SOLVED! - Mint installed alongside Win 10 but no boot option for Mint

[nutso_fasst]

Installed 64-bit Mint 18.3 on a new HP desktop alongside the factory-installed Win 10 Home (single 1TB HDD). The install, with 340GB allotted to the OS, completed w/o error, but the system subsequently booted directly into Windows. I tried manually selecting a boot device on startup, but the only HDD boot option listed is the Windows bootloader. There is no "ubuntu" option.

Suspecting this problem resulted from my foolish-in-hindsight mistake of booting the install DVD during a restart of Windows rather than after a total shutdown, I tried to re-install, but there's no simple overwrite option. Not knowing what to do with "something else," I quit the installer. (I did not try entering "sudo update-grub" at the terminal as I wasn't sure what that would do to the Windows bootloader.)

What I would really prefer is not to have to choose an OS when booting. I want the system to boot Mint by default, with Win 10 as a manual boot option. Is this possible?

Much thanks for any edification.

[kukamuumuka]

What I would really prefer is not to have to choose an OS when booting. I want the system to boot Mint by default, with Win 10 as a manual boot option. Is this possible?

UEFI Dual boot in HP computer

[michael louwe]

@ nutso_fasst,.......

...

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Maybe LM was installed in Legacy BIOS mode while Win 10 is preinstalled in UEFI mode.

Please counter-check your install procedures with below ...

For some guidance on dual-booting LM alongside Win 10/8.1 in UEFI and GPT-disk mode, please refer to .......
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=163126 (dual-booting UEFI computers)
http://linuxmint-installation-guide.rea ... en/latest/
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... ct/windows
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... nt-install
https://www.tecmint.com/install-linux-m ... uefi-mode/ (note step 17 - if Win 8.x/10 could not boot, <sudo update grub>)
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=122276 (manual partitioning Tutorial for Legacy BIOS mode and MBR/ms-dos disks)[use as a guide]

Ensure that Secure Boot, Fast Boot and CSM(or Legacy BIOS) are disabled in BIOS setup, Fast Startup is disabled in Win 10/8.1(>Control Panel >Power options), the Live LM media(DVD or USB-stick) is booted in UEFI mode in BIOS setup.

To dual-boot, you only need to pre-shrink the Windows partition if you intend to use the manual "Something else" install method, ie no need to do so if you intend to use the automatic "install LM alongside Windows Boot Manager" method, which will be followed by the LM Installer auto-partitioning the disk and auto-installing the Linux Grub bootloader onto the Windows ESP. Only a root / and swap partition will be auto-created with a total default size of about 20GB. The user will be given the option to increase this default size by moving a slider on the colored Partition table, subject to the maximum available free space in the Windows partition.

For the "Something else" install method, manually partition the pre-shrunk free space accordingly, eg 50GB for /, 1.5X RAM size for Swap(at the end of this space) and 200GB for Home; and ensure that the "Device for boot loader installation" is the Windows EFI System Partition(= ESP = fat32/about 104MB/mount point is /boot/efi) which is usually dev/sda1.
.
.

P S - Certain OEM Win 8.x/10 computers, eg Acer, Asus and HP, have an obstructive or pro-M$ UEFI-BIOS setting for "select an UEFI file as trusted for executing",(= Linux cannot boot). For the fix, please refer to ...
https://itsfoss.com/no-bootable-device-found-ubuntu/
viewtopic.php?t=236560

The above latest(= 2017) OEM laptops, eg Acer E and S series, may have even removed this UEFI-BIOS setting(eg "No bootable device" after installing Linux and cannot be fixed), but may be restored by a new BIOS firmware update from the OEMs = update through Windows only. This was after many complaints from affected users. ...
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=254948
... Another workaround is ...
https://askubuntu.com/questions/862946/ ... re-es1-533
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

How to reinstall Grub-EFI ... https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/6

[nutso_fasst]

Sorry so late to respond, I was looking for my post in the list and still don't see it--finally found my way into my user control panel.

I wanted to respond to my own post ASAP, as I am slowly getting more knowledge of what's happened with the install. When I started started this OS switch I didn't know what it meant to "mount a partition" and if not for Win 10 I'd probably never have learned.

Note that Mint is booting just fine from the DVD, no 'compatibility mode' required. I am currently in Mint writing this.

I tried the 'sudo update-grub' command and got this response: "/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of 'aufs'." Wherever that is.

GParted shows that '/dev/sda1' is the 'EFI system partition'. According to the GRUB 2.2 docs at:
https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manua ... stall.html
these commands should install GRUB w/EFI:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
sudo grub-install
sudo unmount /boot/efi

I've not tried this yet. The /efi subdirectory doesn't exist and would need to be created.

I really don't want to see a dual boot option at startup, just want to make Mint the default boot with Win 10 accessible manually. So it seems I just need to get the Mint boot option in place.

Thanks much for the prompt responses. I'll need to study admin...'s suggestion more carefully.

[nutso_fasst]

I created an /efi subdirectory in /boot, then mounted /dev/sda1 in /boot/efi.

In /boot/efi/EFI I see /Boot, /HP, /Microsoft, and /ubuntu. There is only one file in /Boot: bootx64.efi. In /ubuntu are two files: grubx64.efi and grub.cfg, plus an empty /fw subdirectory. In /Microsoft are two subdirectories: /Boot and /Recovery. In /Microsoft/Boot there are many subdirectories and files, including 3 efi files: bootmgr.efi, bootmgfw.efi, and memtest.efi.

