I tried, Win8 kicked so off with it's head!

[joesplace]

New computer with Win 8 loaded so I tried the dual boot install with LM 17. It worked fine but when Win 8 did a major update, it kicked LM 17 out. Win 8 has a habit of wipping out the boot loader so it can be the only player. So . . . . . off with it's head! Now LM 17 seems much happier with the drive to it self . . .

[gtsfer]

You're the second person on the forums that's reported the exact same phenomenon in the last few days. Win 8 is getting a really bad rap with updates lately.

EDIT: This can most likely be fixed as your LInux OS isn't damaged, just the Grub boot loader. But it sounds like you nuked W8 anyway.

[all41]

yep! Exactly the same scenario on my laptop-after Win updates it defaulted to loading Win8.
But I sell or swap from time to time so I wanted to leave Win8.1 intact, just in case.
So when I use it I have to tap Esc to get choices of booting up Mint.
I need to update 16 to Qiana anyway so just using it the way it is----for now.

[Hendrick]

yep! Exactly the same scenario on my laptop-after Win updates it defaulted to loading Win8.
But I sell or swap from time to time so I wanted to leave Win8.1 intact, just in case.
So when I use it I have to tap Esc to get choices of booting up Mint.
I need to update 16 to Qiana anyway so just using it the way it is----for now.

Are you perhaps on a HP laptop? HP's boot procedure has the habit (hard coded) of booting from a Windows file.
There is a bypass for this behavior. I can post the procedure if you want it. I don't know if this is also valid for
other brand names.

[all41]

It's a Compaq CQ-58 -- pretty close. Things had been going along peachy for a few weeks using Petra. And then one day I decided to boot the thing into Win 8.1
just to make sure it was still working. While I was there I updated the AV defs and since I had some time on my hands I downloaded the "important" windows updates and walaa.
No biggie -- Qiana planned anyway.
But yes please post that info. I may need it after I replace Petra with Qiana, and I am sure others would like to have the info as well. Thanks

[Derek_S]

Hello @ Hendrick - I have a HP Envy DV7 laptop and have experienced this very problem over and over again. It does not matter which Linux OS I have tried - Fedora, Ubuntu, openSUSE, or Linux Mint - all have worked for a brief period dual booting with Windows 8/8.1 but eventually the Windows bootloader returns and takes the boot process away from Grub. Could you please post your fix for this problem?

[joesplace]

I'm on a Dell Inspiron 660 and I repaired the boot loader once and when Win 8 updated again and wipped out GRUB, I installed LM as the only OS. I learned to do without Windows and the problems it causes . . .

[Derek_S]

Hello @ Hendrick - In order to save you some time typing, does anything in the following link describe your solution?

http://askubuntu.com/questions/244261/h ... w-efi-file

[Hendrick]

First of all I have to say that I found these instructions on the Internet. I am not the author. I just combined them to make them fit for my HP laptop.
It all comes down to a file called bootmgfw.efi. On my laptop this file is in: /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot

1) change to root mode
2) rename bootmgfw.efi to bootmgf2.efi
3) copy /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi to /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
4) rename grubx64.efi to bootmgfw.efi
5) edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg to recognize the renamed Microsoft efi file
search for bootmgfw.efi and change it to bootmgf2.efi (otherwise GRUB will loop when trying to boot Windows)

Note: after updating to a new kernel, you will have to do the edit (number 5) again.

[gtsfer]

For a method to repair your Windows-update-corrupted Grub check out this link on the forums. It's fresh and a work in progress. Please don't cross post to that thread though. The moderators hate that and you'll get chastized or something..

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 40#p909719

[all41]

For a method to repair your Windows-update-corrupted Grub

I am downloading that file to play with.

The computer is held hostage and mostly useless as windows downloads updates, installs some of them, reboots, install more as it goes down, restarts, loads more at startup, rechecks the updates for updates, rinse and repeat. And changing other non-windows files on the hard drive (without approval) is yet another vote to the hall of shame.

[Derek_S]

Hello @ Hendrick - Thank you for posting your solution. The link I posted descibes a similar technique, namely fooling your Windows OS into thinking it's using the Windows bootloader when actually it's not. It's a bit devious, but then again so is Microsoft for imposing UEFI boot and Secure boot on us in order to lock other operating systems out of our machines. What goes around comes around I guess.

Hello @ all41 - The solution to Windows needing to reboot back into Windows after installing updates is solved by editing grub and making Windows the first OS in the boot order. You can do this using the grub customizer by daniel richter. Install it using the following terminal commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

[all41]

The solution to Windows needing to reboot back into Windows after installing updates

Hey Derek_S Thank you.

The 'dream-on' solution would be that since M$ update knows the machine has been instructed to display alternate boot options (grub) they SHOULD
prompt something like "Windows must reboot your computer into Windows to finish installing the updates, would you like to make this change permanent? Y or N"

Making unapproved changes to non-M$ files is a dastardly deed.

As for me I only use windows for one system dedicated solely for flight-sim and midi interface.
Everything else is Mint including our entire home media/ham radio/office network.