How do I dual-boot CentOS 6.3 Minimal Version on an Acer 64-bit Windows 8 Laptop and get the GRUB options to select either CentOS or Windows 8 when I restart? (Currently it boots straight into Windows 8. Also I do not want the full version of CentOS with the GUI ).

Here are the steps I took to dual boot CentOS with Windows 8:

1. Using the Disk Management tool, I shrank my C drive and left the new space (50000 MB) unallocated
2. Rebooted using the CD (changed boot order with CDRom first)
3. Selected English, US English
4. Selected Basic Storage Devices
5. For networking, I left hostname as default
6. Selected the City
7. Entered my root password, confirmed root password
8. For Installation Type, I selected Create Custom Layout
9. Selected the Free space, clicked Create
10. Create Storage dialog, I selected LVM Physical Volume, create
11. File System Type (swap), Size (2000 MB), Additional Size Options (Fixed size), ok
12. Selected the free space again, create, Create Partition (Standard Partition), create, Mount Point (/), File System Type (ext4), Size (47000), Additional Size Options (Fill to maximum allowable size), ok, Next, write changes to disk
13. Install boot loader on /dev/sda2 (ticked), Boot loader operating system list (CentOS /dev/sda7 is selected but there is another option labeled Other /dev/sda4 which is not selected)
14. After installation completed successfully, I rebooted, pressed F2, changed the Boot order back to Windows Boot Manager, saved, exit

I also noticed that CentOS File System is labelled RAW in the Disk Management tool.



******************EDIT 1:******************
Here is the progress I've made so far: I dual booted Windows 8 with CentOS 6.3 Minimal version on an Acer 64-bit E1 laptop (I disabled Secure boot). After rebooting, I did not get the GRUB options screen, instead it just loaded Windows 8. I changed the boot order in the BIOS to boot from the HDD instead of Windows Boot Manager and after another restart, it booted into CentOS this time (still no GRUB menu). I found the grub.conf file and notice a line in it that said "hiddenmenu" that was NOT commented out. So I commented it out and upon another restart I got the GRUB screen to appear but only CentOS and "Other" were there, no Windows 8 options. In the grub.conf file there was an entry for "Other" rootnoverify (hd0,3) chainloader +1. My question is, how do I chainload Windows 8? I've already disabled Secure Boot in the BIOS (but left boot type set to UEFI because the "legacy boot" option did not allow my system to boot at all). How do I get the GRUB to allow me to choose between Windows 8 and CentOS?

you are aware that centos 6.3 has NO , zero, support for windows 8 "secure boot"

you will not be able to boot into it

and win8 on a laptop might not boot if you turn off "secure boot"

Thanks for your reply John. I disabled secure boot in the BIOS and after restarting, I managed to boot Windows 8 (if I set the Windows Boot Manager in boot first in the BIOS) or CentOS to boot (if I set the HDD to boot first). I also got the GRUB screen to appear (after commenting out "hiddenmenu" in grub.conf. I feel like I am really close to solving this problem.

FYI, here's a link to article using Fedora 18 to dual-boot with windows 8. Fedora might be close enough to Centos 6 to be of use.

Best of luck

Thank you RootAround.