Re: efi dual boot issue

[jbranso@dismail.de]

Hello,

What kind of hardware do you have?  Laptop? Desktop?  What processor?

That kind of information would be helpful.  

Also, note that I have never dual booted GNU/Linux and windows.  I just use 
GNU.  I think your problem amounts to configuring the bootloader section 
in config.scm incorrectly. 

There are two ways to boot up a computer: bios mode or EFI.  

https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/guix.html#Manual-Installation

Note: Unsure whether to use EFI- or BIOS-based GRUB? If the directory /sys/firmware/efi 
exists in the installation image, then you should probably perform an EFI installation, 
using grub-efi-bootloader. Otherwise you should use the BIOS-based GRUB, known as 
grub-bootloader. See Bootloader Configuration, for more info on bootloaders. 

When you boot up the installation image does the director "/sys/firmware/efi"
exist?  If so, then you are booting via EFI, and you should follow the directions
in the manual via EIF installation:  namely you need an EFI partition:

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1; 

And you need to specify this EFI partition in your config.com:

(file-system
   (type "vfat")  
   (mount-point "/boot/sda1")
   (device "/dev/sda1"))

And you need to use the EFI bootloader in config.scm:

 (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
                (bootloader grub-efi-bootloader)
                (target "/boot/efi")))

If this is a bios only install, then you need to use the bios bootloader in your config:

(bootloader-configuration
  (bootloader grub-bootloader)
  (target "/dev/sda"))

Does that help?

Thanks,

Joshua

January 15, 2021 4:24 PM, "kevinbanjo" <kevinbanjo@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi everyone. I'm trying to install a dual boot with windows 10 btrfs root
> GuixSD and I have a catch 22 I can't figure out how to resolve:
> 
> When I go to generate the system it says that grub-install didn't work (I
> can't remember exactly why and I was in console mode so I couldn't
> copy/paste the error but the gist of it was that it was because I booted in
> bios mode).
> 
> I had to go into bios and disable my legacy boot and windows still boots
> but I can't boot the GuixSD USB ISO.
> 
> It's an HP laptop and when I hit ESC during boot and select boot options it
> walks me thru the EFI boot files and I picked both the boot files and it
> just returns to the boot menu.
> 
> I also tried hard resetting my laptop (unplugging it, pulling out the
> battery and holding the power button down for a while) plus booting windows
> into recovery mode and letting it try and fix the boot (which probably only
> did the windows one as that was the only one that showed up) and still
> nothing.
> 
> How do I build an EFI boot if I can't boot GuixSD ISO as EFI?
> 
> TIA,
> -Kevin