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

When you run into problems installing MX Linux XFCE
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ronjnk
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Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2018 9:36 pm

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

#31 Post by ronjnk »

svx biker,,, you are correct that windows is ahead of MX18. asqwerth also suggested changing the boot order and you can read my response to him. But essentially, I was able to change the boot order with the command he suggested which essentially did the same as your suggestion and it changed in the live session. But it was not a permanent change. As soon as I rebooted and checked again, windows took over the first priority slot again. I don't get it. It doesn't make sense that I can't permanently swap windows and MX18, only on a temporary basis as long as I'm in the live USB. Anyway, good thought! Ron

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fehlix
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Re: Windows 10 Dual Boot but MX Linux doesn't show up

#32 Post by fehlix »

ronjnk wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 7:25 pm svx biker,,, you are correct that windows is ahead of MX18. asqwerth also suggested changing the boot order and you can read my response to him. But essentially, I was able to change the boot order with the command he suggested which essentially did the same as your suggestion and it changed in the live session. But it was not a permanent change. As soon as I rebooted and checked again, windows took over the first priority slot again. I don't get it. It doesn't make sense that I can't permanently swap windows and MX18, only on a temporary basis as long as I'm in the live USB. Anyway, good thought! Ron
The reaseon is that thos entries with the UEFI-boot-tabel are wrong - as only one ESP/EFI partition can be used on the disk,
hence those invalid MX18 entries are ignored and put aside, reordering happend sometime even removal of invalid entries.
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ronjnk
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Re: Windows 10 Dual Boot but MX Linux doesn't show up

#33 Post by ronjnk »

fehlix.. I'm pretty certain this was the first thing I tried. Your explanation made complete sense. Unfortunately, I don't believe it was successful. It says it was completed but here is what was in the message box when I ran the boot repair. It's the same message I get every time I run boot repair. Bottom line, I ran boot repair with the specs you laid out which make perfect sense and it still boots in windows every time. As well, F12, which shows MX18 in the boot menu when selected goes straight to windows. No change yet in behavior of the system. Thank you. I am so grateful for your thoughts.

Code: Select all

Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
GPT:Primary header thinks Alt. header is not at the end of the disk.
GPT:0x1dcf20ef != 0x1dcf32af
GPT:Alternate GPT header not at the end of the disk.
GPT:0x1dcf20ef != 0x1dcf32af
GPT: Use GNU Parted to correct GPT errors.
GPT:Primary header thinks Alt. header is not at the end of the disk.
GPT:0x1dcf20ef != 0x1dcf32af
GPT:Alternate GPT header not at the end of the disk.
GPT:0x1dcf20ef != 0x1dcf32af
GPT: Use GNU Parted to correct GPT errors.
GPT:Primary header thinks Alt. header is not at the end of the disk.
GPT:0x1dcf20ef != 0x1dcf32af
GPT:Alternate GPT header not at the end of the disk.
GPT:0x1dcf20ef != 0x1dcf32af
GPT: Use GNU Parted to correct GPT errors.
Installation finished. No error reported.

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fehlix
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Re: Windows 10 Dual Boot but MX Linux doesn't show up

#34 Post by fehlix »

ronjnk wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 7:37 pm ... It's the same message I get every time I run boot repair.

Code: Select all

Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
GPT:Primary header thinks Alt. header is not at the end of the disk.
GPT:0x1dcf20ef != 0x1dcf32af
GPT:Alternate GPT header not at the end of the disk.
GPT:0x1dcf20ef != 0x1dcf32af
GPT: Use GNU Parted to correct GPT errors.
Was this disk converted from DOS-MBR-layout as those tools sometimes produce issues with the GPT-partition tables,
I would probably not try to install on a disk with GPT-partition table issues. You need to fix this first.
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ronjnk
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Re: Windows 10 Dual Boot but MX Linux doesn't show up

#35 Post by ronjnk »

No conversion at all, brand spanking new computer out of the box. Went to disk management in windows- shrink volume- system calculated maximum I could shrink, I chose to shrink less than the system calculated- told the system to shrink. Ended up with unallocated space of 90 Gig roughly.

Went to MX18 live USB, went to installer, chose to create partitions-made 3 partitions-continued the install and here we are. But this is also my first experience with a SSD drive. Would the SSD drive be suspect? I wouldn't even know how to convert a disk and those steps I took are pretty basic to most installations.

