win 10/linux mint 20.1 dual boot not working?

[dilbert_w10]

Hi, just joined this thread hoping for some advice on getting linux to dual boot. I read several threads, many are all different, reinstalled many times over 8hrs and not luck. I am not totally new to linux, been using it for years and have linux and ubuntu on different machines, and one is a dual boot with win 10.

My newer machine (one in question) that I am using now i5 asus MB with SSDs, I have no luck getting it to dual boot. When installing, linux does not recognize windows that is installed and does not give option to install along side, does not see it (reduced to 4 partitions and still linux does not recognize WIN). I changed partitions several times, but does not seem to help. I did a clean win 10 install, from usb with MS tool on a new ssd. The boot option screen never comes up and keeps booting into windows. So far I cannot not find "the grub hot key "if it works" on my KB.

any help appreciated, never had so much trouble installing linux. I must be over looking something, did not do something correct. thks

[deepakdeshp]

Did you install WINDOWS and Mint?
In BIOS keep Ubuntu , this is how Mint is represented as the first boot entry.

[deepakdeshp]

For installing, shrink a Windows partition with Windows utility,keep this as unallocated space. Now you will get an option to install along Windows in the installer.

[Pierre]

Hi dilbert_w10,
welcome to our forum.


did you have to install both systems ?

which one is now working ? you can still boot into an working LinuxMint System,
but you can't actually install that ?

we will need some extra information, if you are able to get into an working LinuxMint Desktop.

[dilbert_w10]

Hi all, thanks for all the reply's. Try to explain a little better, as I did not in the original post. Try to cover everyone response.

I posted that I had other versions of linux and ubuntu/win 10 pro dual boot running on "2" other machines. I have 3 different desktops currently running, and want to redo each one after I tackle my good machine.. The one in question, is my newer puter (not to new anymore) that I am redoing with a SSD upgrade and shifting some drives around. goal was to have a dual boot, win10home 64bit and linux mint 20.1 on this machine.

I installed a new larger ssd and did a new fresh install of win10 home on this puter, which has a asus p8z68-Vpro MB. win install made several partition on the drive when installing (need to check how many shortly, thought 4 maybe more). A thread on here said if the is more then 4 partitions on the drive, linux installer "along side" will not pickup the win installation. Linux has not picked up the install of win yet. Maybe there are to many partition to do the install along side option? Seems like there might have been 1 or 2 1MB partition win did during install. I might remove them and keep finger cross, unformatted areas.

I used gparted to manually setup partitions, also several time just used linux install feature to setup partitions to and tried to get the install alongside or install feature to work. I have 3 hard drives, that did not work right off the bat, so been just trying to get it installed in the main SSD right now 1 drive currently hooked up. It seems to install, but no dual boot option. Boots right into windows. Turned off fast boot, windows is loaded in EFI mode, shows in win management, but linux partition manager does not show that designation listed in the partition. Just shows the size and fat32 for a partition, probably because its not showing win install? Cannot find grub hotkey yet or does not work to see if I can get to the grub that way.

I am sure it is something I am over looking, but have not figured it out yet. any help appreciated.. thks

[dilbert_w10]

when trying to get to the grub, being dual boot is not showing. pressing ESC key boots into WIN, holding the SHIFT, computer does neither.

The drive has 4 partitions that WIN made during install, one partition 1.02MB is unallocated, not sure if thats from WIN install or came with the new ssd. I have 58.59GB set aside for mint. so 6 4-partition, 2-unallocated

Install along side WIN does not come up, and when select other options for install. It wants a / , /boot, biosgrub & swap. WIN installs EFI in/dev/sda1 partition, (Gparted picks it up, Linux installer no) do I need to select that for boot device? I have tried that once but did not work.

any help appreciated.. thks

[AndyMH]

Check BIOS for

• sata mode set AHCI

• boot mode set UEFI - have had posts with win installed in UEFI but mint booting up and installing in legacy mode.

[dilbert_w10]

Check BIOS for

• sata mode set AHCI

• boot mode set UEFI - have had posts with win installed in UEFI but mint booting up and installing in legacy mode.

thanks will check.

thinking... if I remove all my hard drives. Add a new unformatted SSD, load mint onto it. then add the SSD with WIN installed as main drive and setup dual boot from there? or is that to complicated?

[dilbert_w10]

Check BIOS for

• sata mode set AHCI

• boot mode set UEFI - have had posts with win installed in UEFI but mint booting up and installing in legacy mode.

SATA mode is set to AHCI

my bios reads a little different, have this in Boot Option Priorities"
Boot options, each option has same options see below. boot #1 , #2, #3, #4

P6: HP DVD
P2: Samsung SSD
Windows EFI Boot manager (P2:samsung SSD)
Windows Boot manager (P2:samsung SSD)
Disabled

settings
#1 is set to EFI
#2 WIN boot
#3 P6 HP dvd
#4 P2 Samsung

[AndyMH]

It wants a / , /boot, biosgrub & swap. WIN installs EFI in/dev/sda1 partition, (Gparted picks it up, Linux installer no) do I need to select that for boot device? I have tried that once but did not work.

