Greetings,

As per my last 2 posts in the Windows 10 thread, I have created this thread for posting about dual booting Linux with Windows. Any how-to ideas, any problems, any fixes, anything at all pertaining to Linux and Windows dual booting.

Well, I ran into the same problem where Linux is not detecting a EFI partition on the Windows system drive. To say the least, I'M STUMPED!

I have looked at the new M.2 drive, with Disk Management, after cloning and there is a 500MB partition at the beginning of the drive that says:

500 MB NTFS
Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)

The second partition says:

(C:)
668.88 GB NTFS
Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

The third partition for the Linux install says:

244.14 GB
Unallocated

Before anyone asks why the major size difference between the C: partition and the Unallocated, I plan on re-cloning my original M.2 and re-shrink the C: partition. I wanted the C: partition at 250GB. I have my original M.2 intact and stored away in my motherboard box, just in case. And this is a good enough "just in case" to me. ;)

Correct me if I am wrong, but I'm thinking that the first partition as small as it is is the EFI partition. Micro$oft does recommend that the EFI partition be the first on the drive. Or, is the System partition something completely different and I have no EFI partition on this drive? Or, does the EFI partition even show up in Disk Management?

I believe this is enough to go over for a while. In the mean time I will avail myself of the use of DuckDuckGo and see what else I can find about the EFI partition.

Have a great day! :)

Siran

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Greetings,

I have eliminated the re-cloning I was going to do. I got to thinking when I was looking in Disk Management, I could just shrink the C: partition down to what I want it to be and add the rest to the Unallocated partition. It worked: C: is now 244.14GB and Unallocated is now 686.88GB. Woohoo! :)

Still working on figuring out the EFI partition thingy. Seems that, from what I have read in several places, that the EFI partition does show in Disk Management. But, I also read that the EFI partition holds the boot loaders for any OS's that are installed on the drive and also that it is required for Winders to boot. So, how am I doing this in Winders if'n I don't have the EFI partition? Good question. Could it be that Windows will boot without the boot loader in the EFI partition?

I have found directions on creating a EFI partition by booting from the Winders install disk (USB drive) and running a boat load of commands in the terminal. I do have my laptop running so I can get the website on it and read from there and type in here. ;) I will have to shrink 200MB from the Unallocated partition and go from there...

Wish me luck and have a great day! :)

Siran

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Check to make sure that first partition in Windows really is a EFI partition. Size seems about right. The problem is that it is NTFS file system. Linux needs its EFI partition to be FAT. See if you can use Windows to change the EFI partition from NTFS file system to FAT file system. Then Linux shouldn't complain about not finding an EFI partition.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

I've only done what you are doing to two computers so I'm NO expert!

You might want to disable secure boot in the BIOS and skip messing with UEFI altogether.

This site has some (untested by me) instructions.

https://itsfoss.com/disable-secure-boot-in-acer/

https://itsfoss.com/guide-install-linux-mint-16-dual-boot-windows/

might be helpful.

I've only done what you are doing to two computers so I'm NO expert!

You might want to disable secure boot in the BIOS and skip messing with UEFI altogether.

This site has some (untested by me) instructions.

https://itsfoss.com/disable-secure-boot-in-acer/

Hi IG,

I already have Secure Boot disabled. I did it a long time ago, probably when I built the PC. Thanks anyway. :)

Have a great day! :)

Siran

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

https://itsfoss.com/guide-install-linux-mint-16-dual-boot-windows/

might be helpful.

Hi again IG,

I'm already using 2 other websites, one on here, linuxtutorials.net and one on my laptop, www.tenforums.com, with identical procedures. Thanks again. :)

Have a great day! :)

Siran

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Check to make sure that first partition in Windows really is a EFI partition. Size seems about right. The problem is that it is NTFS file system. Linux needs its EFI partition to be FAT. See if you can use Windows to change the EFI partition from NTFS file system to FAT file system. Then Linux shouldn't complain about not finding an EFI partition.

Hi Keith,

I didn't even think about that.

I just tried to use Diskpart to create a EFI partition. The drive needs to be GPT and Diskpart cannot convert it. So, I'm back to cloning the original M.2. Wait a minute... If the original is MBR, the clone will be also. :(

But, before I do that I will try to see about converting the partition from NTFS to Fat32, since it's not really gonna hurt anything anyway. Right? ;) I'll let you know what happens. Let's hope this works.

Have a great day! :)

Siran

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Greetings,

So far, so good! I got 2 things accomplished costing me $39.95. I got EaseUS Partition Master Professional which converted my drive to GPT and created the EFI partition. I had no idea this project was going cost me extra. But, to get the project moving forward, it was bucks well spent. Now comes the icing on the cake, getting Linux Mint installed. I'll be back!

Have a great day! :)

Siran

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

I've used EaseUS Partition Master.. It seems to work well.

I would get rid of my dual boot set up if I could figure out how to print and scan things with my Brother networked MFC!

I have always like EasUS Partition Master. A very good program.

