[SOLVED] Dual Boot Linux Mint & WIndows 10 automatically boots into Windows

[AnonymousLemon]

Hi, I tried searching for a solution to this but all of the answers are very technical. I am a complete beginner with Linux, I am trying to set up a dual boot with my Windows installation to work on some programming for my Computer Science course that I just started. All tutorials that I watched/read for setting up the dual boot showed that after the installation, whenever I boot up my PC I should see a GRUB menu where I choose which OS to boot into. That's not the case for me though, as my PC boots into Windows almost immediately. I have a split second window to mash the F11 button to get into the BIOS boot menu where I can choose Linux instead. This is really annoying as I often don't press F11 in time, and I would much rather have the GRUB menu appear every time I boot up.

The steps I followed to install Linux Mint where as follows:
1. I left a 200GB partition of free space on my NVMe drive where I wanted to install Linux Mint.
2. I downloaded the .iso file and used Etcher to create a bootable USB.
3. I restarted my PC and booted into Linux Mint and clicked "Install Linux Mint".
4. When i got to the option to install Linux Mint alongside Windows, I selected that and it was installed in the 200GB partition of free space i created.
5. The installation finished, I restarted the PC and then it booted straight into Windows instead of showing the GRUB menu.

As far as I know, both my Windows and Linux Mint boot in UEFI mode, not legacy mode. I have tried turning off Fast Startup in Windows to no avail.
I'm unfamiliar with terminal commands, but I'm happy to try any that you recommend to fix this. I apologise if this was answered elsewhere. As I said, a lot of the solutions I read were very technical and seemed very specific to the person who was asking.

P.S. I did set up a dual boot before on an old laptop about 6 or 7 years ago using largely the same installation process and has no issues. I'm not sure if it because of the motherboard I installed in this PC. In my BIOS boot order menu I don't have an option for Linux Mint, only Windows Boot Manager, so I can't change the boot order to put Linux Mint in front of Windows if that is an easy solution you are going to recommend.

Thanks!
Wes

[AndyMH]

In my BIOS boot order menu I don't have an option for Linux Mint, only Windows Boot Manager

Suggests that mint maybe installed in legacy mode, if UEFI you should have an entry for 'ubuntu'.

Boot into mint and post the output of efibootmgr, e.g.

Code: Select all

andy@T432 ~ $ efibootmgr
EFI variables are not supported on this system.

this is on a system booting in legacy mode.

[AnonymousLemon]

I'm pretty sure it's installed in UEFI mode, my BIOS settings just don't seem to be picking it up on my boot order screen.

Code: Select all

~$ efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0004
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,0003,0004,0009,0001
Boot0001  Hard Drive
Boot0002* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0003* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0004* ubuntu
Boot0009* ubuntu

This is the output of efibootmgr.
IS there a way to change boot order in the terminal perhaps, instead of in my BIOS settings?

[AnonymousLemon]

I have 7 options in my Boot Order Settings in the BIOS menu:

• UEFI Hard Disk: Windows Boot Manager
  UEFI CD/DVD
  UEFI USB Hard Disk
  UEFI USB CD/DVD
  UEFI USB Key
  UEFI USB Floppy
  UEFI Network

None of the options mention Linux or Ubuntu.

[Jo-con-Ël]

Linux Mint is already installed in UEFI mode as you have demonstrate when booting Ubuntu from boot menu (F11).

Please provide following code results.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxzr
sudo efibootmgr -v

Boot order and efibootmgr is showing the same, default UEFI boot option is Windows Boot Manger. You can try changing boot order with efibootmgr (need to know last code result to be sure)

Code: Select all

sudo efibootmgr -o 4,9,2,3,1

In most UEFI/BIOS settings interface (BIOS setup) there is a way to change default UEFI loader inside EFI partition in hard disk. In my case it is UEFI BBS Hard drive priority, in other BIOS you can choose Ubuntu when selecting hard disk first boot option and pressing Enter, in other BIOS you need to change Windows features for Windows X (i.e 8, 8.1 or 10 in your case) to Other SO, or create a custom EFI boot option, read efi file browsing Hard disk>EFI partition>Ubuntu folder>shimx64.efi, in other ones you need to unblock hidden BIOS options entering administrative password,.. in some cases simply that option is not available.

You can look for that option in your user manual or your brand support pages. We need to know your computer brand, exact model, BIOS version,...as per first code.

