[SOLVED] dual boot system; can't find windows; fedora 23 seems OK

tnandy · 03-13-2016, 08:53 PM

I've got an HP 17-g161us laptop with an i3 CPU and a 1TB hard drive. It came with Windows 10 preinstalled. I made some space on the hard drive and loaded Fedora 23.

The initial problem(s) were the grub screen was blank and only windows would boot. I decided the easiest way to fix it was to reinstall Fedora. Here's where I screwed things up. I am used to Master Boot Record (MBR) systems. This is my first UEFI dual boot. Without knowing what I was doing, I reformatted the EFI partition. Now Fedora works fine, but Windows is nowhere to be found.

I attempted to reinstall Windows from downloaded DVD install media. At least this brought back the Microsoft directories and files in the EFI partition, but this does not help grub find Windows anywhere.

To be more specific, I strongly suspect Windows is still there...somewhere...but grub2 simply can't find it. In fact, grub2 won't make a menuentry for Windows--not even a non-functional menuentry.

I tried adding a menuentry manually in /etc/grub.d/40_custom and running grub2-mkconfig, but this doesn't help. Still no menuentry.

Here is some information that may (or may not be) helpful:

Code:

# lsblk
NAME            MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda               8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
├─sda1            8:1    0   260M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2            8:2    0   128M  0 part 
├─sda3            8:3    0 400.4G  0 part /Windows
├─sda4            8:4    0   731M  0 part 
├─sda5            8:5    0  25.6G  0 part 
├─sda6            8:6    0   500M  0 part /boot
└─sda7            8:7    0   504G  0 part 
  ├─fedora-root 253:0    0    50G  0 lvm  /
  ├─fedora-swap 253:1    0   5.9G  0 lvm  [SWAP]
  └─fedora-home 253:2    0 448.1G  0 lvm  /home
sr0              11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  
mmcblk0         179:0    0   7.4G  0 disk 
└─mmcblk0p1     179:1    0   7.4G  0 part /run/media/<userid>/3039-6539

There is a SD chip in the reader. The last line does not say "<userid>", it has my actual user ID in the path.

Code:

# ls /boot/efi
EFI  mach_kernel  System  Temp
# ls /boot/efi/EFI
BOOT  fedora  Microsoft
# ls /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft
Boot  Recovery
# ls /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
BCD       BCD.LOG2      BOOTSTAT.DAT  da-DK  en-US  Fonts  it-IT           kd_02_10ec.dll  kd_02_15b3.dll  kd_02_8086.dll  kdstub.dll   nb-NO  pt-BR     Resources   sv-SE  zh-HK
BCD.LOG   bootmgfw.efi  boot.stl      de-DE  es-ES  fr-FR  ja-JP           kd_02_1137.dll  kd_02_1969.dll  kd_07_1415.dll  ko-KR        nl-NL  pt-PT     ru-RU       tr-TR  zh-TW
BCD.LOG1  bootmgr.efi   cs-CZ         el-GR  fi-FI  hu-HU  kd_02_10df.dll  kd_02_14e4.dll  kd_02_19a2.dll  kd_0C_8086.dll  memtest.efi  pl-PL  qps-ploc  sr-Latn-CS  zh-CN

Code:

# os-prober
/dev/sda1@/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi:Windows Boot Manager:Windows:efi

/etc/grub.d/40_custom

Code:

#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
menuentry 'Windows 10' { 
set root='(hd0,gpt1)'
chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

Code:

#
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Sun Mar  6 09:24:03 2016
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
#
/dev/mapper/fedora-root                   /         ext4 defaults                   1 1
UUID=26AA6C8AAA6C57F7                     /Windows  ntfs default,ro                 0 0
UUID=6d46fc18-78fc-4cdf-801e-2925a471c326 /boot     ext4 defaults                   1 2
UUID=AAA1-E51A                            /boot/efi vfat umask=0077,shortname=winnt 0 2
/dev/mapper/fedora-home                   /home     ext4 defaults                   1 2
/dev/mapper/fedora-swap                   swap      swap defaults                   0 0

Please let me know what else you'd like to see. I appreciate any help you can provide.

business_kid · 03-14-2016, 05:38 AM

I would search for a windows 10 rescue CD. These use the windows files on your disk (copyright issues) but fix boot issues pretty well. This will probably restore windows at Fedora's expense.

