Triple-boot Windows 10, Linux Mint 19.1, and Trident (BSD)

[nickname]

In a previous post on this forum, I asked for help sorting out the mess I created on my laptop while trying to install Linux, Windows and Trident (BSD). But with three (3) SSDs and one (1) HDD, it turned into a big mess and after many hours of gathering info and tearing my hair out, I decided it would be easier to start over.

I then removed all drives except one WD 250GB SSD and I installed the OSs in this order:

• Windows 10 Pro,
• Linux Mint 19.1, and
• Trident (what used to be TrueOS Desktop and based on FreeBSD 12).

After installing Windows and Linux, GRUB allowed me to dual boot. But after installing Trident, it didn't show up in GRUB and so can't be booted and I'm still just dual-booting Windows and Linux.

From there, I used boot-repair's Recommended Repair, but I ended up with a full dozen entries in GRUB:

• 1 that goes to System Setup,
• 2 that boot Linux (one with Advanced options),
• 2 that boot Windows, and
• 7 that do essentially nothing, either crashing with messages such as "alloc magic broken," "premature EOF," or a countdown into SHIM that then dies.

All of the 7 that die do go back to GRUB one way or another, so that's something at least.

What I'd like to try now is to install rEFInd using the refind-install script so I can clean up all these unusable entires in GRUB. Or does rEFInd replace GRUB? I'm not clear on that.

Before I go ahead, though, I'm hoping someone can review all the info below and let me know if rEFInd will be the most effective way to end up with a working triple-boot set-up. I've read through the docs for rEFInd, but other than instructions for installing with either Linux or OSX, I'm not getting a clear picture on how to proceed or if rEFInd is the best way to go.

Maybe there's another way to do this and it means wiping the drive and starting over. I'm open to this because another day of installing OSs is no big deal at this point.

So, on to the information I gathered...

Output of sudo blkid:

Code: Select all

/dev/sda1: LABEL="Recovery" UUID="E89E06DC9E06A2E4" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="d96aa3e6-b72f-4871-a5ce-07d2089800c1"
/dev/sda2: UUID="4C06-FD0D" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="a9102bf5-58af-4c49-ba00-5d3dbc0b8bad"
/dev/sda4: UUID="2A1AB8BD1AB8877B" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="60a00964-2d87-4b72-bec1-ad15b0160789"
/dev/sda5: UUID="526819bf-34ad-4c1b-93cc-6fb8db0267d0" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="eeb05fee-9833-4dbe-93cb-eb7d0eae79eb"
/dev/sda6: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="EFISYS" UUID="BD41-11EE" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="6bd33430-3c10-11e9-91c7-d8cb8a8104b5"
/dev/sda7: LABEL="trident" UUID="16658864228302214331" UUID_SUB="108957535238235013" TYPE="zfs_member" PARTUUID="6bd42ec6-3c10-11e9-91c7-d8cb8a8104b5"
/dev/sda3: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="4f778216-53f7-47f3-b51c-d9529bf3b172"
/dev/sda8: PARTUUID="6bd4afc8-3c10-11e9-91c7-d8cb8a8104b5"

Output of efibootmgr -v:

Code: Select all

BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,0004,0000,0001,0006,0005
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager	HD(2,GPT,a9102bf5-58af-4c49-ba00-5d3dbc0b8bad,0xfa000,0x32000)/File(\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.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................
Boot0001* ubuntu	HD(6,GPT,6bd33430-3c10-11e9-91c7-d8cb8a8104b5,0x1499c800,0x64000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0002* ubuntu	HD(2,GPT,a9102bf5-58af-4c49-ba00-5d3dbc0b8bad,0xfa000,0x32000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0004* UEFI OS	HD(6,GPT,6bd33430-3c10-11e9-91c7-d8cb8a8104b5,0x1499c800,0x64000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI)..BO
Boot0005* ubuntu	HD(2,GPT,a9102bf5-58af-4c49-ba00-5d3dbc0b8bad,0xfa000,0x32000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\GRUBX64.EFI)..BO
Boot0006* ubuntu	HD(6,GPT,6bd33430-3c10-11e9-91c7-d8cb8a8104b5,0x1499c800,0x64000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\GRUBX64.EFI)..BO

Output of lsblk -f:

