[SOLVED] Dual boot with Windows 8, problems after updating Windows

Hi all,
I have been maintaining a dual boot of arch and Windows 8 for some time. I recently updated Windows to 8.1, and found that the update process had two side effects:
1) The update added a new partition in the middle of my file table, so my /etc/fstab which referenced "/dev/sda6" was wrong because that partition is now "/dev/sda7."
2) The default boot device was switched to the Windows Boot Loader instead of grub. But, this is not a problem because I can work around this by using the "Choose boot device" feature of my bios at start up.
So, neither of these problems are critical for me at the moment. I can fix my fstab and just press a hotkey at startup.
EDIT: I have avoided the /etc/fstab issue by referencing my partitions using UUID as specified in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab.
How do I set the default boot device back to grub? There is some weirdness here, I think windows is using UEFI booting and my grub uses the old booting system.
Last edited by bjmnbraun (2014-05-14 19:00:36)

Rex: I tried that command, got some warning messages regarding blocklists, but no dice.
Loqs: You are right about windows using a ESP and UEFI while my linux is not booting using UEFI. My bios is configured to try "Legacy boot" first before trying UEFI. Getting linux to boot using UEFI seemed like a pain, so...
I went into my BIOS settings and found that the Windows Boot Manager boot device was listed in front of my hard disk (which boots linux). I don't think this used to be the case, so something about the update caused my BIOS to reorder the boot devices (probably because the partitions changed).
Switching my hard disk to be above the Windows Boot Manager in the boot device list now makes me boot into linux by default, and I can boot into windows by pressing a hotkey at bootup and selecting the windows boot manager.

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[SOLVED] Dual boot with ubuntu w/o installing GRUB? (YES)

Hi all -
This is my first shot at arch, tho I've installed a few other linux distros.
So far I really appreciate the excellent documentation, especially compared to other linuxes!
But I can't find a good answer to this question:
I already have ubuntu installed and would like to dual-boot with arch. (I also have Win7 but boot it from a separate disk selected via BIOS, and usually leave this disk disconnected anyway, so it's not an issue; grub doesn't know it exists).
Q: Before installing, can I make a new LOGICAL ext4 partition (say /dev/sda7),
- then install arch on that **w/o installing grub** and **without messing with the MBR**,
- then edit ubuntu's existing menu.lst to add arch to the boot options?
Current $ fdisk -l
/dev/sda1 ext4 primary/boot (/ for ubuntu)
/dev/sda2 extended
--/dev/sda6 linux-swap
--/dev/sda5 NTFS (data - mp3s, etc)
unallocated 480GB --> Create new ext4 partition /dev/sda7, (logical or primary? Prefer logical)
Current menu.lst entry that I normally boot:
title Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, kernel 3.2.0-24-generic REGULAR
uuid UUIDforSDA1 (file has actual UUID number...)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic root=UUID=UUIDforSDA1 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic
and add something like this to menu.lst:
title Arch Linux
uuid UUIDforSDA7
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda7/ARCH ro (??? - from example in arch docs)
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
or
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=UUIDforSDA7 ro (??? - like the ubuntu entry)
I'd really like to NOT mess up booting ubuntu! (Another option might be install arch to a separate disk with the ubuntu disk disconnected, then copy the whole install over via a USB adapter...I've done worse!)
TIA for any help!
Edit: so I guess there's three questions:
1 - Can I install arch w/o installing grub & MBR messing-wth?
2 - What's the correct syntax for menu.lst to access and boot arch?
3 - Will this work?
Last edited by Flemur (2012-05-25 15:24:18)

Well, it worked and booted up first time - no grub install.
The main hassle was merely creating a new ext4 partitions because "Partition Wizard" boot CD screwed up and I kept getting "Unable to update kernel until reboot" messages until I deleted and rebuilt all the partitions in the extended partition with puppy linux & gparted instead of Partition Wizard.
In case others stumble upon this trhread, here's some info:
The entry in the ubuntu (original) menu.lst was this:
title Arch Linux
uuid af7...etc...9f3c
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=af7...etc.f3c ro
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
I'm even posting this from arch/fluxbox/Firefox, although getting X set up with nvidia (PITA!) apparently required using a different pacman source:
File "mirrorlist" now points to
Server = http://mirror.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
which wasn't in the original file.
Then
$ pacman -Su --> "/etc/mtab exists" --> delete it and something else broke,
so
$ pacman -Su --force --> worked fine (against official advice)
Also: needed to install nvidia-utils and xorg-xinit
Thanks again!

