Dual boot Win8 & Mint15

[srs5694]

@srs5694
just a question: where is the linux boot stuff supposed to go in a dualboot? Right now playing around with external hdd.
Referring to the E1-571, there are partitions Recover (200MB), EFI, MS reserved, OS (450GB), and Push button (The restore, bsically the rest of the recover partition, 15GB or so)
EFI would seems the more logical choice, but I was thinking if MS "system file protection" wouldn't want to mess with that.

In theory, all EFI boot loaders should reside on the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_System_partition]EFI System Partition (ESP).[/url] In practice, some computers have multiple ESPs, and some supplement the ESP with another partition, which is technically not and ESP but that does hold boot loaders. If in doubt, stick with the standard configuration: Use one ESP and put all your OSes' boot loaders and boot managers on that partition (with the possible exception of the Linux kernel, if you're using rEFInd to boot it).

That said, the term "boot stuff" is ambiguous. Beyond the boot manager and boot loader, "boot stuff" can include configuration files, support files, kernels, initial RAM disk (initrd) files, and more. Where these components go depends on the boot loader in use, and sometimes on how that boot loader is configured. For instance, GRUB can read its grub.cfg configuration file from just about anywhere. Mint puts this file in the Linux /boot/grub directory, which is normally on a Linux filesystem; but Fedora puts grub.cfg in the ESP's EFI/fedora directory. rEFInd reads its refind.conf configuration file from the same directory that holds the rEFInd binary, and when booting a Linux kernel directly, it reads a file called refind_linux.conf from the directory that holds the kernel. That kernel directory can be on the ESP or on a Linux-native partition (assuming you've got EFI filesystem drivers). This plethora of options is part of what makes configuring EFI challenging -- a good configuration for one boot loader/manager (or even one way of setting it up) is completely wrong for another.

I'm not aware of anything called the "MS 'system file protection,'" so I'm not sure what you mean by that. If you're referring to Secure Boot, that's irrelevant to the question of where files go. Secure Boot, if active, prevents binaries that haven't been signed with a particular cryptographic key from executing. This security measure applies no matter what filesystem holds the binary or where the binary is located on the filesystem.

[piovrauz]

With MS "system file protection" I was referring to the fact that windows "protects" its system files from change.
So my point is: does it consider the efi partition part of that? Because if it does it may cause problem.

Secureboot is not a problem, this laptop can sign as secure the .efi one wants, so there's no need to turn it off, if you do that you lose win8.

Right now I'm getting info and trying to get it right reasoning, not experimenting as I did when there was no efi and win8 around.
This post and the rest of what I'm reading suggest that I should be able to have a dualboot win8 + mint15 without too much fiddling around.
I "just" need to take some variables into consideration before acting. As soon I get some free time I'll post what I did as a standalone guide.

[nobugs]

Hello again,
Some notes:
Ran on battery for 4 hours yesterday before the battery indicator turned orange, but forgot to check remaining charge. Probably around 25%.

If using Skype, you may find the picture (yours) is quite dark, with no way to adjust. Fix is to install Guvcview that has many controls to adjust brightness, contrast etc.

Installed some new programs, Acidrip, OGMrip etc and all appeared to install correctly. Today, have noticed the computer is a bit laggy with some pecular behaviour. E.G. Gparted which I installed two days ago, no longer runs.

In Firefox, I had an animated theme and this no longer animates, just a static image. Some programs, e.g. Totem Movie Player, Disks which replaces Gparted (which was working yesterday) and probably others I've not yet found, are missing control icons for full screen, play, mount system, delete, more controls etc. Hovering the mouse over, displays what these icons do, but the icon is represented by a square with a red circle and a slash inside it. Don't know what has malfunctioned! Any suggestions!

Beginning to think that Mint15 is a bit buggy and perhaps Mint13 may have been a better choice. I've been running Mint9 since release without a single problem and I would go back to that in a heartbeat, if not for this new EFI stuff and potential incompatibilities.

Regarding rEFInd, boots fine now I have changed the boot order, with options in order below. I don't know how to change their order though, as I would like Mint as the first option not Windows. Mint would then boot up unattended.

