dual booting Slack 14 and Windows 8
 

How is the best way to dual boot Slack 14 and windows 8? It's been a while since I set ap a dual boot system.

wufo

UEFI put aside, that's pretty easy.

For instance I have this setup on Slackware 14.0 alongside Windows 7:

/dev/sda1 Windows (reserved, rescue etc.)
/dev/sda2 Windows (data)
/dev/sda3 / (Linux)
/dev/sda4 swap

(1) make room for Linux: defrag your HDD fro Windows, the with 'gparted' on CD or USB downsize /dev/sda2 (takes a while) then create new partitions in freed space
(2) install Slackware but do not yet install lilo
(3) use the DVD or an USB key to boot Slackware, then install lilo. You can use liloconfig for that or edit /etc/lilo.conf by hand. Make /dev/sda3 bootable and have in /etc/lilo.conf /dev/sda3 (root Linux partition) as boot device:
This way you won't touch the MBR.
(4) run 'lilo -t -v' then if all goes well 'lilo'
(5) remove the Slackware DVD and reboot.

^ LILO doesn't work on UEFI/GPT systems.

You have to use eLILO from the Slackware-current tree.

I would also highly recommend disabling "secure-boot" in the BIOS/Setup, and using something like rEFInd (http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/) to manage the dual boot.

Other than eLILO, you can use SysLinux which is already pre-installed on Slackware, or grab the SlackBuilds through a recovery boot and download, build, and install GRUB2 which all support GPT partitioning.

Apologies for reopening an old thread but I've got a couple of concepts not clear yet and I got no feedback from my own thread:

Is this statement still valid even if the PC supports legacy BIOS? Or in other words, would Elilo work in legacy Bios mode?

This is how I plan to boot my system, from a USB stick with Syslinux.

LILO works on all the EFI systems I have tried, just need a mbr.

I guess the best way would be install Slackware64 14.0 with elilo and a boot manager like refind to manage dual-boot.

You also should install efibootmgr to handle the EFI boot entries.

Unfortunately, neither Slackware64 14.0 (due the old version of Linux) nor Slackware64 -current support the EFISTUB technology, so you cannot boot Linux directly with refind (and without elilo), unless you rebuild the kernel with "CONFIG_EFI_STUB=y" in config file.

LILO 24 which comes in Slackware-Current now works better with GPT

afaik windows 8 does not boot without secureboot enabled.. correct me if im wrong there.

so.. if win8 needs secure boot and slack does not boot with it the idea of dualboot is impossible.. just some logic.

I think you are mis-interpreting information. For a computer to be pre-installed with Windows 8 it must have secure boot enabled. You can turn it off though.

I dual boot Slackware and Windows 8 on my laptop. No extra packages were needed. But my laptop has 2 hard drives which make this easier. My partition layout is:

/dev/sda1 Windows 8 (reserved, rescue etc.)
/dev/sda2 Windows 8 (data)
/dev/sdb1 /boot (Linux)
/dev/sdb2 swap
/dev/sdb3 / (Linux)
/dev/sdb4 /home (Linux)

lilo installed in sda's mbr and both OSs boot and run fine.

If it's a PC/laptop secure boot can be turned off, but if you do so you also turn UEFI mode off and continue in legacy BIOS mode (at least my laptop).

If it's an ARM device with Windows 8, you're stuck with Windows.

CONFIG_EFI_STUB doesn't work unless the root partition is hardcoded into the kernel, which makes it rather useless for distribution kernels.

I am not understanding something. How does one hard code the root partition into the kernel. I understand that UEFI will use a stub kernel if its on the efi partition, but I don't know how it uses a hard coded root partition. Are you talking about
CONFIG_CMDLINE_BOOL=yes
CONFIG_CMDLINE=[the root partition goes here]?????

Thanks for your patience
john

Yes. If you don't have something like CONFIG_CMDLINE="root=/dev/sda1" in your .config, the kernel isn't going to be able to find the root partition. Also, you won't be able to use an initrd, which reduces your boot options considerably. Setting up eLILO is easy, and avoids these problems.

If I'm not mistaken in my reading of this method, you basically have to boot a system in recovery mode, then configure and build a custom kernel with the /(root) partition path of your system hard-coded into it.

Because not everyone will have the same device and partition labels of their bootable /(root) or /boot drive, distributing it would be impossible.

Example:

One person may boot from /dev/sda1, while someone else might be using /dev/sdb3, /dev/sda2, etc.

Lilo works fine in legacy BIOS mode (I think that was what you meant to ask). I have my laptop running that way with no problems. I'm not sure about GPT, however, since I saw no benefit to using it with a small solid state drive and just switched to MBR.