I would not think there should be any problems connecting to your Brother MFC printer in Linux. Brother is extremely well supported. I have just a monochrome Brother Laser printer and it was no problem getting it installed in Linux. I see 80 different Brother MFC printers listed in the printer database in the Settings >> Devices >> Printers dialog. I connect via the Ethernet interface which announces itself to the network for all computers to see and use.

[Edit]
https://askubuntu.com/questions/636363/how-do-i-install-proprietary-drivers-for-my-brother-all-in-one-printer-scanner-f

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Hi Keith,

I have always like EasUS Partition Master. A very good program.

Yeah, it makes me wonder though, if companies like them can figure out how to do something like that without data destruction, why can't Micro$oft? With their 2 methods you have to remove all partitions. I'm just glad I found a solution.

Linux is installed and is going through updating right now. I'm posting this with my laptop.

Took forever for the video driver update. Running v430 NVIDIA.

Have a great day! :)

Siran

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Great to hear Siran. I assume you have already tried your dual boot through the grub2 menu?

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Great to hear Siran. I assume you have already tried your dual boot through the grub2 menu?

Hi Keith,

I'm not sure, I have a dual boot menu and started Mint from there, but I haven't tried booting into Winders yet. Too busy in Linux. :)

By the way, I'm now posting from my new and improved Linux box! And yes, I'm using Firefox, my all time favorite browser. :)

Gotta get BOINC going yet. I need BOINC installed first before I do the "secret sauce" thing right? :)

I'm one step closer to closing the door on Winders, or is that shutters?! ;)

Have a great day! :)

Siran

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Assuming you have Nvidia cards, just grab the AIO you have both BOINC AND the special sauce app.
http://www.arkayn.us/lunatics/BOINC.7z

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Assuming you have Nvidia cards, just grab the AIO you have both BOINC AND the special sauce app.
http://www.arkayn.us/lunatics/BOINC.7z

Hi Keith,

Ok, I'll do that.

I'm back in Winders now, gettin' ready to do some World of Warcraft. :)

Yes, the boot menu is Grub 2. Booted into Winders from it. I assume you mean the version number, right?

One thing I have noticed in Mint, if I type a word such as "favorite" in Firefox, it's marked as misspelled. If I right click it, the suggested replacement is "favourite". Weird...

Have a great day! :)

Siran

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Your location and language ISO code is set for UK instead of USA. Go to Settings >> Region and Language and switch from en-uk to en-us. Then Firefox should pick up the change and give you US spellings.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Your location and language ISO code is set for UK instead of USA. Go to Settings >> Region and Language and switch from en-uk to en-us. Then Firefox should pick up the change and give you US spellings.

Hi Keith,

I checked the settings and they are set to US and my location/language is set properly. No matter, I just add to the dictionary. :)

Some weird problem I have been experiencing which isn't directly related to Linux, I think. When I go to log into Winders, my time is off by about 6 hours or so. I have to re-sync to get the time back to real time. This is in Winders. The date is fine, only the time is off. The time in Linux is just fine.

I have BOINC running solely from the /home/BOINC directory. I looked in /etc to see if there was a /boinc-client directory and there isn't one. I have BOINCTasks running in Wine no problem. It will not connect to the Linux host or see any other hosts on the network. The instruction for connecting to the localhost states:

Use localhost as the IP address and leave the password blank or get the password from: etc->boinc-client->gui_rpc_auth.cfg. (You need root access to read this file)

As mentioned above, /boinc-client does not exist in the /etc directory. I have a gui_rpc_auth.cfg file in the /home/BOINC directory and I opened it in a text editor and it had a gibberish looking entry. I removed that entry (yes I know about the crlf thingy), saved the file, went into BOINCTasks, cleared the password section, and nothing. It sees the host but will not connect.

There are other issues with BOINC that can be fixed with a ap_config.xml file I believe, such as out of balance run and CPU times, but that can wait for another time. BOINC is working, I'm crunching WUs, getting credits, RAC is climbing, etc.

I just need to figure out BOINCTasks right now... ;)

Have a great day! :)

Siran

[edit]
Forget the BOINCTasks problem! I just started it and it is connected to the localhost. Woohoo! Now to see if it will see other hosts... :)
[/edit]

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Also check the time-zone that your BIOS think you are in - it's not unknown for that to "slip" to the default of Greenwich when doing other things - a real pain when it happens as most OS start by picking up the BIOS setting and adjust display time accordingly :-(

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Some weird problem I have been experiencing which isn't directly related to Linux, I think. When I go to log into Winders, my time is off by about 6 hours or so. I have to re-sync to get the time back to real time. This is in Winders. The date is fine, only the time is off. The time in Linux is just fine.

Six hours sounds like the likely offset between local time and UTC (although I don't know exactly which time zone you are in in the USA).

Check - separately - that you are set to the correct time zone in both Linux and Windows. Then, set the display to your local time. All three of Linux, Windows, and BOINC operate internally on UTC, and apply an offset to display the correct local time. They should remain in lockstep once you have the correct operating system timezones set.