These are the options in order:-
MS logo: Boot Microsoft EFI boot (boot repair backup) from ESP.
MS logo: Boot supposed Microsoft EFI boot (probably GRUB) from ESP.
3colouredcubes: Boot EFI\boot\bkpbootx64.efi from ESP.
MintLogo: Boot EFI\linuxmint\grubx64.efi from ESP.
3colouredcubes: Boot fallback boot loader from ESP.
UbuntoLogo: Boot boot\vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic from 36 Gib Ext4 volume. (Mint15 install).

Then the usual about, shut down, reboot, setup buttons below.

Will try and reinstall the programs that are malfunctioning and see if that fixes the problems. Bit disappointing though!

[piovrauz]

yep, I think that after the install of mint15 is done I'll check if mint13 is a better choice.
it's true that it's older, but it's a 5 year LTS after all, and if it solves some of the mint15 issues, well, it'll be my choice.
4h on batteries isn't bad, I'd say the cpu throttling is working. (seems so at least)

for the rEFInd boot order, I'm pretty sure srs5694 can help you.
I like when forum are helpful.

[piovrauz]

now, mint13/14 exibit the same issue with screen brihgtess, so I think there's the need to file a bug somewhere.
oter stuff seems fine, but I didn't test the cam.
mint 15 can be installed in efi mode, but for mint 13/14 you need to use legacy mode, and after that give it a efi bootloader (for dualboot).
mint 14/15 seems to boot faster than mint 13 LTS (couple of seconds faster). What road will I choose as a definitive setup?

[nobugs]

Me too! Some smart people out there and obliging!

Having got my machine booting both OS's thru rEFInd, decided to start from a bootable USB stick. Boots straight into Win8 and ignores the stick. Need to once again change UEFI to legacyOS mode. That's the only way it seems for the computer to recognise external devices. Most annoying, as I frequently test drive new distros via USB and DVD. I thought rEFInd would recognise any other bootable plugged in devices and boot accordingly.

Also tried to install DVDFab free trial, via Wine, but it crashes out and hangs with a mesage. "The program FabUpdate.exe has encountered a serious problem etc." Need to use force close to shut down. Don't know if a DVDFab error, a Wine error, a computer error, install error or a Mint15 error.

Also noticed when selecting a menu item, right click does not anchor the drop down choices. It also automatically puts an icon on the desktop simply by right clicking. Annoying! Requires holding the right mouse button and sliding down to select an option. Bug or not! Might be a feature. In 9 you can right click, release the button and the drop down remains visible.

Perhaps the best long term solution would be to delete Win8 completely, reformat and install Mint as primary. Then Win8 in virtualbox. Seems a bridge too far to just have a dual booting computer which will boot from a selected device, without needing to reconfigure the machine each time. So many obstacles. M$ should be proud!

Also FWIW, try LXLE 12.04. It's a very nice distro with LTS, loaded with all the common programs. A bit of Mint and a bit of Ubuntu.

I might just go back to my old machine, also an Acer, (Celeron 5220) and install a larger HDD. It just works and has never missed a beat. All software I've installed whether native linux or M$ thru Wine just worked.

Off topic, I've installed a theme in Thunderbird Mail which is very nice. Clean, clear and easy to navigate. It's called walnut2 for Thunderbird-2.0.21, if anyone interested.

[nobugs]

but I didn't test the cam.
mint 15 can be installed in efi mode, but for mint 13/14 you need to use legacy mode, and after that give it a efi bootloader (for dualboot).

Guvcview fixes the dark cam, but it does not seem to lock the settings over reboot. Still testing! Also Guvcview suddenly changed it's position in the menu, inserting it from alpha to last. But in the verbose menu it remains in the correct alphabetical position. Hmmm!

My computer was firmly locked to Win8. The only way to get Mint15 installed was to change to legacymode and disable secure boot. I read this as being able to install on an EFI enabled machine, but only via legacy mode. Otherwise, it won't boot from the external device. Also for me, I needed to change the boot order as Win8 was 1 in boot order and even changing to legacy Win8 would still boot and ignore the stick/DVD.