Of course, I also wiped Windows 8, so that made things rather simpler.

GPT only is useful if you have more than 3 Primary Partitions. Otherwise MBR is perfectly safe to use.

aha!
After checking my notes on how I originally got my bare metal system to boot into UEFI. I see I did it from the EFI shell (Shellx64.efi) like so.
"fs0> bzImage.efi root=/dev/sda2 ro console=ttys0"
I had already created /dev/sda1 as an efi partition. That's what had me "confused" I named the root partition in the efi shell. The bzImage.efi was a stub kernel with only CMDLINE_BOOL=yes. I had already completed an install of Slackware to /dev/sda2 but it would only do a legacy boot.

I agree elilo is the easiest way to go, but it took a while for me to pull it all together, after I got /dev/sda1 recognized as a boot partition by the UEFI bios it has been easy peasy.

Many thanks for taking the time to enlighten me
John

Thanks for the explanation, Pat.

I need to investigate more about EFISTUB, because Arch Linux provides this boot method, but i never hardcoded my root partition in the kernel config (i always used the default package) and I always used an initramfs. I even used EFISTUB+refind with an Arch installed onto ZFS+LUKS, and I used a ramdisk withouth any worries.
My root partition was always "declared" only in refind_linux.conf.

As soon as I have some spare time, i would to try this method also in Slackware.

Yes, that's what I meant. Hoever I will most likey boot it from a USB flash drive.

And if you don't mind the silly question: after loading the kernel from USB can I remove the flash drive? Thanks

Just one extra note. On my Asus laptop, I use eLilo for Slackware - and just pure UEFI menu for Windows. I've discovered that pressing ESC during boot (might be a different key on other machines) will bring up a menu with the boot options set in the UEFI bios. Just make sure you don't delete your Windows option in BIOS which comes with the computer - and don't delete the original UEFI system partition with its contents. You can just add your eLilo stuff there, along existing Windows stuff. So technically, there isn't really a need to have another boot manager to choose which OS to start.

Also, I didn't use an UEFI shell to configure the boot options. I just went into BIOS/UEFI, and it has the tools there to just type a new startup option. So I just added a new boot option and typed the path to the eLilo executable, in the UEFI system partition. Something like this:

fs0:\EFI\BOOT\ELILO64.EFI

(rename elilo from the original BOOTX64.EFI to ELILO64.EFI if you already have a default BOOTX64.EFI in there).

What got me confused for a while is that all examples of UEFI commands start with ">" - which I was including. However, that seems to be the prompt of EFI shells, and shouldn't be part of the actual executed line, specially if it is configured directly in BIOS :-) Once I got past that, it was rather easy. I mostly followed instructions from the following link to download, install and configure eLilo:

http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:sla..._uefi_hardware

That option does not exist on the UEFI setup on my AsRock board. I had to do it using efibootmgr. Like you say after that everything is easy. Let me add if it does exist I could not find it.
John

.

Yes, that's true. I meant I'm not sure how compatible Lilo is with GPT. I haven't tried it myself, and information I've found about the matter seems to be contradictory.

I have a question related to this...

In Vista/7 if you install Windows with any drive other than the primary it installs the boot files to the secondary drive. Is Widows 8 the same way?

That would effect the installation greatly. Thanks.

I think so. Only one way to find out. ;)

(Or maybe someone else can tell you for sure!)

Original LILO isn't compatible with UEFI, but it does work with GPT.

I only wish Windows supported booting GPT partitions from BIOS. They only support GPT via UEFI.

I seem to remember believing that a few Windows Server editions could do this in the past (around 2008), but I can find no reference to it now. Windows Server 2012 certainly cannot. However, this is on the horizon (and workable even now if you have a sense of adventure). Personally, I cannot imagine wanting to spend enough time with Windows to be comfortable doing something like this. Thankfully I don't have to.

Dual-booting in UEFI-Secure could be more important than you think?
 

I mean:

I like Linux and I work with it most of the time, but I MUST work also with Windows 8, to earn my life.

Others have stated that they'll wipe out Windows 8, boot in BIOS mode, or disable secure boot and, via Firmware or modifying NVRAM boot order, boot in EFI mode with ELILO.

AFAIK, Windows 8 can boot with secure boot disabled, in EFI mode. But if you MUST work with Windows 8 in a daily basis... well, viruses and the like won't target the NVRAM, the ESP... (which will be more accessible if you have secure boot disabled, I mean)?

If secure boot is enabled, bootloaders in the ESP must be signed, and added to the NVRAM, and this Windows 8 that I MUST work with is safer... ain't it?

