Adding Mageia7 to an Asus X540L running Windows 10 [Solved]

[rodgoslin]

Hi,
I'm trying to add Mageia7 to the machine above running Windows 10. I've done this a number of times in the past without too much trouble. I simply use the standard Mageia install. Resize the Windows partition to the smallest size I can use, and install in the released disk space. I have little use for Windows, but I do have a few items of hardware, which can only run on Windows. Sice the resulting files will be moved elsewhere, this partition can be quite small.
However on this install I ran into problems. First off, the install ran normally, once I'd persuaded the BIOS setup to recognise an added DVD drive ( The machine does not have an internal drive). All went well until the part of reducing the Windows partition. Here the install failed sinceit had problems with the NTSF format. It filled several screens with text before announcing a fail.
Giving it some thought I decided to attack from a different direction. Starting again fro Windows 10, I used that to reduce the size of the Windows partition. Unfortunately it would only reduce that to half of it's original size, but giving that the full disk size was 1TB, I accepted the rather overlarge Windows partition remaining.
So far, so good. Returning to the the Mageia install, I now had a little short of half a TB of unused disk, so all appeared as in the past. Partitioning went without problem, until I hit the 'done' button. A new dialogue came up, which read "You must have a BIOS boot partition for non-UEFI GPT-partitioned disks. Please create one before continuing." Here I'm stuck, I can find nothing to explain the dialogue, what a BIOS boot partition is and how to create it from the position the machine is now in.
Plan B, so far, is to use the install to delete ALL partitions, including Win10, if it will do that, and re-install Windows from a Windows 7 install disk, which came unused, with another machine long ago, and then add Mageia 7 after that.
I've done this a number of times in the past (adding Mageia) all on notebook machines, which, in time lost their 'mobile' status as the non interchangeable batteries deteriorated.
Any thoughts, anyone?

[benmc]

under "custom disk partitioning, choose expert" and just create a small partition (10-20MB) and set the file-type to bios boot from the drop-down menu (the same menu you would normally choose, say ext4, for /).
the partition has no mount point.

Normally, in a MBR partition scheme, there is a reserved space at the start of the drive, your boot sector. this sector is not normally available to the user as usable partitionable space.
sadly with the advent of grub 2, this sector is no longer large enough to contain the 2nd stage of your grub, but with MBR, it noes not seem to be an issue.
I understand that the GPT info is written to the the first (user available) sector of your drive.
(the above paragraph may, of course, be completely wrong, but it works for me)
this means that this is no longer available for your boot sector "overflow", so a bios boot partition needs to be created. it does not need to the first partition on the drive, which is likely already occupied by your Windows (C:) partition.

[rodgoslin]

Ah. Thanks, worked a treat once I'd realised that it was set in the file type listing. I'd have been a bit miffed at chucking out Win10, not from any regrets at its going, but more from the point of view that I'd paid for the thing. My only regret now is not being able to cut the Win partition down to an insignificant part of the whole.
Thanks again!

[isadora]

Would you please mark this topic [SOLVED]?
You can do so by editing the title/subject of the first message in the topic.
Place [SOLVED] in front of subject/title.

Thanks ahead.

[rodgoslin]

Well, it's not exactly 'solved'. The build, under the advice of benmc went without too much trauma. The only glitch was the setup of the WiFi, where none of the available routers were found. However, on re-boot setting up the WiFi went ahead without bother. The big snag, is that the boot options do not include Windows. Only Mageia and Mageia Advanced Options are listed. Over the years, I must have installed over a couple of dozen OS's from Mandrake to this one, and this is the first occasion where Windows got left out. When I felt more adventurous, I once had Windows and four other Linux OS's as bootable options, but this is a first. Whilst i don't much mourn Windows unavailability, I do regret the loss of half of the disk capacity. Any ideas as to how to get round this problem, or do I have to submit a new topic?

[isadora]

......do I have to submit a new topic?

Exactly that would be my proposal.

[benmc]

My only regret now is not being able to cut the Win partition down to an insignificant part of the whole

windows like to put immovable files in the smack centre of the drive, so that it cannot be given less than 50%.

I think the file is a page file. a google search will give instructions for removing it, then you can reduce the windows partition down to about 50-60GB, depends on how much stuff is in there, obviously. not a windows user, but I read it on the internet, so it must be true .

quote="rodgoslin"]this is the first occasion where Windows got left out[/quote]
was you windows in hibernation?

[rodgoslin]

No, it was a complete reboot. It's on another thread. It's not fixed, but I found one BIOS setting will boot Windows and another will boot Mageia. So a BIOS edit is needed to boot from the one to the other. Lol.

[benmc]

My only regret now is not being able to cut the Win partition down to an insignificant part of the whole

part 2:
have a look here => https://mywindowshub.com/how-to-delete- ... indows-10/
and maybe here => https://www.download3k.com/articles/How ... ated-00432.

I have an Asus X54C, presumably your units earlier iteration, running UEFI Mga8 (cauldron)
"esc" during POST brings up a boot device over-ride option if I have a Mageia7_x86_64 USB or DVD plugged in.
I have an Asus desktop that uses "F8" as the boot over-ride option.
I can then choose to boot DVD, USB or HDD (mageia).
something to try anyway