The brightness control looks like a bug. Slider works but no change to brightness. Sound slider is OK. The dark cam and the lack of brightness control may be related, but I don't know.

[srs5694]

With MS "system file protection" I was referring to the fact that windows "protects" its system files from change.
So my point is: does it consider the efi partition part of that? Because if it does it may cause problem.

AFAIK, Windows doesn't do this as a matter of course, although I've heard of systems on which it's difficult to write to the ESP. At least some of these cases are probably caused by the new Windows 8 "fast startup" feature, which [url=http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/6320-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-8-a.html]should be disabled in Windows 8[/url] when dual-booting with Linux (or any other OS). It's possible that a few of these cases have some other cause, but the problem reports I've seen are ambiguous enough that I can't really say for sure.

Secureboot is not a problem, this laptop can sign as secure the .efi one wants, so there's no need to turn it off, if you do that you lose win8.

The ability to register any .efi as a valid file sounds very handy, and is similar to what PreLoader does. (I suppose it's even possible that this feature is built on PreLoader, just built into the firmware.) Turning off Secure Boot should not cause Windows to fail to boot. If that's the result, then chances are you've either accidentally changed another feature (like switched from EFI-mode to BIOS/CSM/legacy-mode booting) or some other factor is preventing Windows from booting (like a GRUB bug, if Windows is being booted via GRUB).

Regarding rEFInd, boots fine now I have changed the boot order, with options in order below. I don't know how to change their order though, as I would like Mint as the first option not Windows. Mint would then boot up unattended.

These are the options in order:-
MS logo: Boot Microsoft EFI boot (boot repair backup) from ESP.
MS logo: Boot supposed Microsoft EFI boot (probably GRUB) from ESP.
3colouredcubes: Boot EFI\boot\bkpbootx64.efi from ESP.
MintLogo: Boot EFI\linuxmint\grubx64.efi from ESP.
3colouredcubes: Boot fallback boot loader from ESP.
UbuntoLogo: Boot boot\vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic from 36 Gib Ext4 volume. (Mint15 install).

The presence of two MS logo items indicates that Boot Repair has been run with the option to backup and rename the Windows boot loader files. You can fix the duplication either by re-running Boot Repair and selecting the advanced option to restore the backups; or by typing "sudo mv /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bkpbootmgfw.efi /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi" in Linux.

The EFI\boot\bkpbootx64.efi option probably either does nothing or is a duplicate of something else. You can probably safely delete it by typing "sudo rm /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bkpbootx64.efi" in Linux. The "fallback boot loader" is EFI/boot/bootx64.efi on the ESP (/boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi from Linux). It's usually a duplicate of something else, and when it is, rEFInd normally hides it from view. If it's not a duplicate and is not being hidden but you want to hide it, try editing /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf and adding the line "dont_scan_dirs ESP:/EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi".

Your first (Mint logo) Linux entry boots GRUB. Your second (Ubuntu logo) Linux entry boots the Linux kernel directly. If they both work, I recommend keeping both of them, since that will provide you with a fallback in case one of them stops working in the future. You can, however, remove either of them by using the dont_scan_volumes, dont_scan_dirs, or dont_scan_files options in refind.conf; or you can comment out the scan_all_linux_kernels options to remove the direct-kernel option. If you want to change the Ubuntu logo to a Mint logo, you can type "sudo cp /boot/efi/EFI/refind/icons/os_linuxmint.icns /.VolumeIcon.icns". (Several other ways to alter the icon are covered in [url=http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/configfile.html#hiding]the rEFInd documentation[/url].)

You can set whatever boot option you want as the default by using the "default_selection" item in refind.conf. Be sure that line is uncommented and add any unique string from the option description as its option, as in:

Code: Select all

default_selection vmlinuz

This example sets the first item found that contains the string "vmlinuz" as the default.

mint 15 can be installed in efi mode, but for mint 13/14 you need to use legacy mode, and after that give it a efi bootloader (for dualboot).

Mint 13 and 14 should install just fine in EFI mode, although they don't have any Secure Boot support, so they'd need to have Secure Boot disabled in order to work. I've installed several versions of Mint, I believe including both 13 and 14, directly in EFI mode.