Viruses and malware will always be a threat on any OS, but if you use Windows, I suggest Spybot Search and Destroy 2 and use it's Immunization feature, and active on-demand scanner. You can use whatever Antivirus you feel like.

Microsoft Security Essentials, Comodo Internet Security Premium, and various others are all free to use.

You don't have to wipe out Windows 8. Just because other people hate Windows doesn't mean you should delete it.

I personally use GNU/Linux, BSD, and Windows equally between each other for various functions and tools. They're all great operating systems in their own rights respectively.

As I stated, even if you have Slackware 14.0, which doesn't have full UEFI support yet through eLILO, which is in current and prepared for 14.1, you can use SysLinux and Grub2 to boot UEFI systems and GPT partitions.

If you need help resizing your partitions, installing Linux, and setting up a UEFI friendly bootloader, I have done this a thousand times, so if needed I can help you through getting your system booted.

Help needed
 

Yes, I need that help. And any regular user of Slackware or Linux could need it, too.

Recently I bought a new laptop to replace my old one, where only Linux could be used yet (well, Linux and Windows XP... until next years' 8th of april).

At my job, we use licensed software (Microsoft Office and like so...) and there aren't any plans for a change in the OS, in fact, training is being done in newer versions of this licensed software. As I stated, I need a working Windows 8 at my home's laptop, do I like it or not.

I've been trying to install Slackware 14.0 in this new laptop for weeks, but I'm progressing VERY slow, because I'm afraid of damaging the Windows 8 which came installed within it.

For anyone who will be reading, there is a LOT of disperse information that you must read and understand well for the big jump which is working with an UEFI/Secure Boot/GPT partitioned system. It is being a big jump for me, I'm more used of BIOS, MBR partitioning, and Slackware... stable.

The main reason why I like Slackware is ADVICE (sounds strange, doesn't it?). I take the software which comes with Slackware as advice of proven, reliable software (advice from Pat; there are lots of software choices in Linux).

Well, as of today, I think we could use more help about UEFI in docs.slackware.com, that the newer version of Slackware could have some README about the subject, maybe also ELILO in the "extra" folder.

If you look for keyword UEFI, there is only the slackbuild for efibootmgr in Slackbuilds (and things like shim, mokmanager, rEFInd...?) for the less advanced Slackware users like me, installing all this new software without slackbuilds or HOW-TOs... well, things were so easy when you only had to install LILO in the MBR for a dual boot... you could choose. Easily. Now it seems like one OS or the other. Take it or leave it.

What would be the more appropriate way to ask for help?, I mean: this thread?, do I start another one?, here, or at the installation sub-forum?.

And please, I didn't mean to aggrieve anyone with this post, take it as constructive criticism, suggestions from the customers, etc.

PreguntoYo, I agree with everything you say in your post. Obviously, Slackware 14.1 will support easier methods using eLILO to install Slackware in a multi-boot environment along with a pre-installed Windows 8, and perhaps it will even be possible to use UEFI with Linux.

I also share your reluctance to do anything potentially harmful, as I wouldn't want to damage the pre-installed OS, too. However, did your Windows 8 come with installation media? If so, check, if you could install the system on another computer. If not, and if your budget allows it, you might purchase Windows 8 Pro upgrade (buy a DVD, down't just download it, as there are reports, that only the DVD version supports the following). The steps are about these:

• Upgrade your pre-installed Win 8 with Win 8 Pro upgrade
• Enter the product key during the upgrade procedure
• Eownload the Win 8 Pro upgrade (although you already have the DVD, but the DVD installer doesn't offer you to create media!!!)
• Create installation media from within your running Win 8 Pro
• Verify that you can really install a full Win 8 from the created installation media, on another computer

The installation media can either be DVDs or a USB stick (use a 16 GB stick!). If all goes well, you can install Win 8 Pro from these media on any compatible computer, including the laptop from which you created the media, of course. The only trouble might occur when you try to activate the newly installed system, but this can be fixed by changing an entry in the registry. Search the web for "Win 8 clean install" or similar, if you are interested.
Of course, the EULA allows to install and run Win 8 on just one PC. That is, if you install Win 8 on another computer,you'll have to erase the original installation. Also, this method causes causts for Win 8 Pro upgrade (about 50,00 EUR) and the USB stick. But this investment will let you sleep well, as it allows you to re-install Win 8 in case something bad happens.

Having said all this, please don't blame me, if it doesn't work as expected. I haven't tried it myself, yet, but I am planning on doing so. I am just reading all this stuff, as I am in a similar position like you: I have a new laptop with pre-installed Win 8 and would like install and multiboot Slackware 14.1 along with it.