IMac running dual boot with a flipped screen on the windows side

We have a bunch of computers at a Middle School running dual boot and on the windows side the kids figured out how to flip the screens but we can't get them back. Tried cntrl alt and the arrows and also shift alt and arrows and nothing works.
Any ideas???

See if this works for you.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1997372&tstart=0
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Kevin

U920T Touch Screen Problem after updates windows 8.1

After some updates (automatic) the touch screen of my Satellite U920T is off : when I take a look to the computer properties, it said that the computer is not compatible with "touch screen" (something like that) and in the configuration panel i have no options about "touch and stylet". I've uninstall HID elements from the manager : the problem is the same. I have seen that the screen element is a "standard" screen VGA : i think that's not good ! i've made all updates from toshiba (officials) : nothing change ! HOW TO recover the touch screen ! for the time being my satellite U920T is like a satellite laptop and I have bought it (much expensive...) for the touch screen with windows 8 (now windos 8.1) : DOES SOMEONE HAVE A SOLUTION ???
Best regards

Some thoughts.
1. Did you follow these instructions?
How to Update from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1
2. Check this.
Loss of touchscreen after updating to Windows 8.1.
3. I'm curious about the service. Open Services (services.msc) and scroll down to the Human Interface Device Service. Is it started?
-Jerry

G3 with OSX3 having problems after updating QuickTime

Recently updated a G3 with 10.3 and when I did the software update, it had an update for QuickTime and when the machine restarted after update, it sat on a grey screen. Tried restarting with extensions off and got nowhere. Computer worked fine until the update. Any ideas?

You may have to start the computer from the Installer disc, with that disc
in the optical drive and hold the C key down, so as to access the native
Disk Utility as found in the Installer's menu bar options. From D.U. you
may be able to attempt to Repair Disk. And also may as well run the
Repair Disk Permissions as seen there in the First Aid section of the
Disk Utility; direct your attention to the Macintosh HD as shown in the
utility's left-hand sidebar, by clicking on that name to do these.
Usually it does help to use Repair Disk Permissions (from the computer's
Disk Utility; shortcut is to use GO in Finder menu bar, see Utilities Folder,
and then find Disk Utility in that folder) before and after each update or
any/all software installations. Was the 10.3 system updated to 10.3.9 and
disk permissions repaired at each step? There are several others items
that get installed for 10.3.9 not referred to in Software Updates until the
Combo 10.3.9 file is installed. Several older items are not needed if the
last Combo is arrived at first; but all Java updates, last security updates,
and then items such as Quicktime. Adobe Flash & Shockwave players
and a modern browser such as Camino (Mozilla) are advised as well.
IF the system has failed, you may be able to see if you can reclaim any
thing (if any) from the hard disk drive by use of FireWire Target Disk mode
in that Mac, and it may be accessible through a second Mac & FW cable.
There is a chance there is a hardware issue behind this matter. In fact,
depending on the history of the specific computer and whether or not it
previously had OS X installed, what version, and if it required a Firmware
Update to be applied prior to running OS X, the fix could be involved.
Good luck & happy computing!

[Solved] Windows Activation problem after reinstalling Windows

Hi
I have managed to create 5 recovery dvds with BurnRecovery to reinstall windows on a newly created partition. I've gone from a 1 SSD system partition (AHCI) to a 2 SSD system partition (RAID).
problem is windows won't activate because it says my serial key is installed in another computer! Which obviously is my computer but the previous installation.
What can I do??

