efi dual boot issue

efi dual boot issue

[kevinbanjo]

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

Re: efi dual boot issue

[jbranso]

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

Re: efi dual boot issue

[jbranso]

January 16, 2021 3:55 PM, "kevinbanjo" <kevinbanjo@gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> yeah, well, that's the crux of my problem. I turn off legacy (bios) boot in the bios setup and
> windows still boots just fine but I can no longer boot into the guix ISO. If I hit escape when
> booting I get a file browser asking me to select a file on the ISO to boot from so I browse around
> in its file hierarchy and find the various boot files and hit enter and it just comes right back to
> the file browser.
> 
> So have you heard of anyone having a problem like this, of not being able to boot EFI into the most
> recent ISO?
> 
> -Kevin

Hmmm,  I guess you are probably picking the wrong file to boot from.  What file are you
selecting to boot?

Thanks,

Re: efi dual boot issue

[znavko]

You can find some examples on github with 'guix config'.
I have EFI Dual boot configuration here
https://gitgud.io/znavko/guix-configs/-/blob/master/guix-config-dual-boot.scm

bootloader field lookslike this:

		  (bootloader (bootloader-configuration (bootloader grub-efi-bootloader) 							(target "/boot/efi") 							(menu-entries (list (menu-entry 									     (label "Ubuntu") 									     (linux "(hd2,gpt3)/boot/vmlinuz") 									     (linux-arguments '("root=/dev/sdc3")) 									     (initrd "(hd2,gpt3)/boot/initrd.img")))))) 	

This bootloader configuration was made when I tried
to boot Ubuntu with grub command line.
I've found with grub's 'ls' command a linuz image 
and initrd file and booted successfully.
After that  I was sure such config will work.

I can't imagine troubles you will have with MS Windows.
May be easier it will be to use two different hard disks 
and to change their order in BIOS?


January 15, 2021 9:24 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