[PLUG] Dual boot Windoze 8.1, Linux Mint 17.1 64 bit

[Wayne E. Van Loon]

Ken:
Thanks for your reply. I did not take all the precautions such as taking 
an image of the existing drive, but I pretty much did as you 
recommended. I used the Windows utility to shrink the C: partition.

The Linux Mint installer does not offer a option to have the two OSes 
coexist, it's take the whole disk for Linux Mint or "Something else". I 
choose the something else and repartitioned the free space into 10 GB 
for / , 4GB for swap, 400+ GB for /home and install. At the conclusion 
of installing, when I reboot into the operating system, no grub menu, 
just boots into Windows.

I also tried running sudo grub-install from a xterm after installing but 
before rebooting, but I can't get that to run successfully. I've tried 
mounting the / partition (sda6) on /mnt and chroot /mnt, etc., still no 
luck with grub-install.

Again, thanks very much for the time that you took to try to help me.

Wayne



I take the something else and point
On 05/15/2015 03:44 PM, Ken Stephens wrote:
> Brian Martin wrote:
>> On 05/15/2015 02:03 PM, Wayne E. Van Loon Sr. wrote:
>>
>>> The situation is that my brother bought a new laptop with Windows 8.1.
>>> He used to have a laptop (that was stolen a few days ago) that I had set
>>> up dual boot for him. That machine was a legacy (non EUFI) machine. I
>>> have tried several times and different combinations with this new
>>> machine, EUFI enabled and then disabled, using some directions I googled
>>> up. Each time after an install, the machine boots right into Windows
>>> with no option to select another OS.
>>>
>>> I was hoping someone with this experience and knowledge would be at the
>>> clinic this Sunday.
>> This is a non-trivial exercise, though certainly do-able.  I've done it
>> numerous times.
>>
>> First you'll have to figure out how to boot from another source, usually
>> through a F12/F11/Fsomething-else key, or by changing the BIOS to boot
>> preferentially off of a DVD or similar storage.
>>
>> Once you've mastered that, I recommend booting a Linux rescue system of
>> some sort and taking an image of the existing drive, in case you trash
>> your current one.
>>
>> Then assuming they've allocated all the disk space for the Windows
>> system, you'll need to make some disk space by reducing the size of the
>> existing partitions.
>>
>> Now you'll be able to go through a normal Linux installation into the
>> available space.  At that point it should install its own boot loader
>> which, in my experience, will also detect the Windows partition and add
>> a menu entry for it.  Then some clean-up (put the BIOS back if you
>> changed it, set your default boot to Windows if that's your brother's
>> preference, etc.) and you're pretty much done.
>>
>> That's the general approach I use.  Others may use a different approach.
>>     I think tapping the Linux Clinic folks for the finer detail is a great
>> idea.  Good luck.
>>
>>     
> Wayne,
>
> I would take a different approach.  I would load the system with the
> Linux distribution of your choice and use the Virtual Machine Manager,
> powered by libvirt and load your windows into that.  That way when
> it blue screens you still have a system that is up.
>
> Ken Stephens
> CAD 2 CAM
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