No problem I called Microsoft and an automated process have me a confirmation code to activate it.

Can't sync iPhone with iTunes 9.1 after update (Windows 7)

Hi,
after the succesfull update to iTunes 9.1 synching contacts, dates (Outlook 2007) and bookmarks (Safari 4.0.5) does not work anymore. I haven't had any sync problems before the update. All other app, music and videos gets synched well.
iTunes gives two error messages (translated from german, maybe it's an localzation problem?):
1) iTunes couldn't sync information with iphone since Synchronisation is not activated. Do you want to activate Synchronisation?
If you don't activate Synchronisation, itunes can't sync contacts, dates, bookmarks and email accounts to your iphone.
When i try to activate the following error message pops up:
iTunes couldn't access the provider data from sync services. Try again.
Comletely deinstalling and reinstalling of iTunes and ipod services didn't solve the problem.
Has anybody a similar problem or a tip for me? Should I go back to iTunes 9.0.3?
Thanks for any help.

Hi all,
I've found the solution in another thread: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11296350#11296350
It's oviously a problem of iTunes 9.1, which does not seem to fin the syncserver. exe or some of its dependent files.
User icefoxxxx showed me how to solve the problem. Anyway, Apple has to fix this, many people will have the problem:
Posts: 4
Registered: Mar 30, 2010
New! Re: Unable to load provider data from Sync Services
Posted: Mar 30, 2010 9:47 PM in response to: icefoxxxx
Reply Email
you won't believe how I fixed it... my syncserver.exe can't run because some dll is missing, but I notice the dll is in another folder "Apple Application Support". So I copied all files in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support
over to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support
and it solves everything!
Obviously there is something wrong in registering the former folder by the new itunes installation program. Hope next version fixes it.

Booting with custom kernel crashes after update

Hello,
I have a custom 2.6.33 kernel compiled and installed without the use of abs on my system. Some time ago when on one of my updates pacman complained that it cannot install arc's 2.6.33, because the name of the folder it needed for the kernel in /lib/modules already existed(from my kernel). I simply backed mine somewhere else, and then updated with pacman, and overwrote the new folder with the backed one. However, after today's update, my custom kernel won't boot! I noticed that pacman intends to do kernel changes again, so I readied myself for repeating the sequence of actions from the last time, but now pacman did the update without complaining. However, on my next reboot I got a "scsi_mod: module already loaded" error, and boot hanged. After a second try, the error didn't seem to even show up again, but boot would still hang(with a long text ending in "---[ end trace 8336ecf974ba482a]---"). I checked my bzImage, the grub menu file, and there aren't any changes. Any help please?
Last edited by Mitio (2010-04-29 21:26:39)

fsckd: the folders 2.6.27-lts, 2.6.32-ARCH, 2.6.33-ARCH, and the pacman-installed folder I turned to backup 2.6.33-ARCH_back2;
Anyway, I fell back to the 2.6.32 kernel temporary, so this isn't really an urgent matter, but I am still curious what caused this. Oh and karol, I don't believe this is caused by kernel crash, as loading the kernel finishes and then I get the error some time after starting udev and before the services from rc.d(sorry for the misleading topic subject, I corrected it).
Last edited by Mitio (2010-04-29 21:27:56)

[SOLVED] RTC and dual booting with Windows 8/8.1

I am planning ahead of installing Arch on a windows 8.1 laptop, and need to understand whether or not the known Windows registry hack to get windows to use UTC for the RTC is still valid for Windows 8/8.1? I have been searching via google and the usual sources of information, but it is not clear to me if there are problems doing this, specifically if arch is dual booted with Windows 8/8.1 rather than older versions of the MS OS. Certainly I have used the technique without any problem in the past when dual booting Windows XP with Arch on several different machines.
Does anyone have personal experience with doing this on a Windows 8 or 8.1 machine and can report here on whether it works successfully or not?
Thanks for any advice.
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-02-11 21:16:21)

