Hi Everyone,
I have recently purchased a new laptop HP Omen 15 (Win 10, i7-8th Gen, 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 1 TB HDD, nVidia GeForce GTX1050Ti-4GB graphics card). This machine is for my spouse who pursuing Phd and need it for mathematical calculations using MPI. Currently she is using a Toshiba i7 3rd Gen with 1TB HDD, 16GB RAM and 2GB Video RAM running Win7 on dual booth with SL6.3 (which was installed by yours truly). Want to retire that machine and migrate to the new machine.
Win 10 is installed on the 128GB SSD in the new machine and the
1TB HDD is divided into 3 partitions with no data in it yet. There is a Win10 rescue partition as well

I am trying to install SL 7.5 as dual boot but have been unsuccessful. Following are the steps/problems:

1. Downloaded SL-7.5-x86_64-2018-05-14-LiveDVDgnome.iso file and installed it on a 16GB pen-drive using Rufus 3.1.1320.
2. As Win10 has Secure Boot, I disabled Secure Boot and enabled Legacy Boot in the BIOS.
3. I also unallocated one of the partitions on the HDD so that SL can utilize it for installation.
4. Now when I try to run the USB Drive and click on Run as Live USB, it shows Kernal Panic and hangs.
5. I also tried the same using SL-610-x86_64-2018-08-05-LiveDVD.iso and Ubuntu Mate 18.04 on two different pen-drives but the same kernal panic reappears.
6.Then I tried the same pen-drives on another device a Netbook Acer Aspire One( Intel Atom with 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD) and all the three pen-drives work and boot into the respective Live OS!!
7. Then I used HPUtility to format the first pen-drive and reinstalled SL7.5 as Live USB using Rufus but Kernel Panic again when I click on Run as Live.
8.When I click on Troubleshooting, and then click on RUN SL in low graphics mode, it starts and Live Desktop is available.
9. After booting into SL then I tried to install and the installation completed successfully with root password, and username/password properly assigned.
10. After installation is completed, I rebooted the laptop but it went directly into Win10.
11. After reading on LQ,Ubuntu and SL forums I come to know that GRUB is not upadated and that's why no option to select SL on startup is shown.
12. So I again fired up the Live USB and went to trouble-shooting option but there is no option to Rescue and it directly boots into Live USB. I cannot access the partition where the SL is installed.

What am I doing wrong? How do I access the install partition and repair the GRUB?

Hope somebody can help as I am struggling since last 4 days with these errors. Though I am a user but I still consider myself to be a newbie, so any help/guide will be really appreciated.

Thanks
Aditya

If your computer came with windows 10 pre-installed, it is almost certainly UEFI/GPT and you need to install your SL or Ubuntu UEFI/GPT. I've not used SL (Scientific Linux??). The link below explains dual booting windows 10/Ubuntu UEFI. THe general principles should be the same for any install, the rest of the information is fairly specific to Ubuntu.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

It is not necessary to disable Secure boot with Ubuntu but that shouldn't matter.
Part of the problem may be enabling Legacy boot, no need for that unless your windows install is also Legacy.
The most likely problems are a failure to install the Grub botloader properly or having a windows UEFI/GPT and an SL/Ubuntu Legacy install.

If you aren't able to resolve this problem, I would suggest you do an online search for "boot repair ubuntu" and go to the site and download boot repair using your Ubuntu installation media. Run it per instructions on the page using the 2nd option to download and select the Create BootInfo Summary option. Then post a link to the output here.

Thanks @Yancek. Yes the Laptop came pre-installed with Win10 on the SSD. I spoke to the local university guys who work on linux machines here and in their opinion, the boot is failing because the bootloader is on SSD and is not able to find the linux path as the SL install is on HDD. But I was also told that technically and theoretically it is possible as long as I can mount the HDD and configure the GRUB with the correct path of both the OS.

