[SOLVED]some recommendations for new dual boot install please

[Armstrong]

I don't know if this helps, but I installed a larger SSD last fall with a dual boot of Windows 10 and Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon. As I recall, the SSD came with cloning software (Sabrent), and that part was easy. I believe I just cloned the Windows 10 to the new drive, and then I did a fresh install of Linux afterwards. Furthermore, I let the Linux installer do all the work and set the initial partitions which I tweaked later. FWIW, the Linux installer is now a piece of cake, IMO. I had tried to install Linux on a laptop about five or six years ago shortly after the introduction of UEFI, and it was a nightmare at that time. Things are much improved now. I think the most tedious part of the process, this time, was getting all the BIOS settings right before I began.

[gatorade]

The article I read was saying it is more secure, so I went and start the whole process over.

I got windows installed, made another bootable Mint USB and tried to install. Everything looked to be going smooth
until I got an error Again.

[gatorade]

I’m trying to create the bootable USB again and see if it works this time.

[AndyMH]

Boot your mint install stick and post the outputs of efibootmgr and sudo parted --list.

[gatorade]

mint@mint:~$ efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0002,0001,0003
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0001* CD/DVD Drive
Boot0002* Hard Drive
Boot0003* UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler 2.01.00


mint@mint:~$ sudo parted --list
Model: ATA SanDisk SSD PLUS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 106MB 105MB fat32 EFI system partition boot, esp
2 106MB 123MB 16.8MB Microsoft reserved partition msftres
3 123MB 349GB 349GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata
5 349GB 1000GB 651GB ext4
4 1000GB 1000GB 533MB ntfs hidden, diag


Warning: The driver descriptor says the physical block size is 2048 bytes, but
Linux says it is 512 bytes.
Ignore/Cancel?


Ignore/Cancel? ignore
Model: Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 124GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/512B
Partition Table: mac
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 2048B 6143B 4096B Apple
2 328kB 4391kB 4063kB EFI

[AndyMH]

Can't see anything wrong there. You are booting in UEFI mode and sda has a gpt partition table and an EFI partition. The only thing I can think of is that your EFI partition is too small (but I've got dual boot with a 100MB EFI partition). Boot the install stick, run disks and mount your EFI partition (sda1) and then the output of df will tell you how much is used.

[gatorade]

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 3995680 0 3995680 0% /dev
tmpfs 808524 1652 806872 1% /run
/dev/sda5 624658120 9631220 583226324 2% /
tmpfs 4042620 0 4042620 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 4042620 0 4042620 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1 98304 37068 61236 38% /boot/efi
tmpfs 808524 48 808476 1% /run/user/1000

[gatorade]

I tried a boot repair, and something got screwed up , now I can only boot into linux.
somehow, I messed up the windows boot loader.

this is getting frustrating, don't think I've ever had this much trouble setting up dual boot before.

[gatorade]

This is what I’m getting now when I start up the computer.

[gatorade]

Should I be using GRUB 2 , since I am using UEFI?
I was reading some stuff that says always use GRUB 2

I used etcher to make the bootable USB drive , I didn’t see any option for me to choose
GRUB vs GRUB2

Is there any way for me to change it at this stage?

[AndyMH]

Up to the point you ran boot-repair you had done everything right. All I can suggest now is a re-install. grub2 is standard you don't need to worry about that.

Suggest you install with the 'something else' option so you can point the installer at sda5 and tell it to re-use it for /.

You could try burning the iso with rufus to see if it makes any difference - maybe it didn't burn correctly first time.
viewtopic.php?p=2071766#p2071766

[gatorade]

I’m gonna try installing Ubuntu and see if I can get that to work.

[gatorade]

I downloaded Ubuntu and installed it.
Everything went pretty smooth, no issues with booting
Windows or Ubuntu.

I really liked Mint, kinda disappointed that I couldn’t get it working. But I’m just happy to get my computer working the way I used to have it.

Thanks for your time and Help everyone, Andy in particular.

[AndyMH]

Obvious question I should have thought about earlier - was secure boot turned off in BIOS?

And, if you want ubuntu to read/write your win partitions you will need to turn off fast boot in win. If fast boot is enabled, they will be read-only to linux.

[gatorade]

I was looking for secure boot in my bios ,
I couldn’t find an option to turn it off.

Thx for the tip about fast boot, I will keep it in mind if I need to write to win partition with Ubuntu.