HTH

gargamel

No, I don't think you must inflict the EULA in any way to keep Windows 8 installation media; it's a backup question...

See, my new laptop came with a lot of partitions (welcome to the GPT future); something like:

sda1: WinRE (I believe this is for some Windows 8 recovery mode, I'm unsure)
sda2: ESP (EFI System Partition, important)
sda3: Windows 8
sda4: Windows' RAW data (???)
sda5: Windows' home
sda6: HP oem (or something like that, this one is important, too)

I'll check and edit this post later, if someone finds it necessary. But the important things are:

¡IMPORTANT! ¡PITFALLS AHEAD!

1. The last partition is some kind of Hewlett Packard's re-install system for Windows 8; it allows you to save your Windows 8 installation media into a 16 GB stick... ONE time. I think you should do this first, in a reliable USB stick. If you accidentally damage your system's Windows 8 copy, well, the USB will take the system back to the factory state, and that includes DELETING ANY LINUX PARTITION that you may have created. So not having to re-install Windows 8 is important, at least for me.
   
2. IMHO, second step should be something like dd if=yourUSB of=oneHDyoutruston, or else, you risk losing your Windows 8 installation media. Then later you can rebuild your USB in case of accident. BTW: newer laptops may come without DVD reader, like mine. It has it's logic, if you can wear 4 DVDs in your pocket. USB 3.0 is FAST.
3. You must select then which partition you're going to shrink (obviously sda5 in this case), and you should (?) do from Windows 8, because the disk manager will warn you that you can shrink the thing up to some point. Bad for you if you used gparted in the first time. Even worse; in my new laptop at least, Windows 8 doesn't shutdowns as you are used to in Linux, it kind of HIBERNATES. I've heard reports that if you modify the partitions in this state, Windows 8 won't like the finding when it restarts. The shutdown method must be modified from inside Windows 8.

...and well, these have been only the first three steps in dual-booting with Windows 8. There could be more, I'm not an expert.

More ideas?. Am I wrong in anything I wrote?. How does one continue from here?.

I am still playing with my PB Easynote.

I believe that on top of the OEM recocery USB disk (which is usually 15-16 GB and therefore cannot be a DVD) there should also be a way to make a standard Microsoft (not OEM) reinstallation media, which should be smaller and fit onto a DVD. In this case one should make sure to have the Windows activation key and all the necessary drivers backed up somewhere else.

By the way can anybody recommend a good Windows 8 related forum? I need to expand this matter further.

In order to have people address your issue directly and not get sidetracked, I would say you should start a new thread. The installation subforum would be the most correct place to put it, even though in practice, that forum isn't as visible as our regular forum and doesn't get as much traffic. But ReaperX7 has promised to help, so you should probably be okay posting your thread in the installation subforum and linking to it on this thread when you do. That way people who are following this thread can go there to help you.

I would offer help myself, except that it isn't something I have done before, and even though I am sure I could figure it out if it were my own computer, I am hesitant to experiment on yours. Probably many here feel the same. So it is good we have a few people like ReaperX7 who work with dual installations a lot and have already been down that road.

As an aside, one thing you could do is get an external hard drive and make a full clone of everything on your disk in case something goes wrong during this process. To do this, I would just boot from a live cd of some sort and use

or the equivalent. If you don't have an external hard drive this method may seem troublesome, but I do not know of any other way to get the same protection that can be used to restore everything so easily. I know that Windows has a System Image function that will make an identical copy of your boot partition on DVDs that you can use to restore the operating system with a Windows Recovery Disk, but I am not sure if that will recreate the ESP partition--and I can't imagine it would duplicate the HP OEM partition. (Although after you have used it "once," as they say [more Windows nonsense, IMO], it sounds like it would be pretty much useless anyway, so maybe the Windows System Image would work after all . . . but then again maybe not.)

Anyway, the important thing is to have a backup. I personally would go for the full clone instead of fussing around with a bunch of different Windowsy disks, but do what makes you comfortable.

Of course, you can make a backup, but you are not allowed to install and use the operating system on two machines in parallel. What I described allows to transfer the operating system to another machine, but if you do, you'll have to erase the system from which you created the installation media, AFAIK. If you don't wipe the system on the "source" machine, you'd end up with two operational installations of Win 8, which is not covered by the license, to my knowledge.

gargamel

1. The first thing you'll want to do with a Windows Vista/7/8 PC/Laptop is to boot it up and check for an OEM installed program to create a Rescue Disk, Boot Disk, or Installation Disk from Burnable Media. You'll want to create the Rescue Set PRIOR to anything you do with Windows. Once you've created this this, I also suggest you download and search for the Windows 8 Rescue Disk from Microsoft, download it, and burn it. It will boot like an installation media disk, but it only has the Rescue Tools on it. Keep it handy as it will come in handy from time to time.

