Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

thearcherblog · 2014-11-17 13:51:32

Hello All,

Today I'm in Spain installing Arch to my parents. Unfortunately I'm not able to make Gummiboot to find Windows 8...

For sure it's my fault and I made something wrong...

Can someone help me with this please? I will leave tomorrow morning but I still have access remotely to the computer).

[angarrub@myArchEsp ~]$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 465,8G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0   350M  0 part /run/media/angarrub/Reservado para el sistema
├─sda2   8:2    0 230,4G  0 part /run/media/angarrub/Nuevo
├─sda3   8:3    0     1G  0 part /boot
├─sda4   8:4    0    50G  0 part /
├─sda5   8:5    0   175G  0 part /home
└─sda6   8:6    0     9G  0 part [SWAP]

I'm quite sure that the problem is that I created another EFI partition (for not touching anything from Windows installation) and installed Gummiboot there. I would like to know what to do to create the entry for Windows and boot normally from /dev/sda1.

Please, do not hesitate to ask me whatever you need meto fix this.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Best regards,

TheArcher

TheSaint · 2014-11-17 14:07:25

Did you see the wiki ?
You should mount the ESP in /boot and after install gummiboot which will try to guess your setup.

thearcherblog · 2014-11-17 14:19:28

TheSaint wrote:

Did you see the wiki ?
You should mount the ESP in /boot and after install gummiboot which will try to guess your setup.

Yes, I was following the guide and is booting fine on Arch but, as I do not hve entry for Windows, I´m wondering how I can create an entry to boot in Windows on /dev/sda1.

Anyway, thanks a lot.

Regards,

TheArcher

Head_on_a_Stick · 2014-11-17 16:49:31

The ESP generated by Windows 8 must be shared by Arch & mounted at /boot for gummiboot to detect it sucessfully (gummiboot installs to /boot).

You could copy over /boot to the Windows-generated ESP (sda1?) & change your fstab to reflect this; gummiboot should "see" Windows then.

TheSaint · 2014-11-17 17:14:00

You can write a new entry at /boot/loader/entries like win8.conf

title                Start Windows
efi                  /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

For more details see gummiboot wiki

Mr.Elendig · 2014-11-17 18:56:00

Do you get the boot menu at all?

Post gdisk -l /dev/sda output

Last edited by Mr.Elendig (2014-11-17 18:57:47)

TheSaint · 2014-11-18 08:36:57

OP seems that Arch is starting, but no windows menu entry.
I think that one cannot make 2 ESP in one HDD, that will lead to conflicts.

mrunion · 2014-11-18 15:16:17

FWIW: You can have multiple ESPs on one HDD -- I've done it. You just have to configure things correctly. When I did this, I configured my machine to boot from the HARD DRIVE (not an EFI entry for windows or rEFInd, etc.), so it looked for the Bootx64.efi in the standard place according to the specs. I RENAMED rEFInd's .efi to Bootx64.efi and therefore the machine booted it by default. I then could boot Linux from the second ESP, or Windows from the first ESP -- both on the same drive.

Now, that setup was NOT ideal, but it does work. At least it worked on my Acer laptop. (Also, I no longer have this setup. I decided once and for all to purge Windows from my home because we never ever booted it. My wife and three kids all run Linux -- yes, even the 6-year-old!)

TheSaint · 2014-11-18 16:24:27

Good explanation. I understood one more piece of EFI.

thearcherblog · 2014-11-19 06:56:21

Good morning.

Sorry all for my late reply.

Seems like my father will survive without Windows...

To be honest I do not know how to make Gummiboot (or grub) to boot with his Windows partition but if my father does not care... I do not care...

Anyway, thanks a lot.

I will try to enable it one day that I have time and that his Internet connection that flows between 2.5M and 0.06M allow me to fix it remotely In that case, if I'm success, I will publish it

Best regards,

TheArcher

ackt1c · 2014-11-19 07:09:06

Tin

Last edited by ackt1c (2022-11-05 13:49:11)

thearcherblog · 2014-11-19 07:16:22

ackt1c wrote:

Take a look into syslinux, very easy to use, not visually stimulating, but effective.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Syslinux
Windows MBR
bcdedit /create /d “Linux” /application BOOTSECTOR
bcdedit /set {ID} device partition=c:
bcdedit /set {ID} path \linux.bin
bcdedit /displayorder {ID} /addlast
bcdedit /timeout 30;
Keep in mind you'll have to set your Windows Device to Bootable not your Syslinux boot device.
Syslinux
pacman -S syslinux # or pacstrap syslinux base base-devel /w installation
nano /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg # LABEL arch >> root=/dev/sda[X]  X being your linux root device
syslinux-install_update -i -a -m;
mkdir /mnt/sda[Y] # Y being your Windows HD Device
mount /dev/sda[Y] /mnt/sda[Y] # Y being your Windows HD Device
dd if=/dev/sda[X] of=/mnt/sda[Y]/linux.bin bs=512 count=1 # X being your linux BOOT device && Y being your Windows HD Device
Writeout your linux boot partition to your Windows HD, again having your Windows MBR device as bootable in cfdisk not your linux boot device.
[X] and [Y] should translate to a number.
Of course this is backwards, using windows to boot linux.
Hope that helps.

Ok, so if I understood everything ok... in that HD with both EFI partitions I should:

uninstall grub/gummiboot
install syslinux on /dev/sda1
configure two entries: one for arch /dev/sda3 and the second for Windows on /dev/sda1

And should work?

And... one question... I was trying to mount the 350mb partition (windows one, /dev/sda1) but I couldn't find the efi files... maybe I was doing something wrong because the only things that looks like a boot files are inside windows/boot folder...

I can try to connect remotely and check it later if you need more information.

Thanks a lot, really, best community ever!

Regards,

TheArcher

ackt1c · 2014-11-19 07:34:53

Tin

Last edited by ackt1c (2022-11-05 13:48:49)

TheSaint · 2014-11-19 09:15:37

If the UEFI is the option, gummiboot will do.
For gummiboot to be set properly it takes to chroot into the installation and install gummiboot from there.
Ensure that the ESP is mounted on /boot. But for better understanding OP post

$ ls  /boot/* 
# export LANG=en_US.UTF-8; gdisk -l /dev/sdX |grep EFI

X is one of the letters where the ESP is expected, could be a
In the event that the path differs from the default (/boot), see gummiboot wiki.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-11-17 13:51:32

Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#2 2014-11-17 14:07:25

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#3 2014-11-17 14:19:28

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#4 2014-11-17 16:49:31

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#5 2014-11-17 17:14:00

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#6 2014-11-17 18:56:00

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#7 2014-11-18 08:36:57

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#8 2014-11-18 15:16:17

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#9 2014-11-18 16:24:27

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#10 2014-11-19 06:56:21

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#11 2014-11-19 07:09:06

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#12 2014-11-19 07:16:22

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#13 2014-11-19 07:34:53

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

#14 2014-11-19 09:15:37

Re: Problems with Gummiboot (does not find Windows)

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