Having a problem dual booting with win10

General system Kernel, boot, graphics & hardware
1

Hello guys hope you all are having a nice day…

My sibling has a laptop initially i installed manjaro on it (two years ago) and she liked it an got used to it but her school sometimes requires her to use her laptop in some certain ways and that unfortunately only comes in the form of windows “ways” and sinsce her internet access is kinda crap and i cant always help her from far away i decided install windows alongside linux…

So i put a second ssd on the laptop an formatted a windows 10 on it and since i also came across EOS and liked it when i started using it i also replaced manjaro with EOS

But couldnt get the windows option to show up on grub options
here is the situation as i understand it

  • windows and linux are on seperate drives
  • os-prober doesnt output anything when i run it even when i mount windows os partition (i cant seem to mount small windows partition see next point)
  • trying to mount the small windows partition that is created when installing windows fails (as i understand it is due to it being unable to find a valid FAT filesystem)
  • when i boot into linux and go into /boot/efi/EFI i see a Microsoft folder containing windows boot related stuff (this kinda confuses me)

here are the outputs of;

$ sudo fdisk -l 
Disk /dev/sda: 931,51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC  WDS100T2B0A
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 700FD435-A995-5941-895A-56F3A2FA3A69

Device         Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048      34815      32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda2      34816  929523711  929488896 443,2G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda3  929523712 1953523711 1024000000 488,3G Microsoft basic data


Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 238,47 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: SAMSUNG MZALQ256HBJD-00BL2              
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 16384 bytes / 131072 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 021B915C-3EA7-4DC6-B95A-0B728D49F49F

Device           Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1    4096   2052095   2048000  1000M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 2052096 500103449 498051354 237,5G Linux filesystem
$ lsblk 
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda           8:0    0 931,5G  0 disk 
├─sda1        8:1    0    16M  0 part 
├─sda2        8:2    0 443,2G  0 part /mnt/windows
└─sda3        8:3    0 488,3G  0 part 
nvme0n1     259:0    0 238,5G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0  1000M  0 part /boot/efi
└─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0 237,5G  0 part /

and reason why do i think trying to mount the small windows partition that is created when installing windows fails (as i understand it is due to it being unable to find a valid FAT filesystem)

output of dmesg after mount failed 
[   20.763753] systemd-journald[434]: /var/log/journal/aab8486caeb145039d37651415e6e89a/user-1000.journal: Journal file uses a different sequence number ID, rotating.
[   22.249956] rfkill: input handler enabled
[   23.467521] rfkill: input handler disabled
[  138.954384] SGI XFS with ACLs, security attributes, realtime, scrub, repair, quota, no debug enabled
[  138.975784] JFS: nTxBlock = 8192, nTxLock = 65536
[  139.032260] raid6: skipped pq benchmark and selected avx2x4
[  139.032266] raid6: using avx2x2 recovery algorithm
[  139.035554] xor: automatically using best checksumming function   avx       
[  139.136196] Btrfs loaded, crc32c=crc32c-intel, zoned=yes, fsverity=yes
[  216.419526] capability: warning: `gvfsd-admin' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use)
[  232.915762] EXT4-fs (sda1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[  232.915985] EXT4-fs (sda1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[  232.916158] EXT4-fs (sda1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[  232.916363] FAT-fs (sda1): bogus number of reserved sectors
[  232.916365] FAT-fs (sda1): Can't find a valid FAT filesystem
[  232.916844] XFS (sda1): Invalid superblock magic number
[  232.917569] FAT-fs (sda1): bogus number of reserved sectors
[  232.917572] FAT-fs (sda1): Can't find a valid FAT filesystem
[  232.917768] VFS: Can't find a Minix filesystem V1 | V2 | V3 on device sda1.
[  232.918102] hfs: can't find a HFS filesystem on dev sda1
[  232.931857] hfsplus: unable to find HFS+ superblock
[  232.931961] ufs: ufs was compiled with read-only support, can't be mounted as read-write
[  232.932140] EXT4-fs (sda1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[ 3719.517694] EXT4-fs (sda1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[ 3719.517919] EXT4-fs (sda1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[ 3719.518080] EXT4-fs (sda1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[ 3719.518283] FAT-fs (sda1): bogus number of reserved sectors
[ 3719.518285] FAT-fs (sda1): Can't find a valid FAT filesystem
[ 3719.518817] XFS (sda1): Invalid superblock magic number
[ 3719.519393] FAT-fs (sda1): bogus number of reserved sectors
[ 3719.519395] FAT-fs (sda1): Can't find a valid FAT filesystem
[ 3719.519552] VFS: Can't find a Minix filesystem V1 | V2 | V3 on device sda1.
[ 3719.519838] hfs: can't find a HFS filesystem on dev sda1
[ 3719.526761] hfsplus: unable to find HFS+ superblock
[ 3719.526825] ufs: ufs was compiled with read-only support, can't be mounted as read-write
[ 3719.527036] EXT4-fs (sda1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem

i am a bit lost at the moment and arch wiki steps dont seem to work in my case any help is appreciated,
Thanks…

2

I can’t read most of that but I am guessing like you installed Windows in Legacy/MODE and EOS in UEFI mode.

