I have Windows 10 and want to install Leap 42.2 to a separate HDD on an UEFI system. I would like to install Grub onto the HDD with the Leap installation. I want Grub to have an entry pointing to the Windows boot loader on the Windows drive. I do not want Grub to live on the Windows drive as I know this will lead to issues down the road as Microsoft seems to go out of their way to make it difficult to have Windows coexist with another OS on the same system and that Windows will overwrite Grub at the earliest opportunity (like during service pack installation). It is my understanding that with UEFI, that booting into an OS on one HDD with the other disconnected can lead to the boot entry in UEFI being deleted in some systems. I have an ASUS system.
Should the procedure described in the article work with OpenSuse Leap 42.2? If not, how do I go about doing this? Can I leave secure boot enabled in UEFI options?
Yes this will work. I have Windows 10 ssd on my sata1 and openSUSE on sata2 hdd and use grub to boot Windows.
plug in linux hard drive and unplug windows hdd.
install openSUSE on drive. Reboot and check bios - openSUSE should be the only entry in the boot order - continue booting to openSUSE and do updates etc. Shutdown.
plug back in windows drive and boot to openSUSE. Go to yast>boot loader. in one tab it says probe other OS - hit OK and new grub will be generated which will find windows.
There now should be Windows boot option in your grub screen.
when doing the initial install remember to boot from the device with “UEFI” prefix.
On UEFI system bootloader is not installed “on HDD” but in a directory on ESP (EFI System Partition). Windows and openSUSE will use different directories so there is normally no problem to have both installed. It is also possible to use separate ESP on hard disk with Linux, but it is not strictly required.
In answer to your final question yes you can keep secure boot. By the way with Windows service upgrades (at least so far with windows 10) I have not encountered any problem booting into Linux after. That is unless you do a complete fresh install of windows, but even then I have been able to boot into suse using the UEFI boot menu.
Yes, but the ESP is on the HDD or SDD, correct? The Wikipedia article defines EFI System Partions as “The EFI system partition (ESP) is a partition on a data storage device (usually a hard disk drive or solid-state drive) that is used by computers adhering to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).” UEFI accesses it, but it lives on the storage device. Am I missing something?
On Mon 08 May 2017 12:06:01 AM CDT, dontosaw wrote:
arvidjaar;2822154 Wrote:
> On UEFI system bootloader is not installed “on HDD” but in a directory
> on ESP (EFI System Partition). Windows and openSUSE will use different
> directories so there is normally no problem to have both installed. It
> is also possible to use separate ESP on hard disk with Linux, but it
> is not strictly required.
Yes, but the ESP is on the HDD or SDD, correct? The Wikipedia article
defines EFI System Partions as “The EFI system partition (ESP) is a
‘partition’ (Disk partitioning - Wikipedia) on
a ‘data storage device’
(Data storage - Wikipedia) (usually a ‘hard
disk drive’ (Hard disk drive - Wikipedia) or
‘solid-state drive’ (Solid-state drive - Wikipedia))
that is used by computers adhering to the ‘Unified Extensible Firmware
Interface’
(UEFI - Wikipedia)
(UEFI).” UEFI accesses it, but it lives on the storage device. Am I
missing something?
Hi
You can have multiple ESP’s, just need to tell the installer which one
you want to use, this then get’s added to the EFI nvram (BIOS) so it
knows which disk/partition to use for that operating system…
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE Leap 42.2|GNOME 3.22.2|4.4.62-18.6-default
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!
On Mon 08 May 2017 04:16:01 AM CDT, dontosaw wrote:
malcolmlewis;2822207 Wrote:
> Hi
> You can have multiple ESP’s, just need to tell the installer which one
> you want to use, this then get’s added to the EFI nvram (BIOS) so it
> knows which disk/partition to use for that operating system…
>
> See my setup in this thread about the same thing your asking;
> Dual boot question relating to UEFI - Install/Boot/Login - openSUSE Forums
>
Thanks for the info. So the the boot process starts with code stored in
UEFI NVRAM, but GRUB resides on the hdd or ssd?
Hi
Yes, this is correct, now you can also get caught out with the system
hardware and it’s UEFI implementation…
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE Leap 42.2|GNOME 3.22.2|4.4.62-18.6-default
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!
My current desktop (a DELL) came with Window 8 (later upgraded to 8.1). I installed a second hard drive for opensuse. It is a UEFI box. So this is similar to the situation that is being asked about.
I created an EFI partition (sometimes called an ESP) on the second hard drive. There was already an EFI partition on the first drive. I create a 500M partition for EFI near the beginning of the second drive.
During install, I set that 500M partition to be mounted at “/boot/efi”, and to be formatted FAT. The installer took care of all of the other details for making it an EFI partition.
It turned out that this was a good setup. The UEFI implementation in this computer is broken, and using a second EFI partition works around that breakage.
I have a second computer with two drives. I also decided to put an EFI partition on each drive. However, that second system is working well with on the EFI partition on the first drive being used. I’m using the EFI partition on the second drive to backup that on the first drive. But it is booting entirely from the first drive. That’s how it is supposed to work.
My advice to the OP: Create a second EFI partition on the second drive. However, use the EFI partition on the first drive for your opensuse install. The EFI partition on the second drive is just a spare in case you later decide to use it. By allocating the space for that up front, you make it easier to switch to that at a later time.
As far as I know, ASUS systems have a reasonably good UEFI implementation. But note that I have no personal experience with them.
Hi everyone,
I checked my Windows drive in Disk Management and found no EFI partition on it, so Windows was installed in legacy mode. So, I need to reinstall windows in UEFI mode before I install openSuse on a separate HD?
I would not trust Disk Management here. ESP is rather special, so may well be hidden.
So, I need to reinstall windows in UEFI mode before I install openSuse on a separate HD?
Of course not. But with legacy BIOS you either need to use BIOS boot device selection to chose Windows or Linux (assuming BIOS offers it in the first place) or decide which OS will control boot and add another OS to its boot menu.
I read an article that gave instructions on how to check if you had an EFI partition by looking at the disks with Disk Management in Windows 10. The article included a screenshot, which showed how an EFI partition would appear, so I think it would show up. Also, when I installed Windows, I had the UEFI option set for other OS, not Windows secure boot, as I didn’t know that Linux distros were compatible. All my data is backed up and I want to take full advantage of UEFI partitioning and booting, so I will set UEFI boot option to UEFI only and reinstall Windows 10 clean, with new partitioning of main drive. That way, I will have both Linux and Windows booting UEFI, not legacy.
I went ahead and changed my UEFI options to disable compatibility mode and boot UEFI only. Then I reinstalled Windows 10 from USB stick. Afterwards I went into disk management and sure enough it shows that it is portioned GPT with EFI partition. Secure boot is enabled. I received the new HD and plan to install it and give this a shot in the next day or so. I will report back.
Success! lol!
[size=5]Dual boot works great. Using UEFI with secure boot. I do love YaST!
[size=7][size=5]Thanks everyone for your help! Special thanks to 3toedsloth. His step by step worked perfectly.[/size][/size]
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