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PsyhoLynxLynx

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2017-09-01

Posts: 2

Dual-Boot UEFI on two drivers

Hi guys,
I just install Windows 10 x64 on 120GB SSD and Arch Linux on 1TB HDD, both are in UEFI mode installed. On HDD I have a partition common to both OS.

After a day trying to install Arch in UEFI mode I can't put Windows in bootloader.

I install both OS more time. Both systems have own EFI partition.

Disk /dev/sda: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiB
Model: ST1000LM024 HN-M
Disk identifier (GUID): 4AF9A6BC-573B-4313-AC7C-81ABDB1A96F8
Total free space is 207646061 sectors (99.0 GiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048         1050623   512.0 MiB   EF00 
   2         1050624        68159487   32.0 GiB    8200 
   3        68159488       487589887   200.0 GiB   8300 
   4       487589888      1745881087   600.0 GiB   0700  Basic data partition

Disk /dev/sdb: 234441648 sectors, 111.8 GiB
Model: INTEL SSDSC2BW12
Disk identifier (GUID): AB3BCA41-D267-49C0-8B2B-7AB894B8371C
Total free space is 23497581 sectors (11.2 GiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          923647   450.0 MiB   2700  Basic data partition
   2          923648         1128447   100.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition
   3         1128448         1161215   16.0 MiB    0C01  Microsoft reserved ...
   4         1161216       210946047   100.0 GiB   0700  Basic data partition

Can someone help me please?

olive

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2008-06-22

Posts: 1,490

Re: Dual-Boot UEFI on two drivers

You should only have one EFI partition on one drive. Although several efi partitions might work with some firmware, it will confuse Windows. To be sure put the EFI partition on the drive that contains Windows (this is not normally required, but it is less likely to confuse Windows). You didn't mention how you have installed Archlinux. With your setup (no RAID) a pretty standard install should work. The fact that you have two drives shouldn't matter. Basically, you configure the bootloader to load systemd-boot and do the configuration from there.

If you need more help, describe exactly your setup and particularly all information about your bootloader. I could also suggest you avoid grub and use systemd-boot or refind. Grub It is overkill for the job and difficult to debug (especially if you use their scripts).

Last edited by olive (2017-09-05 09:52:25)

Blasphemist

Member

From: Colorado

Registered: 2013-01-17

Posts: 160

Re: Dual-Boot UEFI on two drivers

I fully agree with olive. The design of how a EFI System Partition is used prevents conflict. The only real issue happens when people re-install windows and let it format the ESP. I don't think that is something windows requires, it's just an error that gets made sometimes.

There are two related things to understand about UEFI and the ESP. There are one set of UEFI variables in NVRAM that both OS's will use and there is one ESP that is the partition where all boot loaders, boot managers and anything else bootable such as the Arch kernel live. Windows will put a boot entry in the UEFI NVRAM to boot the windows boot manager. That windows boot manager will be installed in the ESP in it's own directory and likely in the "default" location on the ESP. Ignore the default location for now.

You also create an entry in UEFI's variables to launch to launch systemd-boot (bootctl). This happens when you run bootctl install but the wiki shows you how to do it manually if you ever need. Keep it simple and use what fits your needs. Use /boot as the mount point for the ESP in Arch.

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Simple and Open

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

Website

Re: Dual-Boot UEFI on two drivers

Please use code tags whe pasting to the boards: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … s_and_code

Not an Installation issue, moving to NC...

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