it should only take a minute or so depending on the speed of the usb sticks and then you should be able to boot the new live-usb via UEFI as well as legacy.

Someone else might know how to enable UEFI booting on the system you have already installed but I don't know how to do that. But again, I think you would need to boot the live system in UEFI mode in order to do this.

HTH

[ronjnk]

Good Morning BitJam. I truly appreciate your help. I used Unetbootin to make my bootable USB. I did not come across anything stating legacy and assumed everything was UEFI. Is there any way to confirm my USB is in legacy since I did not select anything dealing with legacy? I will certainly go back to Unetbootin and see if I screwed up making my live boot medium.

I did several of your suggestions. I went into BIOS to enable legacy. It was greyed out and I had to first enable CSM. Then I could enable legacy. With that done, I tried to reboot. It went in an endless cycle of looking for an operating system and the ultimate message in this cycling was "no operating system found"

I went to F12 and this is the jumbled mess I saw:
SATA 3:P2:HL-DT-ST DUDRAM GUEON LEGACY:P2:HL:DT-ST DUDRAM GUEON
NETWORK 1 LEGACY:1BA CL SLOT 00FE V0113

At that point I bagged it and didn't go any further for fear I would do more damage.

I'd like to confirm your theory that my Unebootin is starting the system in legacy since that seems a good start. I went back to Unetbootin and my ISO. I did not redo it but got to the stage where it was ready to reinstall my ISO on my bootable USB drive. Here is the information the system is asking me to confirm. MX-18b1_64.iso and the source is: EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi (606KB) It is ready at this point to extract and copy files to my USB, then install bootloader and then complete the process. With that info, do you think I am still installing in legacy? How can I confirm?

Again, truly grateful for your help. Ron

[BitJam]

Is there any way to confirm my USB is in legacy since I did not select anything dealing with legacy?

When you boot the live-usb, look for a function key menu like I highlighted in the picture below. If you see the menu then the live-usb is booting legacy, if not then it is booting UEFI.

mx-18-legacy-boot-2.png

Also, if you use the default option in the UEFI bootloader menu then you will get a series of questions asking you about things like the language and timezone.

I will certainly go back to Unetbootin and see if I screwed up making my live boot medium.

If you have a 2nd usb stick then it would be much better to make a clone of your current live-usb using our make-live-usb software. This way we know exactly what we are dealing with and we know that all of the live-usb options and features will be enabled.

I did several of your suggestions. I went into BIOS to enable legacy. It was greyed out and I had to first enable CSM. Then I could enable legacy. With that done, I tried to reboot. It went in an endless cycle of looking for an operating system and the ultimate message in this cycling was "no operating system found"

If you needed to jump through hoops to get your system to boot in legacy mode then maybe your live-usb booted in UEFI mode. The picture above should let you know for sure. When you said you were only offered the option to install Grub on the MBR, I suspected you had booted the live system in legacy mode. Someone more familiar with the installer may be able to give you more help on this.

I went back to Unetbootin and my ISO. I did not redo it but got to the stage where it was ready to reinstall my ISO on my bootable USB drive. Here is the information the system is asking me to confirm. MX-18b1_64.iso and the source is: EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi (606KB) It is ready at this point to extract and copy files to my USB, then install bootloader and then complete the process. With that info, do you think I am still installing in legacy? How can I confirm?

I have no idea. Honestly. Unetbootin is not our software. This is why I wanted you to make a clone of your existing live-usb using our live-usb-maker software. That way I would know what we are dealing with. It's like you are asking a Honda dealership about idiosyncrasies of a Ford truck.

Since you are able to boot the live-usb, another option (for now) would be to do a frugal install. It should be fast and easy. In the live legacy bootloader choose F5 --> "frugal_static" and choose F8 --> "save". If you are booting the live-usb in UEFI mode then there will be a series of text questions that allow you to choose these same options. If you already did an MX install then choose either the MX home or MX root partition for where to do this install. THIS WON'T DISRUPT THE ORIGINAL INSTALL. Those partitions should show up in the partition list with their size and with fstype "ext4". This is probably the fastest and easiest way on planet Earth to install Linux. In the future you would use the live-usb to boot into the frugal install but you will also start off in the frugal install without rebooting! I've been able to install and boot in less than 30 seconds.

Note: The live-usb made by Unetbootin may not have the "F8 save" menu (nor the equivalent text menu when booting UEFI) since most usb creation tools use a read-only file system that prevent us from customizing boot options. Once you do the frugal install you can run our live-usb-maker in clone mode to convert your live-usb to a full featured live-usb. Then you can use the instructions above to save the frugal settings so it always boots into your frugal install system by default.

As you may have figured out, I know a lot about our live system but I don't know much about the installer. I seldom install. I almost always run live. Other people can probably help you with the installer and they may be able to help you install/re-install a UEFI bootloader on the system you've already installed.