Having got my machine booting both OS's thru rEFInd, decided to start from a bootable USB stick. Boots straight into Win8 and ignores the stick. Need to once again change UEFI to legacyOS mode.

If the USB flash drive has an EFI boot loader, rEFInd should detect it by default; however, this will work only if the firmware initializes USB devices. Many EFIs now do truncated or no USB initialization by default to speed up the boot process, so you might want to check your firmware settings to see if there's anything about USB initialization or a "fast boot" setting. If so, play with those settings. Also, in some cases USB devices might not be fully ready when rEFInd scans them. If this is the case, hitting Esc in rEFInd will cause it to re-scan for boot loaders, which may detect the USB drive.

If the USB flash drive does not have an EFI boot loader, but does have a BIOS boot loader, you can get rEFInd to detect it by editing refind.conf: Uncomment the "scanfor" line and ensure that "biosexternal" is among the options. Thereafter, rEFInd should scan for and detect BIOS-bootable external devices. A caveat: This feature requires a type of CSM that's accessible from rEFInd, and it requires that your CSM be active. If either of these conditions is not true, rEFInd will complain when it start up and you won't see any BIOS-bootable devices.

You might want to skim the [url=http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/configfile.html]rEFInd configuration file documentation[/url] to learn more about its options. The defaults work well, but you can do a lot of fine-tuning and customization by editing refind.conf.

[nobugs]

Thanks srs5694 for your comprehensive reply. Working thru your suggestions. Fluctuating between elation and frustration, but slowly getting there.
Regards,

[piovrauz]

1. about Windows 8 "fast startup": yes, I knew of it, disabled already. It's also better resizing the windows OS partition within win8, not whit the live media: win8 does seem to be picky on some file position; lucky enough win8 can resize the OS partition from inside. There's a lot of info about this around, I'll add later in my (upcoming) howto, right now I have no links and just a .txt of it.

2. "Turning off Secure Boot should not cause Windows to fail to boot." : you're right, I edited the post since I discovered an error of mine before you answered, but I didn't fix that line. Sorry.
I wrongly assumed the acer FW didn't allow to turn off just secure boot, but yo actually can turn it off, leave it on and sign .efi, or go CMS all the way. Flexible!

3. "Mint 13 and 14 should install just fine in EFI mode": I just discovered that there is a difference in results depending on how you make the boot medium. I didn't check with DVD boot media, only with USB key, so I speak for that only. If you use some utility as win32diskimager or dd, the result is that mint 13 and mint 14 won't boot in EFI mode on this laptop, secureboot on or off doesn't matter. CMS will allow them to boot them fine. The intersting part is that if you create the USB Key manually, formatting it FAT32 and just copying the mint iso content to the key (extract, copy) then mint 14 is suddenly bootable and mint 13 too; mint 14 is bootable thit securemode on, mint 13 needs it to be turned off. I did notice that if you image mint 15 on a USB key it creates a 2MB EFI partition, while mint 13 and mint 14 don't, they just have a /efi directory in the root. Mint 13 probably is also unsigned, while mint 14 (mint 14.1 actually) and 15 are: if I use the laptop FW to "sign as secure" mint 13 .efi, then it boots with secureboot enabled.

EDIT
@nobugs: What I described in point 3 may explain your issues booting different distros from USB Key; a simple fix is to make it "manually" (extract ISO and copy on FAT32 formatted Key), and checking there's a /efi directory in the root.
This should suffice for most recent EFI -able distros, but if the .efi is unsigned you will have to turn off Secure boot. Older distros would need CSM Legacy mode, or manually adding an EFI loader. Rescue distros will eventually be EFI -able.

[nobugs]

Hello piovrauz,
Have you tried both Mint13 and Mint15 on your Acer.
Mine has Mint15, but several little annoyances have been noted, particularly concerning the Menu. This is what I've encountered so far.

1.Downloaded and installed GParted, which ran fine initially from the menu. Although still in menu, now won't run from there, but runs from a terminal.

2.Menu disappeared completely. This after a script message appeared briefly on shutdown and then a black screen and computer hung requiring 4sec power button to close. Was back after a reboot. Not sure what the script was, as it appeared only briefly.