Since there were no replies at this point I thought I would just go ahead and implement the registry hack on the Windows 8.1 O/S in the laptop and see if Windows behaves. It appears to be OK, with the displayed time being correct after reboot, and time synchronisation remaining fine with no problems seen in the displayed time, although I won't be able to read the RTC directly until I have completed the Arch install in the coming week or two. I now don't foresee any issues with the time synchronisation between booting Arch and Windows 8.1 so I will mark this as solved.
Since the RTC is now in UTC then normal clock config in Arch using chrony should perform normally once the install is done and the new system set up.
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-02-11 21:17:11)

[Solved]dual boot windows 7 and arch linux

I have successfully installed arch linux dual boot with the original win7 on my PC. If I only use linux, then the system works well. The problem is that once I boot into Win7 then after reboot, the linux boot manager will stop working and the system always boots into windows automatically. My guess is Win7 automatically repair the boot loader.
My current solution is whenever I have finished using Windows, I'll boot with my linux USB installation, and run "gummiboot --path=/boot install". Afterwards, linux will work fine. But I believe there must be a better solution. Any help will be appreciated.
I have UEFI board by the way.
Last edited by jl2014 (2015-04-19 17:35:57)

Thanks for all your help first! I have tried Head_on_a_Stick's suggestions as the first step. Here is what I did. I have created :
$ cat /boot/loader/entries/windows.conf
title Windows
efi /EFI/hidden/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
The window boot path was :
/boot/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
and I changed
/boot/EFI/Microsoft
to
/boot/EFI/hidden
After reboot, I clicked 'Windows' option on the linux boot manager. Below are the error messages:
Windows failed to start.
File: \EFI\Microsoft/Boot/BCD
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data.
Any idea what goes wrong?
I'll try other suggestions soon. Thanks all of you again.
Last edited by jl2014 (2015-04-19 00:03:33)

Dual boot with Ubuntu 13.0 using bootable USB problem (Y410P)

Hi I recently bought Lenovo Y410P and have been since trying for hours to dual boot with Ubuntu but I was unsuccessful.
I formatted by USB drive in FAT format, and created a bootable usb using Pendrive. Then I changed the Boot Mode to Legacy Support and the boot order so it boots from the flash storage first.
Then it hung on a purple screen like this: http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/3509/dgfdgrunningoraclevmvir.png
and the keyboard doesn't work and I couldn't go any further from here.
So I tried to use a different program called Unetbootin, and the problem got worse and it just stopped working at the option screen where you select whether to just try Ubuntu or install it, etc.
I read it somewhere the recent version of Unetbootin doesn't work, so I got the 474 version of it, and finally I was able to select from the option menu and it didn't hang. However when I clicked on Install Ubuntu, it just stopped there for a while, and then the boot failed and moved onto Windows 8 again.
I looked at the USB drive, and I realized the folder and some config files are names isolinux instead of syslinux, so I changed them, and now I'm getting the "SYSLINUX 3.86 2010..." words on the black screen and it hangs there.
I saw a similar message before using Pendrive and it was like "SYSLINUX 4.10 2012...". That was because the flash drive wasn't formatted in FAT (it was FAT32). So I re-checked the drive, but it is indeed formatted in FAT so I'm not sure why now I'm getting a similar message.
It will be much appreciated if you could give me some suggestions as to how to solve this problem.
Thanks

Something else you could try. Not sure it will make any difference.
Skip the boot creation tools and just boot the thing in UEFI mode.
Use the latest (12.10 or later will work, IIRC) 64-bit Ubuntu ISO. Format your flash drive as a single FAT32 partition. Extract the contents of the ISO to the flash drive. Use 7zip for Windows, or your favorite Linux de-archiving tool. That's it.
[edit] I don't believe the partition needs to be set active, but haven't tested that.
Set BIOS boot mode to UEFI. Even secure boot mode should work withe a new enough Ubuntu - but isn't necessary.
Give that a try. If it still barfs at the same place, mess around with the start-up graphics options.
Z.
The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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T400s Linux/Windows dual boot with Linux from Esata Flash Drive