2. Use the Windows Administrative Tools > Computer Management application to resize your Windows partition (shrink Partition) down to at least 100GB in size depending on how many operating systems will be installed. If you use only 2 operating systems (dual-boot) split the disk basically in half. If your partition contains an OEM maintenance or media partition, you can optionally delete it or leave it alone. Usually these are small partitions and are insignificant.

3. Now insert your Slackware installation media disk.

If the disk boots normally under UEFI mode without Legacy BIOS enabled you be fine, otherwise, enable Legacy BIOS mode and try again. Usually a disk will boot without Legacy mode.

4. Once booted, prepare your system for installation by loading the network and pcmcia tools by their respectively named commands, and start the installation by partitioning the drive with cgdisk.

Now, you're UEFI system should already have a UEFI partition usually in FAT32. Leave it alone!!!

Now in the free space create a swap partition with at least twice the amount of RAM you have in your system. (If you have over 8 GB of RAM, you can skip this step as 8GB will be more than enough to ensure you never need to swap on Slackware.)

Now create a Linux partition in the free space and enable it for boot status, save the work and exit. Now your system is prepped for installation.

5. Type in setup to start the installation. If you skipped creating a swap partition, you can skip the swap creation tool, and move on to disk partitioning.

Create a standard EXT4 partition in the Linux assigned partition, and process with the installation as you normally would.

6. After installation when it asks if you want to install LILO, skip this. DO NOT INSTALL LILO!

Use the Slackware install disk to boot to Slackware using the RECOVERY method as shown on the title screen, and setup everything as normal and launch the X.Org desktop you chose.

Navigate to your web browser and download, build, and install GRUB2 and all required dependencies from www.slackbuilds.org and follow the instruction on the website.

GRUB2 will and should automatically detect you have a UEFI system with GPT disks and install the appropriate bootloader into the UEFI partition, as well as detect and setup your Windows system. It may label your Windows 8 as a Windows Recovery Environment, but you can safely ignore this, or edit your grub.cfg file and reinstall grub2 as previously directed.

Be advised if you do update your kernel, I recommend you rebuild grub2's configuration again, and reinstall Grub2 to the UEFI.

If you need additional help Arch has a good How-To on how to install Grub2 to a UEFI system with more details.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB

Can I safely remove the Windows 8 partition?
 

Excellent thread. I hope you don't mind me going off topic for a second (MODS: if necessary I can create a separate thread).

I was originally set for dual booting Windows 8 and Slackware. I then though it was safe to remove the Windows data partition altogether, install Slackware and, if necessary, recreating it form scratch form the recovery partition or the USB recovery drive, but this answer to my question on the Microsoft forum:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...llReplies#tabs

put me off. In other words would I be able to reinstall Windows 8 from the recovery media, once the partition has been removed?

Thanks

The Recovery Disk set will recreate the Recovery Partition if used. This is due to the fact Hard drives can fail and need to be replaced.

Sorry for being pedantic, does it mean that the recovery partition still need the Windows partition or can I safely remove it?

The manual should be in some folder
 

If it works as in my new laptop...

After you have created a recovery media (CD or USB) using the OEM's tools (I hadn't heard of recoverydrive.exe), you could use the full system's HD, because the recovery media should re-create partitions and re-install all software back to factory state. Let me insist, IF it works as in my system.

Have a look at the HD, a user manual should be in some folder (as it was in mine's). Read it before any attempt.

Back up recovery media well. The OEM's ~16 GiB partition ain't redundant with it; there must be some key that you can press at start up to boot from this partition, and repair the Windows 8 installation in the other partitions, if Windows would have become non boot-able. You should be able to remove this partition with the OEM's own tools, but I wouldn't, if you want a dual-boot system with Windows 8.

Recovery partitions are small, so honestly, with today's modern hard drives, it's almost pointless to recovery the space. Most barely extend beyond 8-12 GB anyway (Dual-Layer DVD size), and just about all hard drives now have 250 GB or more when pre-installed by the OEM.

My laptop has Windows 7 Pro on it, but it also has a small 9 GB recovery partition I've left alone. I have 250 GB of space to play with, 100 GB for Windows and 100 GB for Linux, with the rest dedicated to an NTFS partitioned file box that is shared between both operating systems containing work and other files.