3.Installed a win program via Wine. Looked OK, with entries being inserted in menu as normal and Desktop icons also added by program. The program will not run from the menu, but will from the desktop icons. Also if I click on the menu entries and add a launcher to the taskbar, the program will run from the taskbar icon even though the commands are identical. Weird!

4.Desktop background has reverted to the Mint15 Maya background. Generally happens when the picture file is in a directory on the Win8 partition. Just clicking the change background to view the picture previously added to the standard pics with Maya, re-displays the lost previously picture. This without selecting the pic again, just the mere fact of opening the dialogue box was sufficient to nudge the selected picture back to the desktop.

5.Brightness slider still not working on this computer (Mint 15).

6.USB stick and DVD drive won't boot up with UEFI ON and secure boot OFF. Will only boot from those devices if Legacy mode is selected. A real pain!

Yesterday, booted up Mint13 from a DVD. It was quicker, snappier and to my mind better overall than the Mint15 hard drive install. Indeed, I tried several recent linux distros and Mint13 was faster than all of them.

Would be interested if you have any input, as I'm thinking of removing Mint15 and installing Mint13. It has longer support and IMHO more stable.

[piovrauz]

1. I didn't install GParted (I use live medias for that, and pre-mint resize was done in windows8, using its disc management, to avoid some issues).
3. No wine here (won't ned it) but I think it could be a wine issue, in the past it did something similar, and another time I couldn't remove the menu entries.
To fix the mint menu entries, try to remove and recreate them manually (from the mint menu right click and "edit menu").

2. The mint menu is fine here (mint 15 up and running now, none of the issue you are experiencing) and programs appear there just fine (didn't instal wine, just smplayer).
Can't be of much help here, maybe the install media was corrupt? You could try reinstalling mint-menu (terminal, sudo apt-get --reinstall install mintmenu).

4. If the background issue happens when the picture file is in a directory on the Win8 partition, remember you mus mount the partition before accessing the image; I suppose you have the BG in some folder on the "Acer" partition, so I suggest you to mount it in the fstab (mount it manually, go in terminal, sudo blkid, copy partition UUID, sudo nano /etc/fstab, add it there); remember you must turn off Windows 8 "fast startup" feature, as srs5694 said, or you will have issues back in windows.

5. I didn't try it since I find the default brightness fine, but there's a fix you may want to try; I see it fixed the issue for a lot f ppl, but not for all. The link: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=146708
The post is about another laptop, but the backlight section is the relevant one. Be aware that it'll do a update-grub, so the bootloader may see the changes.

6. I don't know about DVD, but USB Stick will boot if they have a EFI loader (and if "Secure" boot is off). Read point 3 in my previous post, there's my experience on mint/ubuntu USB Key (but sadly not older, non EFI, distros).

I'm thinking of finally installing mint 13 too: it may be old, but it's an LTS, so support / updates are there till 2017, and overall it it's not that different from mint 15.
Actually I got mint 15 MATE running fine, after having had to learn about EFI and stuff (thanks srs5694, good info on rEFInd pages). How you set it up make the "result" change, so I'll write how I did it, I hope it can help.

- Disabled windows 8 pagefile, hybernation, system restore, debugginf information, fast startup. Reboot.
- Resized the Acer partition (OS partition) to 100GB using windows 8 disc management. Reboot.
- Enabled windows 8 pagefile, hybernation, system restore, debugginf information; leaved fast startup disabled. Reboot.

NB: I started from a factory standard setup, so you need to clean the *nix partitions of your install, and remove the boot entry in the FW (restore factory setting on Security tab).

- With a mint usb stick in and Secureboot disabled and F12 enabled, boot, hit F12, choose the USB stick, choose mint.
- In the setup I did this: I choosed to partition manually, made a 8GB SWAP at the end of the free space, made a big ext4 partition of the rest (mountpoint /), and choose to put the boot loader (grub) in this ext4 partition.