This project is about a dual boot Windows/Linux system without using the normal dual boot changes in the bootloader of the windows hard drive. When I started this I found bits and pieces of information on the web but no complete description so I wrote this post.
I have done a dual boot system on my previous Thinkpad where I had partitioned the hard drive between Linux and windows. For this project I wanted to leave the windows hard drive absolutely intact and unaltered, and boot Linux from a flash drive in the esata port on the back of the T400s. Obviously this uses the F12 boot list function key to boot from the flash. The advantage of this is that Windows is totally unaltered and when I need Linux, I plug in the esata flash drive, hit F12 during the boot cycle and select booting from the esata flash drive. The reason for Esata rather than USB is simply speed. I have a nice fast Linux installation.
I used the OCZ esata flash drive but suspect any of the alternatives will work. It did not need the accessory usb cable because the Thinkpad powered the esata flash directly.
To boot from the esata drive I had to make the following changes in the bios
    I left the esata flash plugged in as I went into the bios
    Bios>config>Serial ATA and changed the Sata controller mode option to compatibility
    Restart and back into the Bios
    Bios>startup>boot - in my case the esata flash drive showed up as ATA HDD2 and was excluded from the boot order so I had to un-exclude it and move it to the point in the boot order that I wanted.
Next I downloaded a linux installation iso and put it on a CD - in my case opensuse. Then booted from the CD
From now on this instructions are specific to opensuse and yast but can be generalized to whatever Linux is being used.
In my case yast came up with a good set of suggestions for automatically partitioning the flash drive but then crashed during the partitioning itself. So I rebooted and specified the partitions manually.
    A fat32 partition left as a partition which both windows and Linux could see (in my case about 20% of the drive) (/dev/sdb1)
    An extended partition with the remainder of the drive (/dev/sdb2) which contains the following logical partitions
    A linux Swap partition of 2GB (/dev/sdb5)
    A linux /home partition –the remainder of the drive (/dev/sdb6)
    A linux /root partition of 8GB (/dev/sdb7)
Yast automatically suggested mount points of C,D,E for the windows partitions. Unfortunately because of the way the Thinkpad hard drive was laid out Yast had C assigned the ThinkPad Service partition and D assigned to the SW_Preload (or main windows partition). However there was an edit function that allows for the reversal of those mount points so that the windows C drive is mounted in Linux as Windows/C thereby avoiding confusion. I had already backed up and removed the Thinkpad factory install data so I did not have to deal with that. Yast suggested Windows/E for the mount point of the FAT32 partition on the flash drive, which I accepted.
The yast install configurator made all this manual selection easy, and after the manual configuration the partitioning worked perfectly.
Next step was Linux user configuration which went fine
Next was booting.
In the section management tab
    delete the windows 1 and 2 options (since we are not dual booting directly)
In the boot loader installation tab
    uncheck boot from mbr ( this stops the install from installing Grub and dual boot on the windows c drive
    check boot from root partition (this installs grub and all associated files in the Linux root partition (/dev/sdb6)
I believe that the correct procedure at this point is to click Boot Loader installation details which will bring up the Grub device map. In the device map there will be a line for the fixed hard drive (aka the windows drive) and a line for the esata flash drive. When the installer started up these were in hard drive and esata drive order. However when we boot directly from the flash the esata drive will be grub drive hd0 and the fixed hard drive will be grub hd1. The device map order needs to be changed to reflect this ie the esata drive should be first not second.
I did not do this and ended up initially doing Grub command line editing to boot and later manually editing the grub files using information I had previously learned the hard way and through google.
At this point let the installer go ahead and install Linux. After doing this it should come back and tell you to reboot. Do not do it yet because we need to install the MBR into the flash drive.
I suspect that there is a way of doing this in Yast running from the Live CD but it was not obvious to me so I used the manual method that I have used before.
Open a root terminal
Mount /dev/sdb6 to /mnt/sdb6 (my linux root)
Touch /mnt/sdb6/boot/grub/flag
The purpose of this is when we go looking later at the grub command prompt we need an easy to find unique file
Start grub and do the following
#grub
            grub> find /boot/grub/flag
                (hd1,5)    -- the result of the find in my example
            grub> root (hd1,5)   -- using the result of the find in my example
            grub> setup (hd1)   -- install mbr -- my example parameters - if you get this wrong you will trash some other drive!!!
                  hopefully grub announces success
            grub> quit
Reboot and select the flash drive. In my case I still had the grub devicemap wrong and had to edit the grub commands during boot to tell grub how to find the correct partition and then edit them again after booting
Typical linux install issues that we all always seem to have and can be solved with a little (or a lot of) google research.
As I said at the beginning I now have an untouched windows installation and a nice fast Linux installation. I hope that this will be of some use to someone.

