Arch Linux

pvizc

Member

Registered: 2018-04-09

Posts: 6

[Solved] Unable to dual boot Windows 10 using systemd-boot

Hi,

I'm fairly new to Arch and more specifically systemd(boot) and I'm having some trouble when trying to dual boot Win10.

This machine had first installed Windows 10. I bought a new HDD on which I installed Arch. I want to be able to choose to boot to Windows or Arch, using systemd-boot, but can't seem to figure out how.

I installed ArchLinux normally, with an EFI partition and systemd-boot seems to work fine, except it doesn't recognize any Windows partition at all, so I cannot boot to it.

My Windows partitions are on the other drive and I can boot normally if I set it in the mobo Bios.

What could I be doing wrong?

these are my drives currently (lsblk -l)

sdb    8:16   0 111,8G  0 disk 
sdb1   8:17   0   400M  0 part /boot
sdb2   8:18   0 109,4G  0 part /
sdb3   8:19   0     2G  0 part [SWAP]
sdc    8:32   0 119,2G  0 disk 
sdc1   8:33   0   500M  0 part 
sdc2   8:34   0 118,8G  0 part 

sdb is my ArchLinux drive. sdc is the Windows drive.

And my tree /boot folder

[pvizc@archlinux-pvizc ~]$ tree /boot
/boot
├── EFI
│   ├── BOOT
│   │   └── BOOTX64.EFI
│   └── systemd
│       └── systemd-bootx64.efi
├── initramfs-linux-fallback.img
├── initramfs-linux.img
├── loader
│   ├── entries
│   │   └── arch.conf
│   └── loader.conf
└── vmlinuz-linux

5 directories, 7 files

Thank you very much for your help.

Last edited by pvizc (2018-04-09 19:02:23)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,435

Re: [Solved] Unable to dual boot Windows 10 using systemd-boot

You can't boot EFI binaries outside of the ESP systemd-boot is installed in.

Either switch to GRUB or refind or similar, or install systemd-boot (and the linux kernel image, most practically switch your /boot partition) to the ESP created by Windows.

Either way "cannot" boot it is likely an overblown statement. Your UEFI firmware will likely have a Windows entry, you'd have to use the proper key on boot up though to use your UEFIs own boot/NVRAM entry loader though.

Last edited by V1del (2018-04-09 17:41:17)

adomol

Member

Registered: 2014-12-18

Posts: 26

Re: [Solved] Unable to dual boot Windows 10 using systemd-boot

@pvizc You did not need to create the ESP at sdb1, just use the one that came with your Windows system at sdc1 and mount /boot there when installing your bootloader.

@V1del On a related note, does systemd-boot support dual booting win/linux installed across separate ssd's?

cafe

Member

From: Brasil

Registered: 2014-03-20

Posts: 165

Re: [Solved] Unable to dual boot Windows 10 using systemd-boot

You can copy the Microsoft EFI loader to your systemd-boot EFI partition : /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/Bootmgfw.efi (you will have to rename it)

Systemd boot will automatically detect it.

pvizc

Member

Registered: 2018-04-09

Posts: 6

Re: [Solved] Unable to dual boot Windows 10 using systemd-boot

Thank you for your answers. I just realized that Windows is NOT installed in UEFI mode. That might be the issue, right?

On the other hand (I apologyze if this is a bit offtopic), if I wanted to reinstall both operating systems to work with just a Linux Bootloader (systemd-boot) with just a single boot partition, which would be right steps to follow (just a brief summary)?

Thank you very much again.

Last edited by pvizc (2018-04-09 18:07:57)

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

Website

Re: [Solved] Unable to dual boot Windows 10 using systemd-boot

There is a wiki page on dual booting: it is explained there.

Please remember to mark your thread as [Solved] by editing your first post and prepending it to the title.

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cafe

Member

From: Brasil

Registered: 2014-03-20

Posts: 165

Re: [Solved] Unable to dual boot Windows 10 using systemd-boot

if I wanted to reinstall both operating systems to work with just a Linux Bootloader (systemd-boot) with just a single boot partition, which would be right steps to follow (just a brief summary)?

I would say to install windows 10 first and then install systemd-boot to Windows EFI partition (make a backup first). You might have to rename the windows boot manager efi file. Check out the wiki page https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Du … th_Windows as jasonwryan said.