NB: the default puts the bootloader in sda, won't work, and I tried to put it in the ESP, but it made a mess. So stick with putting it in the partition you just made (sd7 in my case, since I had 5 partitions and sda6 is my SWAP)

- Setup as usual the lovely mint of choice. Turn the netbook off. (with mint 15 I got a new entry in the EFI FW, called linux mint, and it lauchs grub if selected with F12)
- Before rebooting, prepare a bootable USB stick with rEFInd, extracting the content of the .iso image to a FAT32 USB stick. Connect it and reboot.
- F12, select USB stick, rEFInd will boot, choose the "linuxmint" entry so it'll boot mint from the HDD.
- In the terminal, sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get upgrade; this will update the system up to date, also with a new kernel.

NB: since you can move around booting media in the F12 menu (with F5/F6), I didn't install rEFInd, and I just sorted the boot menu order in the FW.
I sorted it like this: DVD, USB, "linuxmint", windows loader. In this way it'll boot linux mint using the signed grub that mint installed and set in the FW first, or if F12 is pressed I can choose windows. If there's a EFI bootable media it'll boot it first.
I won't need windows 8 much (well, I won't at all, the netbook is for family member), so this solution is enough for me. I still need to add the windows 8 menu entry to grub (to have a nicer dual boot), but I haven't had much time, and testing around stuff on this notebook took its time, expecially since I had to learn about EFI, that was new for me. I don't know if I'll add rEFInd if I make grub work as I want, but I have to say the thing looks powerful, I will test more later.
I'm still working to make the setup better / simpler, but I think I almost nailed a painless / error free way to setup mint on this notebook.

Just another thing: if your Notebook havs a nvidia GPU (mine has one), to make that work there is some fiddling to do (nvidia proprietary driver, bumblebee), That post I linked before tells you how to do that. I'll test it for the sake of completion, but I don't think I'll need to use the GPU, the Intel HD4000 is fine for most applications, like playing HD videos, and ther ewon't be games on it. But may help with power usage / fan noise, can't say now.

[nobugs]

Hello piovrauz,
What a comprehensive reply! Thank you for that and it is most informative.

I've already attempted about 50% of your suggestions and you have given me some great clues to refine my install. I'll follow thru on the balance, but at the end of the day, might start afresh and install Mint13. I just think in the long run, the generous support period may be a game changer. Of course GParted from live media is the go (doh!) and it's not really a worry, was just surprised it worked first up, then failed on subsequent boot. Mint15 is generally running well though, except for these minor glitches. My main requirement now would be to get DVD and USB booting without changing the legacy bios. However, if I go with 13, these comments become academic.

Thanks again and good luck with your installs. Mint really is still the best IMHO.

[piovrauz]

@nobugs:
1. You say you can't boot some distro if you don't turn in CMS Legacy mode: can you name a few please? I'd like to test some more, since right now all the ones I tried boot fine.
I checked mostly ubuntu based 64bit distros,did you tried something else specific?

2. I managed to have grub as the sole boot manager on this netbook. Right now I have the usual grub menu with 4 entries: mint15 (default), mint15 recover, system setup (reboots into FW), windows 8 (working).
All thanks to wiki.archlinux.org. I did it like this:

- Open a terminal

sudo blkid

- Copy the value of the UUID of the ESP partition, that guessing from your first post here, is your second partition, gpt2 (sda2 in your post). (example: 1ce5-7f28)

sudo nano /etc/grub.d/40_custom

- Add those lines at the end (file should have just 5 lines)

if [ "${grub_platform}" == "efi" ]; then
menuentry "Microsoft Windows 8 x86_64 UEFI-GPT" {
insmod part_gpt
insmod fat
insmod search_fs_uuid
insmod chain
search --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-efi=hd0,gpt2 1ce5-7f28
chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}
fi

- just change "1ce5-7f28" with the value given by "sudo blkid" output. Save and exit.

sudo update-grub

This will work, supposing you are in the same situation as me (linumint entry as first boot entry in the FW)
Rebooting will give you the grub menu, with windows 8 as the last option, even if "sudo update-grub" putput didn't say so.

Right now I'm fiddling around with nvidia optimus, both so see if enabling it influences the brightness issue and if there's need of the added performance.

[nobugs]

Hello piovraux,

Thanks for info on grub. That's what I'm going to do.

