[SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

DeadLink404 · 2018-04-02 11:44:12

I created an fstab to mount the windows boot partition as read only at /boot/windows and created an boot entry for systemd with it.
Can you automatically unmount the partition once I select Arch to boot since it is no longer needed?
I know I am paranoid but I think that would be cleaner anyhow.

How could I go about doing this?

EDIT: Solution, I am dumb it doesn't actually work.

Last edited by DeadLink404 (2018-04-02 17:15:55)

WorMzy · 2018-04-02 11:46:24

Why do you think this mount is needed in the first place?

DeadLink404 · 2018-04-02 13:23:26

I use systemd boot for my dualboot setup but I have two seperate EFI partitions. One on each drive, one drive for windows and one for linux.
The linux one is mounted at /boot.

I know that grub can do it without mounting but I don't like grub.

Systemd boot can only chainload efis from mounted file systems afaik.

Last edited by DeadLink404 (2018-04-02 13:24:10)

Scimmia · 2018-04-02 13:27:15

It can't load efis from other partitions at all AFAIK. How are you making that work?

Trilby · 2018-04-02 13:31:55

Also worth noting is *when* your arch fstab is read. That fstab will not have any effect at all until well downstream of selecting arch as the boot option. So this really just doesn't make any sense at all.

DeadLink404 · 2018-04-02 15:48:21

A shit you are right. It actually used the bootmfgw.efi I copied over to boot windows and not the windos.conf I thought could work.
That one doesn't actually boot at all. I mean it boots faster than before where I chainloaded grub to chainload the windows boot loader so I guess it works.

So systemd boot just cannot do this at all huh.
that is a shame, but could you like set it up so that the second EFI partition gets cloned to /boot/windows,
after startup (update the files if something changed) and hide them until you shutdown the system?

Trilby · 2018-04-02 15:52:56

That post really didn't clarify anything. Remember, we only know what you tell us, and we often don't know what you are talking about when you just say "It actually used ..."

DeadLink404 wrote:

So systemd boot just cannot do this at all huh.

Can't do *what* exactly? What are you trying to do? You can certainly dual boot windows and arch - but it seems like you want to do something more complicated: what do you want to do and why?

DeadLink404 · 2018-04-02 17:14:36

Ok to clarify. I have two hard disks. One with a windows install and one with a linux install.
BOTH have an EFI partition. I use systemd boot as boot manager and want it to be able to launch windows.

Previously I had systemd boot load the grub efi and had grub simply default to windows.

Now I have copied the windows boot manger .efi file from the windows efi parition to /boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi (on the linux efi partition).
This is automatically added by system under windows boot manger as boot option.
I also tried mounting the windows efi partition to /boot/windows and create a manual boot entry using a /boot/loader/entries/windows.conf file pointing to
/windows/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi .
That is not working because mounting happens after booting I guess.
I was confused because I forgot I copied the file and so I thought the second method was working,
while in reality only the first method worked.

What I wanted to do was to get rid of the middle man grub that I used to chainload the windows boot mangager, because
a) I don't like grub, even with timeout set to 0 and everything it blinks on boot and
b) the whole process was a bit ridiculous and slow.
Chainloading a bootloader to chainload a bootloader, just so I could use systemd as boot menu I mean.

If there is a cleaner solution I would love to hear your Ideas,
but as this is working for me currently you this is SOLVED.
And no installing linux on the windows efi partition is not what I consider cleaner,
but that is probably just up to taste.

Last edited by DeadLink404 (2018-04-02 17:18:26)

Slithery · 2018-04-02 17:37:50

I believe that grub is the only UEFI bootloader that can boot files from a different EFI partition so you're going to have to use it, get rid of systemd-boot instead and just use GRUB.

The only other option is to have just 1 ESP for both drives, this was one of the major design features of UEFI in the first place.

Scimmia · 2018-04-02 17:39:13

rEFInd can as well.

loqs · 2018-04-02 17:39:35

Refind should be able to as well.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-04-02 11:44:12

[SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

#2 2018-04-02 11:46:24

Re: [SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

#3 2018-04-02 13:23:26

Re: [SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

#4 2018-04-02 13:27:15

Re: [SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

#5 2018-04-02 13:31:55

Re: [SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

#6 2018-04-02 15:48:21

Re: [SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

#7 2018-04-02 15:52:56

Re: [SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

#8 2018-04-02 17:14:36

Re: [SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

#9 2018-04-02 17:37:50

Re: [SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

#10 2018-04-02 17:39:13

Re: [SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

#11 2018-04-02 17:39:35

Re: [SOLVED] Automatically unmount windows boot partition on Boot

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