[SOLVED] Dual Booting Win7 & LM14 - Grub problems...

[Mamouog]

Hi,

I'm sure this question has come up before but I can't seem to find it through searching - probably because I don't really know what I'm searching for!

Anyway... I'm running Windows 7 with a 1TB drive partitioned up a bit. I've shrunk one of my partitions by 100GB so it was sitting as unallocated space.
I created a LM14 USB stick, booted from it, installed LM14 (selecting the 'install alongside Windows 7' option). Everything went smoothly and rebooted the system.

PC didn't boot into GRUB, it just loaded straight into Windows 7.
Back in Windows I can see that the installation worked and it created the swap partition and the Linux partition.

I'm sure there is an easy fix to resolve this, I am just very new to this environment.
Thanks in advance!

LM14 version: Cinamon 64-bit.
Mobo firmware: UEFI

Update:

I have updated my MBR in Windows using EasyBCD but when I select mint it goes to a grub command line on the Windows partition.
I have uploaded a screenshot to check if everything has installed ok...

[anandrkris]

Hi - You need to install EasyBCD in Windows and add an entry for Linux Mint 14. More info here.

Hope this helps.

[Mamouog]

Hi - You need to install EasyBCD in Windows and add an entry for Linux Mint 14. More info here.

Hope this helps.

I can boot into grub now but I am just taken to a simple grub command line, rather than loading into Mint.

Thanks!

[anandrkris]

I am no expert and have seen the screen myself only once. See if the below helps.

Probably GRUB configuration is not set up properly and hence not listing options. See if the below tutorial helps.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=117427

Also, from the thread it looks like Grub legacy worked instead of Grub 2!!! I run Mint 13 but dont think it would have changed since Mint 13.

Another way - I suppose if Mint is installed properly you should be able to boot from command line. A tutorial i came across.

http://tuxers.com/main/instigating-a-ma ... ub-prompt/

@ Other Mint Memeber - Please feel free to correct if am missing on anything.

[Mamouog]

Thanks, still no luck though!

I think that my installation or boot setup isn't quite correct...

When adding LM14 to my windows bootloader using EasyBCD something doesn't look right...

Code: Select all

Windows 
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Mint 14
Drive: C:\ 
Bootloader Path: \NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr

The windows boot entry is correct, it is installed on drive C!
But the Mint 14 boot entry is also apparently on drive C?, even though I selected the partition that I installed linux onto.

Also Windows Disk Management is reporting that my Linux partition is 100% free, could it be that Windows is simply misreading it because it's a different file system?

Something just doesn't seem right to me, thanks!

[anandrkris]

Can you post the results of sudo fdisk -l from live session?

Mint 14
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\AutoNeoGrub0.mbr

Also , 'AutoNeoGrub0' intrigues me in your above boot entry. Check the below link for details. Hope this helps.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... ub#p609395

[Mamouog]

Thanks, I'll check out that link...

fdisk as requested...

Code: Select all

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbb6d5f71

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848   717006847   358400000    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       717006848  1748721663   515857408    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4      1748723710  1953523711   102400001    5  Extended
/dev/sda5      1748723712  1764345855     7811072   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6      1764347904  1953523711    94587904   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5efb1aa1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1            2048   976771071   488384512    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdc: 1012 MB, 1012924416 bytes
32 heads, 61 sectors/track, 1013 cylinders, total 1978368 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0009e87d

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   ?  3223366752  3470046675   123339962   f4  SpeedStor
/dev/sdc2   ?   378192737   710426324   166116794   10  OPUS
/dev/sdc3   ?   225603442   225603451           5   74  Unknown

Partition table entries are not in disk order

[Mamouog]

Still having problems, I've reinstalled a couple of times to no avail.
Changing the boot record in Windows allows me to get to the grub command line but that's it.

This should be really simple, I'm not doing anything complicated at all aha!

Any more ideas?
Thanks!

[Mamouog]

Still no luck after trying loads of different things.

I have taken this screenshot from within live boot, please could you check that at least everything has installed correctly?

Then I can concentrate on knowing that it's simply a grub/mbr problem.

Thanks!

[Mamouog]

Hi guys, I have solved it.

For future people who may find this:

I booted into live and then downloaded/ran this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

It fixed everything for me, now my PC boots into grub and I can select Windows or Linux Mint - perfect!