I've just typed a comprehensive reply to you but when I hit submit, the board had logged me out and I lost all my typing. So I'm a bit over it for the moment, but briefly, I can't boot anything from external devices unless CMS is enabled. Tried Mint13, LXLE, Linuxlite, PCOS in both 32 and 64 bit).

I'm using rEFInd which allows to boot either, but need to swap to legacy in firmware to boot from external devices. Also in M15, the disable keypad F7 does not hold over reboot. Not checked Win8 yet. Is yours holding!

Also, will u check your menu behaviour. Right clicking on the 3rd column, won't hold the dialog box open. Need to slide down to select. Feature or bug!

I use DVDFab in Wine as my test. Always worked, but in M15, will not run from menu. Changed path, edited, removed and reinstated, but nothing. However, if I drag the menu entry from the menu and place it as an icon on the task bar, it runs from there. Also runs directly from File manager by clicking on the exe file. GParted also won't run from the menu, but runs from a terminal. Corruption!

Think I'll start again with Mint13, but may need clarification or direction on some aspects if you would be so kind to assist.

Did u start from freespace and allow Mint to install into that, or did you set up an ext4 and/or swap file before starting Mint install. And did u need to disable UEFI and SB to install, because I had to, otherwise Win8 would not recognise the external boot media.

Cheers!

[phrostbyte]

Anyone know if LM16 will have some kind of automatic dual boot setup?

[piovrauz]

I'm going to install mint 13 soon too (tomorrow), so I should be able to help. This will be my final setup, in the end mint 13 is my better option, LTS and well tested on other HW.

1. Sad to hear you lost your answer, but there's a tip for the next time: just go backto the reply page (firefox arrow up sx), the stuff is still in the reply; at least it was when it happened to me!
(well, I have javascript disabled on linuxmint forum by means of noscript, so it may not work for you if java takes care of "cleaning")

2. You should be able to boot mint13 from the USB withouth going in CMS Legacy mode, you just need to disable Secure boot in the FW, and prepare the USB key as I did, which is different from what they recommend around btw.
- Download mint 13 64bit iso (didn't check with 32bit yet, will do later)
- Format a 2GB (or more) USB key as FAT32 (because the FW needs it to be FAT32,a nd it's picky about sector size too, 4096 or default should do).
- Extract the content of the mint iso in the key (you'll have 9 folders and 3 file in the USB key root)
Rebooting with this usb key plugged and hitting F12 will make the FW boot menu appear, an there will be the USB Key entry. Mine even tells me the brand of the key. Just select it, and it'll boot it, then choose mint and you can start with the setup.
NB: it's not windows 8 that recognizes the boot media, but the notebook FW. You can have windows 8 do it, but it's actually slower if booting linux, because it has to reboot the netbook another time.

3. You may want to also use the Acer utility in windows 8 or the restore media (you did make one riiiight?) to restore factory state of the laptop, but it's not mandatory (if you do, you'll have to recreate the free space too, and remember to turn off the "fast startup").

4. For every setup / install I tested, to make my startup as clean as possible, I always:
- Delete the SWAP and mint partition with the live USB (if gparted ask if the partition is gpt, answer yes, since it is).
- Delete the linuxmint folder and the rEFInd folder from the ESP partition, don't touch the other stuff (mount it in a temp folder, delete)
- Reset the Secure boot options in FW, in the security tab (reset to factory state); save and reboot.
- Reset the FW to factory settings (last tab); save and reboot.
- Enable F12 menu and disable Secure boot (source of most problems).
- Setup as in my previous post (partition with the live media, bootloader not as default but in the / partition, reboot with rEFInd key prepared in the same way as the mint one, select linuxmint from its menu, update from terminal, reboot).

5. Miscellanea:
- I'll check F7, didn't notice at all, I need it on
- Menu behaviour seems fine here, will check this install
- Legacy mode shouldn't be needed, will check more distro

[nobugs]

Hi piovrauz,
Sorry, what do you mean "backto the reply page (firefox arrow up sx)". I lost a previous post a few days ago (another long one), but I managed to retrieve it, but have no idea what I did. You have nailed it but I don't understand your directions. I'm not using noscript which I normally do install, but in this case have not, as I'm most likely to start over with 13.