You need to find out a bit about configuring dual boot in Fedora before any reinstall.

tnandy · 03-14-2016, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

I would search for a windows 10 rescue CD. These use the windows files on your disk (copyright issues) but fix boot issues pretty well. This will probably restore windows at Fedora's expense.

You need to find out a bit about configuring dual boot in Fedora before any reinstall.

(CD???)

I downloaded a Windows install DVD from Microsoft and used it to restore the files in the EFI partition, but that didn't help. Is this different from the rescue CD you suggest?

tnandy · 03-14-2016, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

I would search for a windows 10 rescue CD. These use the windows files on your disk (copyright issues) but fix boot issues pretty well. This will probably restore windows at Fedora's expense.

You need to find out a bit about configuring dual boot in Fedora before any reinstall.

I downloaded a Windows install DVD from Microsoft and used it to restore the files in the EFI partition, but that didn't help. I take it this is different from the rescue CD you suggest. Unfortunately, when I google how to create a rescue CD, it requires Windows, so I'm kind of stuck. Can you suggest one available for download? Keep in mind this is a UEFI system, not a MBR system.

tnandy · 03-14-2016, 08:53 AM

I attempted to "reset this PC" using the Windows 10 install DVD that I downloaded. It said it would wipe out Windows applications, but this was not the total reset that wipes out the hard drive. It gets to 37% then says "There was a problem resetting this PC." (Thanks for the explicit diagnostic message, Microsoft. Ugh.)

I'm going to delay the total wipe until I have another working computer I can use.

I'm still hoping there's a solution short of erasing the entire hard drive and starting over.

yancek · 03-14-2016, 10:05 AM

Which partition is marked active? I don't use UEFI but from what I've read the windows system partition contains boot files also and should be marked active, that would be sda3. You might run fdisk -l to check what is active and try to change it from the Fedora install media or a GParted Live CD.

Your path looks different. The EFI files generally are in the path:

Quote:

/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgr.efi
/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/memtest.efi

You have the boot files, no memtest but that should not matter for booting. Your path shows:

Quote:

ls /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot

I'm not sure this matters, might just be different with Fedora than other systems since as I understand, you created the EFI partition when installing Fedora.

business_kid · 03-15-2016, 02:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tnandy

(CD???)

I downloaded a Windows install DVD from Microsoft and used it to restore the files in the EFI partition, but that didn't help. Is this different from the rescue CD you suggest?

Yes. M$ does not do rescue CDs, but forums for the various windows versions often have d/l links for rescue CDs. It's possible the Win 10 CD has not been made up diets, but losers keep building them for every mess m$ leaves.

tnandy · 03-20-2016, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

Which partition is marked active? I don't use UEFI but from what I've read the windows system partition contains boot files also and should be marked active, that would be sda3. You might run fdisk -l to check what is active and try to change it from the Fedora install media or a GParted Live CD.

Here's the output of # fdisk -l :

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: BA73B25B-2B1C-4539-A4DC-C8C17AF8D8DD

Device          Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1        2048     534527     532480   260M EFI System
/dev/sda2      534528     796671     262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda3      796672  840464383  839667712 400.4G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4  1898391552 1899888639    1497088   731M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda5  1899888640 1953517567   53628928  25.6G Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda6   840464384  841488383    1024000   500M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda7   841488384 1898391551 1056903168   504G Linux LVM

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Disk /dev/mapper/fedora-root: 50 GiB, 53687091200 bytes, 104857600 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Disk /dev/mapper/fedora-swap: 5.9 GiB, 6308233216 bytes, 12320768 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 7.4 GiB, 7948206080 bytes, 15523840 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device         Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1       8192 15523839 15515648  7.4G  b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/mapper/fedora-home: 448.1 GiB, 481132806144 bytes, 939712512 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

I suspect my path to the EFI partition is shown in Fedora that way because my fstab is set up that way.