I'm working on creating the boot stick from Rod. I can extract the files and I see a disk image refind-flashdrive-0.11.4.img but the live USB won't open it. It's looking for an .iso file I'll research further but I'm unable to make that stick at this point. I'll try another program.

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fehlix
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Re: Windows 10 Dual Boot but MX Linux doesn't show up

#36 Post by fehlix »

ronjnk wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 8:36 pm I'm working on creating the boot stick from Rod. I can extract the files and I see a disk image refind-flashdrive-0.11.4.img but the live USB won't open it. It's looking for an .iso file I'll research further but I'm unable to make that stick at this point. I'll try another program.
When you use DD-mode to "dump" an image on the USB stick, the name of the image including extension does not matter. i.e. you can rename from .img to.iso to disk-dump the image to the USBstick. DD-dump writes byte-by-byte regardless of the name of the image-file.
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fehlix
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Re: Windows 10 Dual Boot but MX Linux doesn't show up

#37 Post by fehlix »

ronjnk wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 8:36 pm No conversion at all, brand spanking new computer out of the box. Went to disk management in windows- shrink volume- system calculated maximum I could shrink, I chose to shrink less than the system calculated- told the system to shrink. Ended up with unallocated space of 90 Gig roughly.
What I'm not clear about is that the one Samsung SSD disk is part of RAID array, if I read the spec you proved rightly.
The GPT-header error are known due to RAID, esp. the partion table header issue. gdisk might help to solve this.
RAID make actualy only sense (at least to me) if more than one disk with identical capacity are used to provide a RAID array of disks. Not sue about the configuration of this desktop tower.
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ronjnk
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Re: Windows 10 Dual Boot but MX Linux doesn't show up

#38 Post by ronjnk »

OK, so let me update everybody. This is a brand new computer right out of the box. I simply wanted to dual boot windows 10 with MX Linux. As I wrote in my last message to fehlix, I've outlined the simple installation steps I took. However, fehlix provided a clue. When I was installing, I used Gparted to create my 3 initial partitions. Root,home swap. Everytime I went to use Gparted, it told me I had a small section of unallocated space at the end of the disk, did I want to fix it? I said no since I didn't think it was a problem and I didn't want to screw something up. I didn't creat that space and I assumed the computer arrived with that space for some reason..

Since fehlix mentioned that there was something funky with the disk, I decided to go back and do another reinstall. This time when I entered Gparted on installation, I got the same message. But this time I said yes, fix it. I did not create that small unallocated space and have no idea where it came from.

It fixed the unallocated space. Then I continued the reinstall. This time, at the GRUB loader, ESP was pre selected for me and I went with it. There were no drop down menus to deal with. It was ESP and nothing else to select. I finished the installation and rebooted without the live USB stick.

This is a lenovo computer. It got to the Lenovo screen and then spun it's wheels. The small wheel just spun and the computer did nothing. I lost windows 10. I shut down and used F12 to reboot. I see windows 10 and MX18 as before. When I select windows 10, the computer goes into Lenovo diagnostics and tries to fix the disk. After a few minutes, it gives up and tells me it can't fix the disk.

I shut the computer down and used F12 again. This time I select MX18 to boot and it I now have MX18 available and running on my hard drive. However, windows is dead, and the only way to get to MX is by using F12 function. One step ahead, two back it seems. I'm not sure if we are making progress or I destroyed my new windows 10 computer as far as a dual boot option.

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fehlix
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Re: Windows 10 Dual Boot but MX Linux doesn't show up

#39 Post by fehlix »

ronjnk wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 9:19 pm I shut the computer down and used F12 again. This time I select MX18 to boot and it I now have MX18 available and running on my hard drive. However, windows is dead, and the only way to get to MX is by using F12 function. One step ahead, two back it seems. I'm not sure if we are making progress or I destroyed my new windows 10 computer as far as a dual boot option.
Do you have a boot menuentry for WIndows within the grub boot menu?
If not can you re-create the grub menu on the command line:

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub
:puppy:
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Paul..
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Re: Windows 10 Dual Boot but MX Linux doesn't show up

#40 Post by Paul.. »

Might be a simple fix...Win10 is still there...

Boot into MX-18, open a terminal as root and run "update-grub"...then reboot to the GRUB menu of MX-18 and see if Windows Boot Loader appears in the list

EDIT: you beat me to it, fehlix!

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