UEFI + Windows on primary drive with Arch on second drive?

red-lichtie · 2017-01-30 00:26:22

My new PC has Windows 10 preinstalled on it's internal drive with an EFI partition at "/dev/nvme0n1p1" (MS reservred@p2, MS Win 10@p3 and MS recovery@p4).

I have physically installed a 2nd drive which shows up as "/dev/sda", this is the one I want to install Arch on to (it shows up in BIOS and in the Arch boot image).

So, how do I set up dual boot?

Do I have to set up another EFI partition on "/dev/sda" and both will appear in UEFI?
Installed EFI grub to "/dev/nvme0n1p1" pointing to "/dev/sda1" (my Arch boot/root) ?
- Do I need a separate boot/root for this?
None of the above, do this ..... (link??)

I really don't want to break the current installation and I considered repartitioning the current drive as well but I would rather have a drive dedicated to Linux.

Is there something special that I have to watch out for when installing a UEFI boot with grub in this constellation ?

occasionally_smart · 2017-01-30 02:01:10

you can just use your windows efi partition and use it as your arch /boot.
make sure to disable fastboot and secure boot (i think not disabling fastboot may have caused some minor issues in my install)
also i'd recommend using systemd-boot as it's quite easy to set up.

and to try and answer the other part of your question - example configuration:
create your partitions with gdisk (since you need GPT for UEFI - you would need a root partition and maybe a swap and home partition if you want to use those)
lets say /dev/sda1 is root /dev/sda2 is swap and /dev/sda3 is home
you would need to

format home and root as ext4

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/home /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home

mkswap /dev/sda2
swapon /dev/sda2

and mount your windows efi partition at /mnt/boot (then do the basic stuff pacstrap fstab chroot etc)

gl and have a look at this:
Dual boot with Windows

Last edited by occasionally_smart (2017-01-30 02:09:29)

red-lichtie · 2017-01-30 17:26:58

Great advice, I never noticed the systemd-boot option before.

I thought that only the boot loader went on to the EFI but I see that all the boot code, including the kernel is now there.

Isn't there any concerns that Windows might mess up the files there, assuming that if it isn't MS then it shouldn't be there?

Any way, it worked a treat the way you described it. Thanks.

occasionally_smart · 2017-01-30 18:23:06

well i don't think ms would try to deny you the option of dualbooting.
i even ran the cmd commands to rebuild bcd etc. and it didn't affect my systemd loader at all.

but i don't really know all too much about it either. i just read the wiki and it said it was the recommended way.
maybe someone who knows more about it want's to chime in?

Arch Linux

#1 2017-01-30 00:26:22

UEFI + Windows on primary drive with Arch on second drive?

#2 2017-01-30 02:01:10

Re: UEFI + Windows on primary drive with Arch on second drive?

#3 2017-01-30 17:26:58

Re: UEFI + Windows on primary drive with Arch on second drive?

#4 2017-01-30 18:23:06

Re: UEFI + Windows on primary drive with Arch on second drive?

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