From the get go with my Acer, I was not able to boot from external media even with SB disabled, but at that point I was using Mint15, not 13. UEFI kept getting in the way. So having experimented with Mint15, I can't test this until I go back to a virgin machine and revert to Mint13. Too many changes to date to know what's what.

Just to be clear in my mind, are you saying to create a live Mint13 USB as usual. Guess not, because I think 2GB is too small for a live stick. I'm assuming you mean to download the iso to the formatted stick and extract the iso contents. Never done this, so do I just click on the iso to extract, similar to a zip file.

I did create a recovery USB stick (luckily!) and it works as I have already used it when I got stuck.

Will wade through the rest of your post over the weekend. My main problem is not with installing Mint, as I have installed many OS's both as dual/triple boot, and with Wubi/Mint4win. The trouble has arisen with Win8 and getting the initial firmware setup correctly to allow another OS. Just can't seem to get the computer to recognise external boot media with UEFI on and SB off.

Having said that, Mint13 may be a more stable candidate to do this experimentation rather than Mint15. I may be tripping over several unresolved issues.

I've got my mousepad turned off with F7 in Mint now, so I'm going to shut down, boot win8 and see if that switch position is retained. Then back into Mint. Will let u know.

[nobugs]

Anyone know if LM16 will have some kind of automatic dual boot setup?

Would be nice, but don't think so. Eventually, all this will be worked out and be as simple as pre EFI IMHO.

[piovrauz]

1. Oh, it seems explaining stuff in english needs polishing.
Firefox has two round buttons with an arrow near the address bar, on its left: one makes you go foward, one backward; using the backward one you can go back t the previously visited page (for the tab you are viewing). So what I meant was to use it after the mint forum logs you out, to just go back 2-3 times, till you see the page you wrote your post. What you wrote should still be there. Important: I have javascript disabled, so I don't know if having it enabled "cleans" the content of the form.

2. My Acer wasn't able to boot some usb keys too, but as soon I turned off Secure boot in the FW it loaded every single distro I trew at it, as long it was 64bit (well, EFI enabled too, since if if there's no EFI loade it won't obv load).
For it to work you must edit the order of the boot menu in the FW to have the usb disk as the first entry (this is the menu you see when you hit F12 during the boot).
I can guess you should do the same with the DVD, if you use that. I don't think 32bit distro will boot out of the box, since the ones I checked don't have an EFI loader at all, say mint 13 32bit for example.
So for 32bit you'll have to go with CMS Legacy mode. I'd say stick with 64bit.

3. For how to make the usb stick, check my previous post (won't rewrite it). A 2GB is enough, the ISO is around 900MB. You don't put the ISO on the stick, just the files you extract from it.

4. Well done for the recovery stick, most ppl forgot to do that.

5. Camera works on mint13. what I bad face I have today

6. I noticed the medibuntu repo is closed now, so before updating you should remove it from the repository list, or it'll give you errors.

7. For dualboot multiboot: install for example mint 13, go in the FW and put the "linuxmint" entry that the setup creates as the first entry after the external media, obviously before windows 8 loader.
That menu is the FW menu, the one that pops up after you hit F12 (horrible styled one). Nothing to do with windows. That entry lauchs grub, and if there's only 1 OS in the grub menu (and there is for now), you'll have to hold SHIFT to see it.
So F12 and then SHIFT, then select mint. Then you can edit grub configuration (for example to add windows 8 to the grub menu) as I described before. It's [boot order set in the FW]-> [grub menu]-> [choose mint or windows]. As soon you add windows, booting will get you the grub boot menu with a long timeout, since it's normally hidden. From now on there's no more need to hit F12, you just wait for the grub menu to pop up. You can add other entries to it too, just be aware that every new EFI enabled OS you install will add (hopefully) it's entry to the FW, so you'll have to decide beforehand which one to use as the default (I mean choose which bootloader to use, since you can have more than one, but you just need one)
Let me say that I prefer using grub because mint is shipped with it, and I made it work easily.

Off to work now, weekend will be for last setup, and hopefully an how to on it.