Hi chrissh
i tried this exact procedure... on the exact same notebook (T400s). However, as soon as I set the
   Bios>config>Serial ATA to "compatibility", I cannot use my default Windows installation! I immediately get the "blue screen of death".
I doubt I did anything differently since this is the first step of your procedure and my laptop is brand new!
any idea?

A lot of problems after installing Windows XP using Boot Camp on a Mac Book

I have been having a lot of problems after installing Windows XP Home Edition (2002).
For one, after installing Windows using Boot Camp with Mac OS X 10.5.1, I opened Windows on my Mac Book, inserted the Mac OS X Disk 1 as in the instructions and got the message: +"This package requires a newer version of the Windows installer. Do you want to update the version of the Windows Installer on your system?"+ When I clicked Yes (I had NO idea what it meant at the time), I got the message: "The required resource 'UPDATE' is missing" and the Installer quit.
How do I fix this problem?
Another problem I have is that there is no sound on the Windows XP, yet it works perfectly on Mac OS X. Is there any way to fix this problem?
A third problem I have is that I can't wirelessly connect to the internet using Window XP, yet I can on Mac OS X. I have no idea on how to fix this, and it's really messing with me. D:<
D: There are way too many problems, and I have a feeling there will be a lot more later on. Help....
~Twilight

---I'm moving this topic to the Boot Camp forums.
-Twilight

Arch does not show up in Grub when dual booting with windows 8

I just installed Arch linux, dual booting with windows 8 using the beginners guide[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide] itself. Now Grub is installed and i can only find Windows 8 and I cannot find Arch. Is there a way I can find if arch linux has been installed and show up in Grub.
Sorry, I am a newbie, but i chose to post this topic here and not newbie corner as it is installation related.
My windows 8 is installed on /dev/sda1 with ntfs partition type. Arch Linux is installed on /dev/sda6 and it is ext4 partition. I dont know if this info helps. I am using Thinkpad R61
Last edited by sutro_droid (2013-03-06 00:30:48)

ivokosir wrote:It may be that you didn't install os-prober before running grub-mkconfig. This happened to me once, I hope I'm not too late to warn you.
I am sorry, yes you are too late. I have wiped windows 8 and performed clean install. No regrets. And as a matter of fact, I did grub-config and then installed os-prober. That could be the problem. Thanks. I will try this again another time.

Dual Boot with Windows ME

i am very new to all this stuff. Can someone please guide me on how to go about installing Unix so that it also dual boots with windows ME.
i am planning on doing some unix work..and installing oracle and learning oracle in the bargain at home. do u think this is the best way to go. any suggestions/guidance is appreciated.
many many thanks

I'd consider buying a second, inexpensive PC for Solaris. You can get a $20 mechanical switch that will let you share a single monitor. If two keyboards and mice are inconvenient, you can buy a KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) switch. If you just want to hack around, it's much more convenient to have two PCs. (IMHO)

[SOLVED] Dual boot with Windows 8, problems after updating Windows

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