So /ubuntu/grubx64.efi was created with Mint installation. What's missing that will make it accessible? If I could get the command 'grub-install' to run, what would it change?

If I moved bootx64.efi elsewhere and put grubx64.efi in /Boot, would the system boot to Mint?

Edification always much appreciated.

[michael louwe]

@ nutso_fasst,.......

Suspecting this problem resulted from my foolish-in-hindsight mistake of booting the install DVD during a restart of Windows rather than after a total shutdown, I tried to re-install, but there's no simple overwrite option. Not knowing what to do with "something else," I quit the installer. (I did not try entering "sudo update-grub" at the terminal as I wasn't sure what that would do to the Windows bootloader.)

What I would really prefer is not to have to choose an OS when booting. I want the system to boot Mint by default, with Win 10 as a manual boot option. Is this possible?

.
To reinstall LM, use the manual "Something else" install option, delete all the previous LM partitions to create a new free-space. Click on this free-space to manually partition it accordingly for the reinstall.

You can try to purposely install LM in Legacy BIOS mode by booting the Live LM USB/DVD in non-UEFI mode through UEFI-BIOS setup's Boot menu, with Win 10 preinstalled in UEFI mode.
....... Ensure that the "Device for boot loader installation" is the internal hard-drive or /sda, ie not /sda1(= EFI System Partition/ESP). After installation of LM has completed, boot LM by enabling CSM or Legacy BIOS in UEFI-BIOS setup. This kind of setup is not conventional.

Normally or conventionally, for a dual-boot on an internal hard-drive, both Windows and then Linux should be installed in the same mode = Grub menu will be displayed during startup. If in UEFI mode, the "Device for boot loader installation" should be the ESP.

[nutso_fasst]

@ michael louwe:

Thanks for the suggestion re partitions. I'm good with the partitions I got when I selected 'install next to Windows'. I wondered if a reinstall could just go into the existing ext4 partition. It now looks like the necessary files were installed and need some tweaking--that a clean dual-boot install may be an exception w/Win 10.

I'm trying to understand how the boot process is altered by GRUB. For example, the "...failed to get canonical path of 'aufs'" message when I tried the update-grub command--where is 'aufs' supposed to exist? Would that message have occurred if I had mounted the HDD Mint partition, then the EFI partition in that, then used CHROOT on the mount point (assuming that makes sense)? I'm not yet grokking the process pointed to by administrollaattori. How does a file '/etc/grub.d/40_custom' get used in the boot process? Does grubx64.efi look for this file, and also the file /efi/ubuntu/grub.cfg?

I've downloaded the GRUB 2 manual and will see what I can learn from that.

[nutso_fasst]

@ michael louwe:

Just to make sure I understand the 'something else' install option: If LM 18.3 is installed "alongside" Windows 10 in an 335832MB ext4 partition and I do another installation from the DVD and (1) select 'something else' and then (2) highlight the existing LM 18.3 partition and then (3) click 'Install Now', the install will overwrite the existing LM without making any changes to the partitioning scheme, is that correct?

[michael louwe]

@ nutso_fasst,.......

...

.
You highlight the existing LM 18.3 partitions and click - to delete all of them, eg the / or Root, Swap and/or Home partitions. Then highlight the newly-created free-space and click + to manually partition the free disk space. Later click Install Now.

Alternatively, you can also just highlight the / or Root partition of the existing LM 18.3 system and click Change to Edit and format the partition = only this partition will be replaced by a new and similar / partition, ie the Swap and/or Home partition of the existing LM 18.3 system will be unchanged or retained.

[nutso_fasst]

We be bootin'...

I followed the instructions in the top answer (284 upvotes) here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/88384

I had to do a grub-install followed by update-grub even though update-grub alone gave no errors. The system now boots the GRUB boot menu w/Mint as default.

(The instructions at the above URL are similar but slightly different than those at the "How to reinstall Grub-EFI" URL michael louwe provided. They are more understandable for me at this point.)

Thanks to Michael and administrollaattori for helping this Linux newbie understand the issue enough to find the right solution.

[nutso_fasst]

One more thing: it was clearly necessary to have Secure Boot disabled on this computer (HP 260-a010) in order for Linux Mint to run (I didn't have it disabled when I did the initial LM install).

I read in numerous places that Ubuntu did have a valid security certificate, so I tried re-enabling Secure Boot. This gave an 'invalid certificate' boot message and boot into Win 10. Disabled Secure Boot and LM loaded again.

[Ashman]

For anyone coming here looking for a solution, mine was this:

I found out Windows is hard coded into UEFI choice by HP. So nice huh.

So the solution is to simply press F6 when booting then you can choose Linux Mint or whatever.
Not comfortable, not nice, but it is what it is.
Unless you go back to legacy mode.

Last HP thing I buy.

[deepakdeshp]

In BIOS in boot options make Mint as the first choice and Windows as second choice. Save exit and test.

[pbear]

Not comfortable, not nice, but it is what it is.

Did you look at the tutorial linked in the second post? Several workarounds are discussed.
If you want assistance, per forum rules, please open your own thread.

[pbear]

In BIOS in boot options make Mint as the first choice and Windows as second choice. Save exit and test.

FYI, this works on some HPs but not all. Maybe not even most. Difficult to say when the data are mostly anecdotal.

[Rocklin]

Simple boot windows and install grub2win(both uefi and legacy) .Open grub2 win.click manage bootmenu.add boot entry.choose linux mint.Select linux mint partition and apply changes.After rebooting u can see both windows and mint grub.mostly this works