I installed Windows 8 and then re-installed OpenSUSE 12.2 on my old laptop. I chose legacy grub as I have had very bad luck with Grub2 in several computers. I used the settings I have used for years. I have an encrypted LVM setup with a separate boot partition. I chose to boot from boot partition and write generic code to MBR. For Windows, I chose: make active, noverify, and offset +1.
Everything went well. I removed the install disc and rebooted. I got the grub menu and booted correctly into OpenSUSE. I then rebooted again to verify that Windows was set up correctly. Again, all went correctly and I booted into Windows.
I rebooted a third time. This time, there was no grub menu and it booted directly into Windows. Apparently Windows re-wrote the MBR when it booted and removed the grub code. This has not happened before.
I am currently downloading a rescue CD that I created in SuSE studio, as the rescue discs I have are unable to mount my encrypted LVM in order to repair grub. Even though my boot partition is not encrypted, the repair tools complain that they can’t install grub because of the partition setup. Even Rescuetux did not work as it complained that cryptsetup did not exist. I am hoping that my studio disc can get in and repair grub.
Also, I will be using Truecrypt to encrypt Windows once dual boot is stable. If all goes normally, I can hit “esc” at the Truecrypt prompt to get to the grub menu (Truecrypt simply looks for another bootable partiton on the same hard drive, from what I understand). I have used this setup on XP for years. Now Win 8 seems to complicates things.
My real question is: Was it a mistake to mark the Windows partition active for boot? What should be the correct legacy grub settings? I need to get this right as I have several of my other computers to set up.