You need to install both using the same mode for grub to be able to dual-boot them.

3

sorry about the hard to read parts is there a way for me to make those parts monospace fonts i am very new to the forum
and i think windows is installed in uefi mode but i will make sure just gimme a minute

4

yea windows is uefi and linux is uefi as well

5

Yes, you can wrap them in code blocks by pressing the icon that looks like this </>

Although, that wasn’t what I meant. I meant I can’t read it due to the language.

Try using LANG=C sudo parted -l

1 Like
6

thank you man that is a very useful command here is the output

$ LANG=C sudo parted -l
Model: ATA WDC WDS100T2B0A (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  17,8MB  16,8MB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres, no_automount
 2      17,8MB  476GB   476GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 3      476GB   1000GB  524GB   ntfs                                       msftdata


Model: SAMSUNG MZALQ256HBJD-00BL2 (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 256GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name         Flags
 1      2097kB  1051MB  1049MB  fat32                     boot, esp
 2      1051MB  256GB   255GB   ext4         endeavouros
7

Your windows install doesn’t have an EFI partition.

This is what a Windows install would normally look like:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  106MB   105MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot, esp, no_automount
 2      106MB   123MB   16.8MB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres, no_automount
 3      123MB   85.3GB  85.2GB  ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata

How did you determine that Windows was installed in UEFI mode?

8

i booted into windows and followed the instructions from the internet “Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type msinfo32 into Run, and click/tap on OK to open System Information” and it displayed UEFI there

9

if applicable I would unplug linux. insert win boot disc, and repair WIN boot.
then I would unplug windows from the mobo and install linux.
even thought they may have different mobo slots they still will sandbag each other like bastds for no discernible reason. Some people have to live with this. Like me. Like you. Many never have a problem. Anyways.
Plug them both back in.
Let boot manager or bios boot sort it out from there.
This has worked for me.

1 Like
10

thanks for sharing your experience
were you able to see both os es on grub options in the end

11

yes. usually boot order can determine this. or you can force your eos installer to uefi and be better for it since a bootloader menu would load.
I woudn’t mess around with grub.
If a Linux mugs another linux you can run a command to make the other linux respect/see the grub. I don’t know how to do that in linux.
I really don’t like the grub so I avoid using it.
(It’s the trend that distros historically grub like this or fedora are increasing uefi availability).

there’s probably a way to have the big old happy family you want with grub, but I know how to do that.

12

ok i think i have a theory
so when i was installing windows there was already a FAT32 formatted boot and esp flagged partition present (created when installing linux) and windows decided to use that one

so linux and windows efs are ended up on the same parition and i guess that causes problems?
I don’t understant why that causes problems but i think i can prevent that from happening by doing

thanks @drunkenvicar
Now i will try that and share the results

13

make sure you have at least one functional operating system before install the other.
and uefi, pass on grub.
always unplug one is my own personal rule.

14

Guess it is my lucky day…
i tried installing refind just before going and formatting anything once again and now it shows windows alongside EOS
If it works with not too much problems i am not going to touch it anymore at this point. Maybe i will at summer or something…
Thanks for the help guys @drunkenvicar & @dalto
I don’t know if this would be helpfull to anybody reading this later, should i mark this as solved?

15

Update on my situation;
well my luck run out pretty quickly and windows update borked linux… (my hate for windows has gone up to another level now)

linux as boot option was nuked afaiu, then i proceeded to format and reinstall both systems in isolation from each other, windows install has gone without any issues… or so i thought because i found out after i installed EOS multiple times even manjaro once and both installations say the install was successfull but every time i rebooted it would just go back to bios boot selection menu instead of booting just because this cancer called windows changed bios setting for secure boot to enabled…

Sorry for long ranty expression, anyway when i found that out and changed it back to disabled i was able to boot fresh installed linux but os-prober/grub method i followed didn’t seem to work so i just installed refind again and it works as it should.
windows is seperated from linux and refind is the boot manager
looks more like this instead and not like it was before…

dalto: This is what a Windows install would normally look like
16

rEFInd is great, it’s very reliable and quite customizable as well. Check out this hilarious Matrix theme you can get off of GitHub: https://github.com/Yannis4444/Matrix-rEFInd

Preview

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