Asking for a bios_grub partition indicates that mint is trying to install in legacy mode, which suggests that the mint install stick booted in legacy mode. If you had booted in UEFI mode and mint couldn't find your EFI partition it would have told you. From what you have said sda1 is your EFI partition. You can check with gparted = format fat32, with the flags ESP & boot set, size typically < 500MB. Asking for a bios_grub partition also means that sda has a gpt partition table (which is to be expected if win is booting in UEFI mode).

There may be a setting somewhere in BIOS for CSM (compatibility support mode), if there is, disable it and the mint install stick may boot in UEFI mode (or not boot at all!).

Alternatively, with gparted create a small (1MB) partition and set the flag bios_grub on it and then a single ext4 partition for /. Try installing with something else pointing the installer at the partition you created for / and tell it to use it as /. If this works, the downside is that mint will be installed in legacy mode and win in UEFI mode which will mean that grub will not find win and give you the choice on boot.

The BIOS options you posted suggest that you might have one of those problematic PCs that will only boot win and to get it to boot linux you have to rename/copy/move around the files in the EFI partition. This is outside my experience - never had to do it, others may be able to comment more helpfully.

[dilbert_w10]

It wants a / , /boot, biosgrub & swap. WIN installs EFI in/dev/sda1 partition, (Gparted picks it up, Linux installer no) do I need to select that for boot device? I have tried that once but did not work.

Asking for a bios_grub partition indicates that mint is trying to install in legacy mode, which suggests that the mint install stick booted in legacy mode. If you had booted in UEFI mode and mint couldn't find your EFI partition it would have told you. From what you have said sda1 is your EFI partition. You can check with gparted = format fat32, with the flags ESP & boot set, size typically < 500MB. Asking for a bios_grub partition also means that sda has a gpt partition table (which is to be expected if win is booting in UEFI mode).

There may be a setting somewhere in BIOS for CSM (compatibility support mode), if there is, disable it and the mint install stick may boot in UEFI mode (or not boot at all!).

Alternatively, with gparted create a small (1MB) partition and set the flag bios_grub on it and then a single ext4 partition for /. Try installing with something else pointing the installer at the partition you created for / and tell it to use it as /. If this works, the downside is that mint will be installed in legacy mode and win in UEFI mode which will mean that grub will not find win and give you the choice on boot.

The BIOS options you posted suggest that you might have one of those problematic PCs that will only boot win and to get it to boot linux you have to rename/copy/move around the files in the EFI partition. This is outside my experience - never had to do it, others may be able to comment more helpfully.

Hi Andy, thanks for your help. MB does not have CSM compatibility support mode in the BISO. I tired partitioning 1MB for "bios_grub" and rest for "/" it installed, but loaded right into WIN.

I did get something to work but its rather clunky. Left it installed as you suggested, I DL GrubWin2, had to manually setup mint and the root file path. when it boots it shows in the GrubWin splash page, when you select it, it boots into mint, but rather clunky. After initialization of the hardware, there is a about a 20sec pause before finishing loading, but dose load mint. The pause is right after "Btrfs file system done" then 20secs, then finishing loading.

will leave it like this for now, unless some others can suggest a better way to get this to boot. Thanks

[dilbert_w10]

when I do a cold start it boots into WIN, hot restart GrubWin menu comes up

[kato181]

Check BIOS for

• sata mode set AHCI

• boot mode set UEFI - have had posts with win installed in UEFI but mint booting up and installing in legacy mode.

thanks will check.

thinking... if I remove all my hard drives. Add a new unformatted SSD, load mint onto it. then add the SSD with WIN installed as main drive and setup dual boot from there? or is that to complicated?

To have a dual boot as far as I know you can't connect 2 ssd one with winwoes and the other LM and expect them to dual boot. Winwoes needs to be installed first, then when installing LM select install along side windows.

[AndyMH]

To have a dual boot as far as I know you can't connect 2 ssd one with winwoes and the other LM and expect them to dual boot. Winwoes needs to be installed first, then when installing LM select install along side windows.

I have had win10 and mint each on their own SSD booting quite happily.

[dilbert_w10]

Check BIOS for

• sata mode set AHCI

• boot mode set UEFI - have had posts with win installed in UEFI but mint booting up and installing in legacy mode.

thanks will check.

thinking... if I remove all my hard drives. Add a new unformatted SSD, load mint onto it. then add the SSD with WIN installed as main drive and setup dual boot from there? or is that to complicated?

To have a dual boot as far as I know you can't connect 2 ssd one with winwoes and the other LM and expect them to dual boot. Winwoes needs to be installed first, then when installing LM select install along side windows.

it is all on one drive now, and the only way I could get it to load is with Grub2Win, manually entering linux info. To lazy to change it right now, after all the re-formatting and partitioning I had to do, maybe 100x. Its not installed the way I want it, but works. Need to finish this puter and redo 1 more dual boot and 1 with just linux. Taking a break. Hate spending all day(s) loading, downloading, reformatting