Ubuntu uses GRUB and AFAIK SL/CentOs/RHEL/Fedora uses GRUB 2 so it is likely that there may be some differences. I also have read on some forums that UEFI has certified the Ubuntu Distro and that's why the installation is easier. Don't know how true is that statement.
Meanwhile I will go through the link you have suggested and see if it helps me.

Thanks
Aditya

When Ubuntu refers to grub they invariably mean grub2 these days. They changed over years ago - the old grub is referred to as legacy grub. Any current doco will be applicable to you.
The SSD will have an EFI partition that grub will attempt to use (correctly) even if using the hard disk. Your firmware may preclude grub updating the default boot even if the install works.
Leave the machine in UEFI mode - maybe turn safeboot off, but generally you shouldn't need to these days. I've not tried SL, but CentOS installs fine on my old kit with UEFI (no nvidia in my case).
From your livecd run these and post the output - connect to network and install the tools in need.

Just to clarify the Grub business, what is commonly referred to as Grub to was first used as a default in the October, 2010 release of Ubuntu and derivatives which I believe was the first Linux to use it as a default.

It should not matter if your SL or Ubuntu is installed on the SSD or the HD. I'm not an SL user but am familiar with Ubuntu. The default install for it in a UEFI machine is to create an ubuntu directory on an existing EFI partition (if there is an EFI partition which there must be in your case) with the Ubuntu EFI files needed to boot. If done properly these EFI files will point to the Linux partition with the kernel to boot. So if you do not want it this way then you will have to use a manual install method and manually point it to another EFI partition on the HD which you will have to create.

It is not necessary to disable the microsoft Secure Boot option with Ubuntu and some other Linux systems.
It is necessary to turn off Fastboot and anything related to hibernation or Ubuntu and Grub will not detect your windows OS.
Posting the info asked for above as well as the output of this command as root will be helpful.

That's a lower case Letter L.

Excellent suggestions so far..

I would like to point out a few things WRT my multiboot experience with Win10,Opensuse 15 & CentOS 7(which is , similar to Scientific Linux)--


1. You would be better off to reinstall both OS from scratch. (Since your Win10 came pre-installed, retrieve the key or link it with a microsoft/outlook/hotmail account. Also, if you face problems, call M$ and tell them that you are reinstalling the OS in the same machine ).

2. Create a bootable media & format your disks (I gave 90G to Win10 and 30G to Linux out of my 120G SSD. So proceed as you seem fit) in GPT mode. [Windows 10 updates will create problems in classic MBR mode partitioning, I learned it the hard way]

3. Create a small 1GB partition for your linux bootloader or /boot. [optional, but this is how I prefer doing it]

4. Install Win10, authenticate with the key, update till it shows the latest build number. (Or you can download the latest version).

5. Install Scientific Linux, add EPEL repository (and possibly others as you seem fit). Install ntfs-3g (If it doesn't come with SL already).

6. Run os-prober and check if your Windows 10 loader partition shows up.

7. Take a backup of your grub.cfg and create a new config file using grub2-mkconfig.

8. Reboot and your grub2 menu should show entry for the Win10 loader too.

9. Blacklist nouveau in grub menu and in modprobe.d and install Nvidia driver either from their website or from ELrepo.

(This is backbones only, let us know if any steps do not make sense)

1 members found this post helpful.

And of course, check with HP if multibooting would void hardware warranty.

Hi @Honest Abe

Thanks for the suggestions. Evaluation of the current condition of the laptop:

Point 1 - Reinstalling is a last option as my wife has already started using the system and configured her official email account on it. have also purchased Office 16 Enterprise and installed it. It would be a pain to take a backup of the .pst file and then format the SSD and download & reinstall Win10, Office 16 and configure email on it.

Point 2 - Have created a bootable SystemRescueCD on an USB Stick. Can I use it to shrink the SSD and create another partition on the SSD? At the same time format the HDD and reconfigure the partitions on the HDD? Currently there is no data on the HDD.

