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Installed Mint, can't boot into it


Webb

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I have just installed Mint 17.1 alongside Windows 8.1 on a UEFI machine (thanks, Microsoft, for providing a lousy a operating system AND making sure I can't revert to my beloved XP) sort of according to this guide http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2014/07/how-to-install-linux-mint-alongside.html

 

The part about creating 4 partitions got a little too complicated so I just checked the "Install alongside Windows 8" option and put it in unallocated space that I had previously reserved with gparted.

 

There should be an option to boot from Linux but there isn't. No matter what boot option I select in UEFI (BIOS) it boots directly to Windows. How do I get an option menu and set Linux as the preferred OS?

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Cluttermagnet

That is one great tutorial, Josh. Very clear to me, since I've been through parts of that before.

Still I did learn a few new things. Will definitely bookmark that one...

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This is the hardware.

 

Secure boot is disabled. Quick boot is disabled. My only other UEFI/BIOS options are:

 

Legacy only: Will only boot from CD/DVD.

UEFI only: Boots to Windows.

Auto: Boots to Windows

 

I don't need help installing the OS. I need help either getting it to work or uninstalling it so I can start over.

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Mint is a UEFI compatible distro, so I'm surprised there were problems. Inasmuch as Mint COULD be installed directly from the Live medium and Mint would've/could've created the partitions it wanted, this is what I would've recommended for a first timer, as it's simpler and less prone to problems. I can't help but believe that your manual partition creation ahead of time is the root of your problems. I suspect you have either installed Mint on a different partition than you think, which MAY have allowed an MBR installation on a GPT machine. Either of these will install Mint on your system, but not allow it to boot.

 

With that said, the guide in post #2 is a better way to install Linux, as the manual selections in that guide will create a separate partition for Home data, which is also a good idea. We MAY be able to help fix your boot record but, to be honest, reinstallation of Mint (as illustrated in the link in Post #2) will likely be the path of least resistance. But before you do that, I'd like to draw your attention to Step #3 in that linked tutorial. Your fix MAY be as simple as selecting the appropriate boot loader in your UEFI options! Try step #3 and see if that does it for you.

 

If it does not, I would recommend deleting any partitions that were manually created (they will be easily identifiable as "unformatted" and "ext" formatted partitions). THEN, proceed with reinstallation, as per the linked instructions in Post #2.

 

If it makes you feel any better, most of us don't get this first step right on the very first try! So you're in good company! Just press on, try again, and glow in the knowledge and experience you are obtaining! B)

Edited by Hedon James
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Also, did you format your partition tables as GPT? UEFI uses a GPT partition table versus the older MBR one.

Just for my own knowledge--wouldn't Mint installer have done that due to presence of efi partition rather than mbr?
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Let's just start over. I overwrote the installation but still couldn't boot into it so I used GParted to delete every Linux partition I could find (anything that wasn't fat32 or ntfs). Here is what I have. Some of these are Lenovo recovery partitionsand I can't delete them because I don't have a Windows 8.1 installation disk and I can not install XP on this computer (thanks, Microsoft).

 

sda1 ntfs WINPE_DRV 36G, probably a recovery drive

 

sda2 fat32 SYSTEM_DRV, probably a recovery drive but Gparted flags it as boot, esp (I don't know what esp means but boot seems significant)

 

sda3 fat32 LRS_ESP, recovery drive?

 

sda4 128Gb unallocated. This is where Linux will go.

 

sda5 90G ntfs Windows 8 (C:)

 

sda6 14G ntfs PBR_DRV, probably another recovery drive

 

sda7 196G ntfs Windows D: (this is for movies and music and will be shared between systems. The D: drive is a holdover from the days when I had two hard drives)

 

157G unallocated

 

So, how do I install Mint so that I can boot into it, keeping in mind that I need to install something called grub somewhere but the installer doesn't do this automatically?

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The computer is shut down for the day after another few hours of complete frustration. Mint is installed into its three partitions but it won't boot.

 

Half of the advice I see says to manually create the partitions and the other half says to let the installer create them. The installer creates the partitions and I can see them but I can't boot into the OS. I think I need to write GRUB into sda2 but I have no idea how to do that. The installer (3 times) doesn't do this.

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securitybreach

This should help you man: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1556

 

I understand the frustration as I knew nothing about UEFI before this last reinstall. Luckily the Archwiki covers most all aspects of it and is relevant for other distros as well but it is a bit technical. I had to play around until I figured it out. One thing to note is that Grub doesn't support UEFI very well. I ended up using syslinux which is very easy to use, sort of like grub-legacy but supports UEFI very well. Some people prefer one of another one called Gummiboot, but syslinux is a lot simpler to use and configure.

 

Even though these links I post are from the archwiki, remember that everything except for the packacge installation part is exactly the same as other distros (as long as the distro didn't customize it from the default--most do not).

 

http://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/syslinux

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So, how do I install Mint so that I can boot into it, keeping in mind that I need to install something called grub somewhere but the installer doesn't do this automatically?

According to the tutorial, if you select "Something Else" under installation type, you get into Advanced Partitioning Tool to set up your linux partitions. In that screen, there's a drop-down box to choose "Device for Boot Loader Installation".

sda2 fat32 SYSTEM_DRV, probably a recovery drive but Gparted flags it as boot, esp (I don't know what esp means but boot seems significant)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The EFI System partition (ESP) is a partition on a data storage device that is used by computers adhering to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). When a computer is powered up and booted, UEFI firmware loads files stored on the ESP to start installed operating systems and various utilities. An ESP partition needs to be formatted with one of the FAT file system variants.

ESP contains the boot loader programs for all installed operating systems (which are contained in other partitions on the same or other storage device), device driver files for devices present in a computer that are used by the firmware at boot time, system utility programs that are intended to be run before an operating system is booted, and data files such as error logs.[1]

Edited by ebrke
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If I understand you correctly I should boot from the install DVD, select "Something Else" and manually install the Device for Boot Loader Installation to sda2 fat32 SYSTEM_DRV, (the ESP partition) then reboot. Is this correct and will not hose my Windows system?

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If I understand you correctly I should boot from the install DVD, select "Something Else" and manually install the Device for Boot Loader Installation to sda2 fat32 SYSTEM_DRV, (the ESP partition) then reboot. Is this correct and will not hose my Windows system?

 

This appears to be the correct procedure according to the link in Post #2. However, the link in Post #19 above has a lot of information on various things that can/may have gone wrong. I haven't yet had to deal with this myself, since I use older hardware right now, so can't give any guarantees.

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