Arch Linux

Los Frijoles

Member

Registered: 2012-06-23

Posts: 40

[SOLVED] Installing alongside windows 8.1 bootloader issues

I just purchased a replacement for my 6 year old netbook computer and I have been attempting to load arch alongside windows. This is probably the 6th or 7th time I have installed arch from scratch on something, but it is the first time I have ever done this on a computer with Windows 8.1, UEFI & secure boot enabled. The computer is an Asus K200MA.

Since I just got it and I am not sure how things will turn out, I am trying to make the process as reversible as possible. I removed one of the default "primary" ntfs partitions and replaced it with 4 ext4 partitions for /boot, /, /var, and /home. I have the system all ready to go for main installation without the live usb...if I could only get it to boot. I do not want to overwrite windows' default bootloader since I want to be able to return the computer to the factory state, so I started following the instructions at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wi … _Dual_Boot under the BIOS section in hopes that it would work by some miracle. I have placed linux.bin in my C: drive and added the appropriate entry using bcdedit. When I boot, I see the entry in the windows bootloader for Arch linux (which is what I named it), but when I attempt to load that entry, I get an error that windows was unable to load. It shows my information (/linux.bin, etc), but I just have no idea why it isn't working. Again, I have never done this before on a system like this. I even disabled secure boot just to see if it would load with no luck (I would like to keep it turned on, however; It seems like a cool feature).

Does anyone know what I can do or where I might be going wrong? I don't want to install a bootloader (as it seems to suggest under the UEFI instructions) so that I can keep the windows one so that this process is easily reversible, but windows seems to be foiling my every attempt to keep it intact.

EDIT: Would installing another UEFI bootloader actually modify the existing bootloader? I just might not be understanding how these things works properly.

Last edited by Los Frijoles (2014-05-15 19:59:37)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,776

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Installing alongside windows 8.1 bootloader issues

I think you'll have to use the UEFI method at he bottom of the page you have linked.
Also, with UEFI-enabled systems an EFI System Partition is needed & it is simplest to mount /boot on this partition (this is required if using gummiboot)...
Secure boot will have to be disabled unless you use the method(s) described here

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

Los Frijoles

Member

Registered: 2012-06-23

Posts: 40

Re: [SOLVED] Installing alongside windows 8.1 bootloader issues

Alas you were right.

What I believe happened was that I was asking windows to boot a BIOS bootloader after booting from UEFI which I don't believe is possible.

What I ended up doing was using rEFInd and installing it alongside the existing things inside the system's EFI partition (there was already an Asus folder and a Windows folder). I didn't even need to replace the things in the boot folder (in the efi partion), so I assume I should be able to revert it back to the default if I needed to.

In conclusion, UEFI is the way to go with this.