Code: Select all

NAME   FSTYPE     LABEL    UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sda                                                             
├─sda1 ntfs       Recovery E89E06DC9E06A2E4                     
├─sda2 vfat                4C06-FD0D                            
├─sda3                                                          
├─sda4 ntfs                2A1AB8BD1AB8877B                     /media/ron/2A1AB8BD1AB8877B
├─sda5 ext4                526819bf-34ad-4c1b-93cc-6fb8db0267d0 /
├─sda6 vfat       EFISYS   BD41-11EE                            /boot/efi
├─sda7 zfs_member trident  16658864228302214331                 
└─sda8                                                          

Matching PARTUUIDs...

These three are all the same:

Code: Select all

Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager	HD(2,GPT,a9102bf5-58af-4c49-ba00-5d3dbc0b8bad,0xfa000,0x32000)/File(\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.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................
Boot0002* ubuntu	HD(2,GPT,a9102bf5-58af-4c49-ba00-5d3dbc0b8bad,0xfa000,0x32000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0005* ubuntu	HD(2,GPT,a9102bf5-58af-4c49-ba00-5d3dbc0b8bad,0xfa000,0x32000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\GRUBX64.EFI)..BO

And so are these three:

Code: Select all

Boot0001* ubuntu	HD(6,GPT,6bd33430-3c10-11e9-91c7-d8cb8a8104b5,0x1499c800,0x64000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0004* UEFI OS	HD(6,GPT,6bd33430-3c10-11e9-91c7-d8cb8a8104b5,0x1499c800,0x64000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI)..BO
Boot0006* ubuntu	HD(6,GPT,6bd33430-3c10-11e9-91c7-d8cb8a8104b5,0x1499c800,0x64000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\GRUBX64.EFI)..BO

Looking at the disk layout from Windows 10:

Code: Select all

Partition Volume   File System Status        Size
1         Recovery NTFS        OEM           499   mb
2         EFI                  Basic         100   mb
3         C:       NTFS        system, etc.  97.06 gb
4                                            
5                              Primary       67.15 gb
6         EFI                                200   mb
7                              Primary       64.7  gb
8                              Primary        3.08 gb

In what used to be called the BIOS, but is now (what?) UEFI Setup?:

Note: This is an MSI GE72 2QF laptop with the Aptio Setup Utility (2015, American Megatrends)

UEFI Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities
Boot option #1: [ubuntu]
Boot option #2: [UEFI OS P0: WDC WD5250G2B0B)]
Boot option #3: [Windows Boot Manager (P0: WDC WD5250G2B0B)]
Boot option #4: [ubuntu]
Boot option #5: [ubuntu (P0: WDC WD5250G2B0B)]
Boot option #6: [ubuntu (P0: WDC WD5250G2B0B)]

Digging down a bit further, into the list of options that can be selected for each Boot option, these are the choices:

• ubuntu
• UEFI Boot Manager (P0: WDC WD5250G2B0B)
• Windows Boot Manager (P0: WDC WD5250G2B0B)
• ubuntu
• ubuntu (P0: WDC WD5250G2B0B)
• ubuntu (P0: WDC WD5250G2B0B)

Based on all this, these are my assumptions (please correct me if any are wrong):

• there are two EFI boot partitions on the drive, sda2 and sda6,
• the two vfat partitions are the partitions where installers have placed EFI boot scripts, managers, etc,
• the Windows installer created sda2,
• either the Linux Mint 19.1 installer or the Trident 18.12 installer created sda6.

I'm basing this last assumption mostly on the fact that until I installed Linux, sda6 didn't exist. However, because I didn't think to record whether or not it existed AFTER installing Linux and BEFORE installing Trident, I don't know which created it, but my money is on Trident.

Also, the three partitions containing OSs are:

• sda4 (Windows 10),
• sda5 (Linux Mint 19.1), and
• sda7 (Trident).

And these are the three options I want to choose between on start-up.

More assumptions:

• GRUB is on sda2,
• the Windows Boot Manager is also on sda2,
• sda2 is where I want to put rEFInd, and
• sda6 is extraneous.

Any suggestions, recommendations, or hints will be appreciated.