[Armstrong]

When I did this last year, I had the same issue, however I was able to enter the BIOS and change the boot order. The only thing different I did was I did not create a partition for Linux Mint 20 myself. I let the Linux installer create all the partitions. I merely set the partition sizes during the process, IIRC. FWIW, prior to the Linux installation I set the following values in the BIOS.
D2D - Disabled,
Fast Boot - Disabled,
SATA Mode - AHCI,
TPM - Disabled,
Boot Mode - UEFI,
Secure Boot - Disabled.

[AnonymousLemon]

Apologies for the delayed response with this.

Please provide following code results.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxzr
sudo efibootmgr -v

The output for the above is as follows:

Code: Select all

~$ inxi -Fxxxzr
System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-88-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.5 wm: muffin 5.0.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: X470 GAMING PLUS MAX (MS-7B79) 
  v: 3.0 serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: H.40 date: 11/06/2019 
CPU:
  Topology: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 
  L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 86397 
  Speed: 2201 MHz min/max: 2200/3600 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 
  1: 2192 2: 2198 3: 1866 4: 2799 5: 2199 6: 1866 7: 1866 8: 2800 9: 2196 
  10: 2200 11: 2199 12: 1866 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 10 [Radeon RX 5600 OEM/5600 XT / 5700/5700 XT] 
  vendor: Tul driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus ID: 29:00.0 chip ID: 1002:731f 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: amdgpu,ati 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon,vesa tty: N/A 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (NAVI10 DRM 3.35.0 
  5.4.0-88-generic LLVM 12.0.0) 
  v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 10 HDMI Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 29:00.1 chip ID: 1002:ab38 
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 2b:00.4 chip ID: 1022:1487 
  Device-3: Logitech G432 Gaming Headset type: USB 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus ID: 5-3:4 chip ID: 046d:0a9c 
  serial: <filter> 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-88-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: f000 bus ID: 22:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp34s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.73 TiB used: 29.02 GiB (1.0%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0 
  size: 931.51 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: 211070WD 
  scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM008-2FR102 size: 1.82 TiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: 0001 scheme: GPT 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 191.25 GiB used: 28.98 GiB (15.2%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 51.2 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 60 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 0 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb https://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qbittorrent-team-qbittorrent-stable-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/shutter-ppa-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/shutter/ppa/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list 
  1: deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yannubuntu-boot-repair-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boot-repair/ubuntu focal main
Info:
  Processes: 330 Uptime: 3m Memory: 15.64 GiB used: 2.83 GiB (18.1%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 
  

Code: Select all

~$ sudo efibootmgr -v   
BootCurrent: 0004
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,0003,0004,0005,0001
Boot0001* Hard Drive	BBS(HD,,0x0)/VenHw(5ce8128b-2cec-40f0-8372-80640e3dc858,0200)..GO..NO..........W.D.C. .W.D.S.1.0.0.T.2.B.0.C.-.0.0.P.X.H.0...................\.,.@.r.d.=.X..........A............................DJFn..........Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.2.0.3.0.9.S.4.6.7.9.0.6........BO..NO..........S.T.2.0.0.0.D.M.0.0.8.-.2.F.R.1.0.2...................\.,.@.r.d.=.X..........A.................................>..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L. . . . . . . . . . . . .K.W.0.3.Y.1.8.T........BO
Boot0002* Windows Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,9a9fffcb-ebef-4ae4-adc2-0550daed0261,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI)..BO
Boot0003* Windows Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,aa395da4-55e8-4867-b450-995dca68fe5c,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}...a................
Boot0004* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,9a9fffcb-ebef-4ae4-adc2-0550daed0261,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0005* Windows Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,aa395da4-55e8-4867-b450-995dca68fe5c,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI)..BO

I can't find any similar options to the ones you mentioned in my BIOS settings, but again I'm a bit of a noob with all of this.

[AnonymousLemon]

You can try changing boot order with efibootmgr (need to know last code result to be sure)

Code: Select all

sudo efibootmgr -o 4,9,2,3,1

In most UEFI/BIOS settings interface (BIOS setup) there is a way to change default UEFI loader inside EFI partition in hard disk. In my case it is UEFI BBS Hard drive priority

Actually, I have managed to solve it using these instructions. I first changed the boot order with efibootmgr, then I did some more searching in my BIOS settings and managed to find the BBS Hard Drive Priority settings. Inside those settings, Windows had first priority over Ubuntu, so I just changed them around and now my PC boots into the grub menu like I wanted.

Thank you!