Dual Boot Win8.1 Arch

nevr0sed · 2015-09-11 09:05:42

Hi all,

I am new to the distribution. I have used 10 years ago Gentoo, but then I had a 'dark' period where I have used only "user-friendly" Linux Distro's (and Mac... ;( )for the readiness of the system.
After reading the (amazing) wiki, seeing many reviews and seeing it in action on a friend's laptop I honestly fell in love with the Arch distribution. Although, I have been honestly struggling in installing Arch in dual boot on my (brand new) desktop machine.

Here is the specs of my machine :

Asus Maximus 7 Hero
i7 4790K
16gb RAM
NVIDIA GTX 980 (3 screens attached)
1 SSD 240G
1 SATA 500G

I have installed a version of Win8.1 then re-sized the partition from the Win8 diskmanger. (I also have tried to leave at installation unallocated space)
I have followed the Wiki and this YouTube video to get to through the installation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=METZCp_JCec

I am now trying to install the Grub Boat loader with no success.
here is the output of my /dev/sda

fdisk -l /dev/sda

Unit: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt

DEVICE START END SECTORS SIZE TYPE
/dev/sda1 2048 616447 614400 300M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda2 616448 821247 204800 100M EFI System
/dev/sda3 821248 1083391 262144 128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda4 1083392 317308927 316225536 150.8G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5 317308928 321503231 4194304 2G Linux swap
/dev/sda6 321503232 468862094 147358863 70.3G Linux filesystem

I am currently stuck in arch-chroot in /mnt

i have mounted the /dev/sda2 on /boot/efi

although when i run:

grub-install /dev/sda
Installing for i386-pc platform.
grub-install: warning: this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible.
grub-install: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be instaled in this setup by blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their usage is discouraged..
grub-install: error: will not proceed with blocklists.

Any any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I haven't succeeded in getting the dual boot to work, and this is the furthest I arrived. with no major issues.
Also I do not understand why grub is trying to install for a i386 machine whilst installing it for x86_64 machine would be more accurate (i think ? :^s)

Please, do not hesitate, to ask me what outputs you may need to understand thoroughly my situation. I really would like to get this working before the end of my vacations: Monday :-) ;-)

Thank you very much for all your help.

nevr0sed.

Silkworm205 · 2015-09-11 09:12:42

Looks like this machine's using EFI and you're trying to install the BIOS grub. Have you read this page yet?

nevr0sed · 2015-09-11 09:32:06

Yes but didn't find a viable solution.
What section would you recommend me to look at?
when I try to launch efibootmgr
EFI variables are not supported on this system....

Thank you for your quick reply !

nevr0sed

Silkworm205 · 2015-09-11 10:34:50

Besides persevering with the Grub UEFI instructions I don't have any suggestions. I perfer to turn off UEFI and use the traditional easy boot method, but in this case you'd have to re-install Windows for that.

Two particular instuctions stand out to me, did you install grub AND efimanager? And specify --target=x86_64-efi ?

nevr0sed · 2015-09-11 10:37:06

I have read it through and I if I'm not wrong I should be doing something with the Secure Boot, but I had (in one of my install tryouts) done what was mentioned on the wiki but now it doesn't show anymore.

Shall I reset via the BIOS the keys loaded ?

Thank you for your help.

nevr0sed.

nevr0sed · 2015-09-11 11:05:04

By turning off UEFI, what will change ? what won't be able to access ? If it's possible to get 'traditional boot method' as you say i'd be glad to make this happen

I although went again through the link you've sent me, I have specified the --target, and it reported no errors. just 2 messages saying that "EFI variables are not supported on this system."

I did not find in the efimanager you specified in pacman -Syu efimanager

Thanks again.

Last edited by nevr0sed (2015-09-11 12:30:58)

nevr0sed · 2015-09-11 11:12:43

update:

changed the boot sequence, now when I boot up, grub shows but there is an error straight away:

no such partition.

grub rescue > ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos1) (hd1)

any advice ?

nevr0sed

Last edited by nevr0sed (2015-09-11 12:10:44)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-09-11 20:47:59

nevr0sed wrote:

I have followed the Wiki and this YouTube video to get to through the installation.

Your video guide is crap.

Install again and follow the Beginner's Guide this time.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_guide

To get you started, the EFI system partition should be shared between Windows and Arch and I highly recommend mounting it to /boot (*not* /boot/efi) and I also recommend that you use systemd-boot rather than GRUB.

If you still have problems, post back and describe the *exact* steps you have taken so far.

EDIT: Make sure that "CSM" or "Legacy" mode is *disabled* and UEFI is enabled when booting the Arch live ISO to ensure that you are booted in UEFI mode.

You can check if you are booted in UEFI mode with:

[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo UEFI || echo not UEFI

Secure Boot will also have to be disabled to boot your installed system.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2015-09-11 20:51:05)

Arch Linux

#1 2015-09-11 09:05:42

Dual Boot Win8.1 Arch

#2 2015-09-11 09:12:42

Re: Dual Boot Win8.1 Arch

#3 2015-09-11 09:32:06

Re: Dual Boot Win8.1 Arch

#4 2015-09-11 10:34:50

Re: Dual Boot Win8.1 Arch

#5 2015-09-11 10:37:06

Re: Dual Boot Win8.1 Arch

#6 2015-09-11 11:05:04

Re: Dual Boot Win8.1 Arch

#7 2015-09-11 11:12:43

Re: Dual Boot Win8.1 Arch

#8 2015-09-11 20:47:59

Re: Dual Boot Win8.1 Arch

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