Dual boot with Windows 7, no Grub menu?

[footballer]

Hello,

I installed linux mint 12 with default options on a laptop with windows 7. At startup never show me to choice boot, always start with Windows 7 boot directly, any help please.

Thanks

[HughT]

hi footballer, try re-installing the bootloader to the mbr again. First you'll need to find out about your partitions - using your Mint disk in 'live CD' mode, open terminal and copy in the code

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sudo blkid

the output should be something like this:

/dev/sda1: LABEL="Windows XP" UUID="22E06A0FE069EA0D" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="Mandriva 2011" UUID="e4a3e8bb-4054-4be9-9a31-98763fad125d" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="Mint Linux 11" UUID="501d6859-824d-4bdc-8b6d-12f181a8a6e7" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="f19e48ca-2030-48b0-b381-9bc114fe18ae" TYPE="swap"

make a note of the Mint partition, in my case it's sda3, then

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sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

replace sda3 with the appropriate drive and partition for your Mint, then.

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sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

note - there's a gap between =/mnt and /dev, and no partition number after sda

re-boot into Mint then

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sudo update-grub

hope this helps you, regards

[xenopeek]

[Posts split from http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=102022 by moderator]

[footballer]

Thanks, works fine. Problem solved.

[Shibblet]

Hello,

I installed linux mint 12 with default options on a laptop with windows 7. At startup never show me to choice boot, always start with Windows 7 boot directly, any help please.

Thanks

There are a couple of ways to do this. First off, I am going to assume you are capable of installing Linux Mint, and understand the concept of a boot disk.

First, partition your hard drive in Windows 7, give yourself a large enough drive to install Mint onto. Then run the Mint Installer. When you get to the part that asks you where you want to install it, you set up your own area. Choose the second partition, and make that your "/" drive. This is a standard way to do this.

Then, here comes your choice of two different ways to boot.

First, pick the main HD as where you are supposed to install GRUB (usually SDA). This will put Grub overtop of your Windows 7 boot partition, and allow you to boot to either Linux Mint or Windows 7.

The other (personally more favorable) way to do this, is to choose your Linux Partition as a place to install Grub (usually SDA2). Then download a Windows Program called EasyBCD (http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/) With this program, you can alter your Windows bootloader to make the choice between Mint and Windows 7. Therefore if you ever choose to remove Linux, you won't have to find a creative way to remove GRUB. However, you will choose which OS to boot from in the Windows Bootloader, and then choose again in Grub. It's a two step process, but more favorable for removal.