Code:

#
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Sun Mar  6 09:24:03 2016
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
#
/dev/mapper/fedora-root                   /         ext4 defaults                   1 1
UUID=26AA6C8AAA6C57F7                     /Windows  ntfs default,ro                 0 0
UUID=6d46fc18-78fc-4cdf-801e-2925a471c326 /boot     ext4 defaults                   1 2
UUID=AAA1-E51A                            /boot/efi vfat umask=0077,shortname=winnt 0 2
/dev/mapper/fedora-home                   /home     ext4 defaults                   1 2
/dev/mapper/fedora-swap                   swap      swap defaults                   0 0

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

I'm not sure this matters, might just be different with Fedora than other systems since as I understand, you created the EFI partition when installing Fedora.

Windows was able to find the EFI partition since it put the Windows EFI boot files there.

yancek · 03-20-2016, 09:17 AM

The link below to the windows 10 forum by user 'genet' indicates that with an EFI no partition needs to be active/bootable. I'm sure he knows more about it than I do as I've never used windows 10.

http://www.tenforums.com/installatio...partition.html

tnandy · 04-08-2016, 10:47 AM

I figured out the first problem. I didn't specify the output file for grub2-mkconfig. grub2-mkconfig was working, it just defaults to putting the output file in the wrong place. For an UEFI system, you have to enter it this way:

# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

I had been entering:

# grub2-mkconfig

with no options/arguments. THIS IS WRONG AND DOES NOT WORK!

Windows is still not booting, but at least I'm seeing the logo as I was before I messed things up.

Since I don't believe my problem with Windows has anything to do with Linux, I'm marking this problem as solved.

business_kid · 04-09-2016, 04:44 AM

Grub2 seemed to start life as a set of non working scripts and has not seemed to have the resilience you would like in a boot loader.

Perhaps when you sort it post a full howto?

tnandy · 04-09-2016, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Grub2 seemed to start life as a set of non working scripts and has not seemed to have the resilience you would like in a boot loader.

Perhaps when you sort it post a full howto?

It sure would be great if I could. The big problem is I can't make heads or tails of /etc/grub.d/10_linux. It's essentially undocumented code, so trying to explain it would be a massive undertaking. Back in the day, grub.conf was a flat text file. Everything was just right there, it made sense, it was easy to edit, change, update. Grub2 configuration is spread across numerous files in multiple directories and the scripts are totally inscrutable.

I'm told this approach is necessary due to UEFI systems, but I suspect this kludge could be radically simplified.

Weapon S · 04-09-2016, 11:41 AM

Didn't your laptop come with a recovery DVD? I see some Windows rescue partitions. Definitely focus on getting Windows working, because putting Linux on there is a cinch. If you are sure Windows is on there, you could manually boot it from your UEFI (BIOS). If Windows isn't in the UEFI, you could try manually adding it with `efibootmgr`... given there is a working installation of Windows hidden on your disk.

TxLonghorn · 04-09-2016, 11:59 AM

Your problem with Windows has to do with UEFI, and I believe using the rEFInd boot manager could provide a solution.

rEFInd boot manager intro
rEFind for UEFI Windows dual boot
Troubleshooting UEFI boot

business_kid · 04-10-2016, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tnandy

It sure would be great if I could. The big problem is I can't make heads or tails of /etc/grub.d/10_linux. It's essentially undocumented code, so trying to explain it would be a massive undertaking. Back in the day, grub.conf was a flat text file. Everything was just right there, it made sense, it was easy to edit, change, update. Grub2 configuration is spread across numerous files in multiple directories and the scripts are totally inscrutable.

I'm told this approach is necessary due to UEFI systems, but I suspect this kludge could be radically simplified.

I feel (and once shared) your pain.I believe your assessment of grub2 is totally correct. There were some years when serious hardware & software people could not handle UEFI. It's a pity what looks like the best effort to date causes so much suffering.