[lsemmens]

Just as a thought, you might try and install in this order
1: Windows
2: BSD
3: Linux
That might work
otherwise,
Since you have 3 drives you could instal each OS on each drive one at a time with the other drives isolated from the system. You could Use BIOS to select which drive to boot from.

[Pierre]

- - Trident - did you run that boot-repair - using the Trident System ?

this was the Last System Installed - - and is the system, that should be booting the machine.

[nickname]

I ran out of time and gave up... for now.

Reasons:

1. I installed Trident by itself so I could evaluate it, and frankly, I'm not a fan of the design or how the desktop/menu system is organized.
2. Trying to get FreeBSD (11.2, 12.0, or the derivative Trident) to cooperate is a nightmare. I found nearly a dozen "I found the solution!" posts, none of which worked for me. My current thinking is that these solutions (and therefore FreeBSD installations themselves) are highly hardware dependent. FreeBSD is as bad at playing with others as Windows is.
3. Not to put too fine a point on it, but when the FreeBSD community (who might have shed light on zfs mounting with grub) smells a newbie, the crickets start up and all else is silent. I don't suppose I really blame them, though.

So, maybe I'll pick this up again later. For now, I've got to get back to my raison d'etre, my blog on GtkD.

[nickname]

Just as a thought, you might try and install in this order
1: Windows
2: BSD
3: Linux
That might work

I did think of this near the end of yesterday, but I was so exhausted by then, I just reinstalled Mint 19.1 and went to bed. But if/when I jump back into this, your suggestion will be the first thing I try. Thanks.

[nickname]

- - Trident - did you run that boot-repair - using the Trident System ?

this was the Last System Installed - - and is the system, that should be booting the machine.

Yup. I ended up with a long list of redundant grub menuentry's, none of which mentioned Trident. I tried them all and none were even Trident in disguise.

Very late in the day yesterday, I came very close to bricking my laptop. The section named "UEFI Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities" disappeared from the BIOS and scared me half to death. On power-on, it showed the logo, then went to the BIOS. Save and Exit, back to the logo, then the BIOS, stuck in a loop. If not for someone on Tom's Hardware mentioning the reset button on the bottom of MSI laptops (which I had to crack open to find) I'd still be crying in my beer, mourning the loss of my machine.

[nickname]

I'd like to thank everyone who jumped in with helpful hints, suggestions and procedures.

To anyone trying to do this for themselves: Sorry I didn't find a final solution, but I think the best bet is:

you might try and install in this order
1: Windows
2: BSD
3: Linux

[hcentaur13]

Code: Select all

Since you have 3 drives you could instal each OS on each drive one at a time with the other drives isolated from the system. You could Use BIOS to select which drive to boot from.

That is nonsense - it was good in last century but for efi it is nonsense and makes the change of OO to boot impossible hard!

Fire up diskmanager - gparted and write a new partitiontable of type GPT as the current one is defective. It hold 2 different efi partitions - That is one too much.
You has to build exactly 1 partition /efi of type FAT32.

You have to boot each installation system using UEFI because that defines the boot mode of the installed system too. That is UEFI. You may let windows do create its partitions and the efi partition. Windows C: should be at least 64 GB to save problems with windows updatemanger.

Linux needs / in size 20 GB or more.
/home needs 20 GB or more depending of the amount each user needs.

grub install directory is the efi partition in any case.

Let windows crate /efi in FAT32 as this will set all needed flags for UEFI. /efi is the install directory for grub linux/BSD. The installer will create the directories in it and mount /boot/EFI to /efi/.... correct.

You can reuse /swap for any linux/BSD.

[Pierre]

since it's Trident, that seems to be an issue, here,
- can you now dual_boot the other two systems ? and then run Trident in an Virtual Box ?
would that be an solution ?

[nickname]

since it's Trident, that seems to be an issue, here,
- can you now dual_boot the other two systems ? and then run Trident in an Virtual Box ?
would that be an solution ?

Thanks, Pierre, but I've had to put this on the back burner for now. When I do get back to it, what I'll be trying is:

• install Windows 10,
• install FreeBSD (I had a quick look at Trident and OMG it's ugly!), and
• install Linux Mint.

Someone suggested that and it seems like the most logical way to go. Mint's installer seems the most aware of other OSs, so perhaps it'll pick up on it and just toss it into the grub menu without me having to interfere.