Alternative to Point 2 - Use SystemRescue USB to boot into the SL7.5 already installed and try to repair the GRUB?

Then Point 3, 4 and 5 would not be needed and I can directly go to Point 6,7,8 and 9.

Request your inputs on above.

bullocks to that.

if you cannot impress them with brilliants baffle them with BS.
the no you cannot or this is why it is not, then the adding of the theoretically it can, contradict each other, big red flag because the later has been disproved by the former.

sdd or mechanical hdd with platters and an arm to read write to store the data are different, the rest is the same between the two.

put it back in UEFI boot, turn it off and plug in your USB Stick , turn it back on then go through the steps needed by that laptop to get to your BIOS (UEFI) boot order listings then select the USB Port that has the stick in it, select it, it should boot it in UEFI mode then take it from there. do not format the UEFI partition only assign it to the mount point if that distro gives you that option, otherwise it should do that part automatically if they did there distro properly using one or the other methods to assign the UEFI partition to the install process.

look for and make sure you tell it or it is being told where to install your grub to is where you actually want it to be installed. IE /dev/sda and not some other media that maybe attached to your laptop at the time of install.

supergrub burned to a different usb stick for damage control if needed.


REDOING EVERYHING W/O reinstalling Windows.

Windows 10 has a partition app in it, use that to shrink the partition, you can leave the blank space you created by that means alone, or have it establish it, depending on your experience in dealing with that and installing OS'es, I'd suggest you have win10 establish it as a new partition, skip adding a letter to it , or not, then just put to mind what partition that is, so you do not go installing over the wrong partition with linux.

I just reinstalled Windows 10 a few days ago, having to create a new USB windows install sick before destroying my old windows install, and I was completely surprised at how much time it did not take to install it fresh again, where it use to be hours , it took only minutes, like under 30 minutes to install it fresh on a ssd then reestablishing my Linux OS'es I was actually able to do it in one sitting in under an hour or two. that is if you find yourself having to reinstall windows. the other part of email and such is added time to the equation.

but in all reality it is not as hard as one may think. as time consuming it can be, windows has actually shortened their end of that. but now it has some stupid PIN number for a "password" crap I have to deal with whenever I have to use it. but that is me.

most if not all Linux disto's use grub2 and it should not be any different in appearances when booting MBR or UEFI, it will boot and give you a listing of OS'e installed on your system to select from.

so by post #8, you got both installed now? if you cannot get into Linux, and if that " SystemRescue USB" is not Linux but for Windows, then use supergrub2 that will give you a listing of options to boot your systems, pick the right one, get into your linux and reinstall grub to your UEFI. which is someone elses department, I do not use it UEFI, I have no real need for UEFI.

If your Win10 installation is working, I would advise you to start from there. Shrink the C drive and proceed as you have done before.

Or, you can install SL onto your HDD too.

But remember the ntfs-3g thingie. All the best and keep us posted.

I am having a similar problem. I just purchased an ASUS N705UD and have been having terrible issues getting a new OS installed. I had been using Antergos and Manjaro and neither of them install or they install but do not work. I think the issue is the NVIDIA card. I have been able to successfully install LM 19 Cinnamon, and Kubuntu and both run w/ full functionality. The Arch based systems hang at the installer or install then crash or install and don't work. Sadly I do not have an answer to the problem!

@jlapinski4,
You already have your own thread for your issue, so, unless you have something constructive to add here please refrain from spamming/hijacking.

I don't mean this in a rude way, but its one of the guidelines.

my apologies, I was sharing my recent experience and hoping to get some answers of my own. I was NOT SPAMMING OR HIJACKING.

Disaable legacy mode and secure boot
boot into live iso, open a terminal and run the following.

to make sure your booted in efi mode

to determine the /dev/? that the SL parition and the efi partition is on run the following:
Then run the following
if no errors then
then reboot