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Win 10 dual boot issues after reinstall Mag 5

PostPosted: Nov 26th, '15, 05:17
by DRNewcomb
I have a dual boot Dell Inspiron N5010 64-bit laptop, which was originally Win 7, but has updated to Win 10. Windows was working OK but I was having some issues with Mageia's system control utility not running and rather than figuring out the problem I just reinstalled Mageia 5. After the reinstall, Mageia booted just fine but Windows was not in the boot list. I added the Windows partition (/dev/sda3) in the boot section of the Mageia system configuration utility but when I boot to Windows, I get a Windows trouble/recovery program rather than Windows 10. I know I'm missing something basic about booting and there must be a FAQ for this but I can't seem to find it. AFAIK the laptop predates (does not use) UEFI. The partitions are sda1: 100 MB unformatted, sda2: 14 GB Windows recovery, sda3: 244 GB Windows, sda5: 244 GB Linux root, sda6: swap. I know there must be a simple fix for this. I don't want to do anything to destroy the Windows 10 system that seems to be intact.

Re: Win 10 dual boot issues after reinstall Mag 5

PostPosted: Nov 26th, '15, 06:02
by gohlip
First, try at Mageia terminal
Code: Select all
sudo update-grub
(or sudo update-grub2)

If it does not correct the problem, provide the following...
o Windows entry of /boot/grub2/grub.cfg (or /boot/grub/menu.lst)
o lsblk -f (or sudo blkid)
o find which partition is windows file for /bootmgr (either (hd0,2)/bootmgr or (hd0,3)/bootmgr)

Re: Win 10 dual boot issues after reinstall Mag 5

PostPosted: Nov 27th, '15, 00:45
by fixxer
Post output of bootinfoscript:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/ .

Re: Win 10 dual boot issues after reinstall Mag 5

PostPosted: Nov 27th, '15, 18:57
by laidlaws
I am running Windows 10 with Mageia 5, but I think that the problem is more basic.

Windows creates /boot/EFI, and I am told that uppercase is standard.

But Grub2 looks for /boot/efi.

As a workaround, I run

Code: Select all
 grub2-install /dev/sda --efi-directory=/boot/EFI


(Corrected: no whitespace either side of the "=")

Perhaps the OP can report whether it overcomes his problem.

Should I file a bug about this?

Re: Win 10 dual boot issues after reinstall Mag 5

PostPosted: Nov 27th, '15, 18:59
by doktor5000
laidlaws wrote:Should I file a bug about this?

Yes, please do so.

Re: Win 10 dual boot issues after reinstall Mag 5

PostPosted: Nov 27th, '15, 19:48
by gohlip
The Op had stated he does not have uefi
AFAIK the laptop predates (does not use) UEFI.


laidlaws uses uefi and that means there has to be an esp (/boot/efi) partiticion in vfat format.
In this format, upper and lower case does not have any distinction.
As long as /boot/efi is mounted (use 'findmnt /boot/efi' to check),
Code: Select all
sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=mageia --recheck
is the command to use.

Grub commands are different in bios-legacy and uefi.

[edit] - arghh - grub2 and grub - grub2-install grub-install -update-grub update-grub2 - arghh.

Re: Win 10 dual boot issues after reinstall Mag 5

PostPosted: Nov 28th, '15, 09:15
by laidlaws
The "grub-install" command will install Legacy GRUB. Regardless of EFI, you need "grub2-install."

The contents of /boot/efi are in vfat format, but it is Linux that is looking for the file.

All I can say is that case matters on my system.

Oh, and Isadora: thanks for fixing those tags.

Bug filed: https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17243