Hi. I have two separate hard drives in my machine. One has an installation of Windows 11 and the second contains an installation of EndeavourOS. During the installation process for EndeavourOS, I opted to install GRUB on the drive that contains my EndeavourOS installation, with the intention of detecting the Windows install from EndeavourOS later. I have performed this task succesfully using Manjaro and Ubuntu recently, so I’m not sure what the issue is.
I start with sudo nano /etc/default/grub and uncommented GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false. Then I run sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg, but no Windows is detected. Here is the output for that command:
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found background: /usr/share/endeavouros/splash.png
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-linux
Found initrd image: /boot/amd-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux.img
Found fallback initrd image(s) in /boot: amd-ucode.img initramfs-linux-fallback.img
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
done
Here is my output for lsblk (nvme0n1 is the Windows drive):
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda 8:0 0 465.8G 0 disk
└─sda1 8:1 0 465.8G 0 part /
sdb 8:16 0 4.5T 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 16M 0 part
└─sdb2 8:18 0 4.5T 0 part
nvme0n1 259:0 0 465.8G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:6 0 499M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p2 259:7 0 100M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p3 259:8 0 16M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p4 259:9 0 464.5G 0 part
└─nvme0n1p5 259:10 0 719M 0 part
I’m not sure how to proceed. My intuition is that perhaps I should have installed GRUB on my Windows drive. I did try to reinstall and install GRUB this way, but the installation returned an error code. IIRC error code 1, failed to install GRUB (paraphrasing). The reason I think this is because I had folders for Manjaro and Ubuntu in ‘nvme0n1p2’. I have also tried mounting ‘nvme0n1p2’ first and then running the mkconfig command, but the result is the same.
I appreciate anyone taking the time to review this.
Yeah, assuming your Linux install is on /dev/sda, it looks like you did a legacy install.
If it is a new install, you might consider reinstalling in UEFI mode.
It is determined by how you boot the ISO. If you boot it in UEFI mode, you will get a UEFI install. You might need to use your BIOS boot menu to choose the UEFI option if your BIOS prioritizes legacy higher.
Your assumption is correct, /dev/sda is my Linux install.
I see, I will review how I am booting from the install medium and try again. Thank you for the interim. Will mark as solved if my issue resolves itself!
Out of curiousity, are you able to access your Windows 11 partitions from your Linux file manager? The reason I am asking is Microsoft with its fast boot option in Windows 10 sometimes messed with things partition related. I have not really played with Windows 11 to see if it has further security\conveniences.
Note, I did notice your feedback about the Manjaro install working (depending on how partitioning was set then).
I was able to access the partitions from within Linux (after mounting). I have secure boot disabled, and perhaps having it enabled is a requirement for fast boot? In any case, I am not using a fast boot option.
I’ve used multiple distros on this same setup and this is the first time I’ve had an issue. I’ve used Manjaro, Ubuntu and Pop!_OS (just remembered). It seems what dalto wrote was correct, I was somehow starting my installation USB in non-UEFI mode without being aware of it.
So it seems you were right, I must have been booting my USB in legacy mode.
In UEFI mode I had more options during the installation process and opted to use systemd-boot since this supposedly just autodetects Windows (which it did). Was able to boot from my EndeavourOS install drive and then select between EOS and Win11.
Unless the specs changed, Windows 11 requires secure boot.
Source:
I only have 1 harddrive in my laptop, so makes you wonder what Windows is looking at when it boots. For the USB port, I know Thinkpads have a bios setting to enable UEFI support for USB ports. So I enable this when booting the EndeavourOS image when I run an install.