[ronjnk]

Hi again BitJam. Thank you for the response. I really apologize for taking your time on this. I'm dead in the water and I'm frustrated that I don't understand what the problem is, hence I'm winging it on solutions.

It seems I have been UEFI from the beginning. I have never seen the function key menu. I tried to include a picture but all I got was image tags. But I have at live boot :

MX 18 b1 x64 (dec 3,2018)
Mx 18 b1 x64 Customizable boot (text menus)
Advanced options for Mx 18
Boot Windows from hard drive hd1,1
Memory test (64 bit UEFI)
Press e to edit the selected entry
press esc to return to the main menu
The highlighted entry will start in 30 seconds :note the highlighted entry is the customizable boot (text menus)

I have to hunt for a second USB stick which is why I haven't used the make live USB maker. However, I did a second attempt at making a UEFI bootable USB drive. I used RUFUS. I selected UEFI (non CSM) This morning I changed the BIOS to legacy which I reported back to you did nothing but get me in more trouble. So I went back in and disabled CSM and disabled legacy.

Then I tried reinstalling MX 18 with the new USB. The boot screen was the same as described above. When I got to the boot loader, there was still no option for EFI, it was greyed out so I went with MBR again. Keep in mind, I did not initially create any boot partition since my understanding was that it the installation would magically detect the windows boot partition sda1 and stick it there.

So I reinstalled and it still goes direct to windows at start up. However, when I interrupt the boot process with F12, I now have the following:
SATA 1 Intel Data Volume
UEFI Windows Boot Manager
UEFI MX18

I thought I was getting close. However, if I select UEFI MX18 it still boots direct to windows 10. This has to provide some clues but it's beyond me. But hopefully somebody else will be able to jump in and point us in the right direction. I'm reluctant to do the frugal install for now since it seems like I'm making progress and maybe it's a simple fix at this point since I at least have a mention of both systems even though everything points to windows 10. I also tried the boot repair but the choices I selected failed to solve the problem. All the best! Ron

[Stevo]

You might have to go into your system's UEFI setup and check out the UEFI boot options. Some require that you add the MX EFI file from a list, and then you might also need to make that the first option to boot from instead of the Windows one.

I've had more success on Windows using the Rufus Live USB creator for MX ISOs than Unetbootin. Etcher also comes highly recommended.

[BitJam]

Hi again BitJam. Thank you for the response. I really apologize for taking your time on this.

We are here to help. I'm sorry I'm not more familiar with the installer because that may be where you could use some help.

It seems I have been UEFI from the beginning. I have never seen the function key menu.

I agree. The picture did come through. That is 100% the live UEFI bootloader. In addition the "Memory test (64 bit UEFI)" entry indicates you have 64-bit UEFI (which is good).

I have to hunt for a second USB stick which is why I haven't used the make live USB maker.

That's fine. The important thing is you are booting via UEFI which is needed to create a UEFI bootloader on your system.

I'm reluctant to do the frugal install for now since it seems like I'm making progress and maybe it's a simple fix at this point [...]

I agree! I hope someone else can jump in and help you over the final hurdle.

[dolphin_oracle]

there are many machines that have some sort of extra security key that only allows certain UEFI's to work, even with secure boot off. My wife's Lenovo Yoga is the same way (when booting linux, it looks for a linpus lite UEFI, and won't boot any else, I presume, in UEFI mode). I have yet to get MX or even ubuntu installed on that laptop in a way that will boot. She runs MX from a live-USB when she needs it on that machine.

In some cases its possible, and you'll need to check your UEFI settings, to delete these keys. I have not tried this on my wife's computer because its her computer and she would kill me if I broke it.

I believe we've seen something similar on some Acers.

There is also the possibility of a Trusted Computing Module (on my lenovo called TXT in the UEFI/Bios Security settings) that might need to be disabled, although this does not have any affect that I can see on my machine when booting.

Its also possible that your system is locked onto the window bootmanager efi. It may be possible to change the order of preference inside your UEFI/bios settings.

there is another possibility that the check we use to determine if a system is running efi may not be correct.

running:

Code: Select all

cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size

and reporting the number provided may be another good data point.

From the live usb, if you could run the "Quick System Info" tool from the menu and provide that information it may be useful for looking into your particular hardware. Also the model number of your lenovo may be useful. also useful would be the output of

Code: Select all

fdisk -l /dev/sda

[fehlix]

Would you mind, and do the following:
- get latest released Version MX-18
- create a LiveUSB stick as before, with MX LiveUSB maker, rufus or unetbootin.
when booted in Live provide more detailed system info by running the Quick System Info tool from the Menu
and paste the text output here ( between in code-tags [code] [/code] ) (Alterntively run this command from within terminal:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxrz

Next provide additional information by running those commands ( again text out put between code-tags ):

Code: Select all

sudo lsblk -f

and this

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l

[dolphin_oracle]

This page describes the kind of thing I was talking about with my wife's yoga.

https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... tallation-