Dear Opensuse Users: I’m looking for a helpful DIY for setting up a dual boot system on my new Win8.1 laptop (OSD13.1x64). It is set up so I cannot easily downgrade to Win7 (no drivers for Win7 on the HP support website) and something has changed in both hardware and Windows - maybe having to do with UEFI and SecureBoot. The only way I’ve been able to set up so far is to install OS on a second hard drive and use the BIOS to boot GRUB2.
Thank You!!
Patricia:)
Hi
Either shrink the windows partition to install openSUSE, else continue on with the second disk.
Have you looked at creating an efi entry for the openSUSE install with efibootmgr?
Can you post the output from;
lsblk
efibootmgr -v
Hi Malcom - I’ll take a look… I’m still just trying to figure out what is different now between Win8.1 and the new hardware setup from HP (UEFI and SecureBoot), and let’s not forget GRUB2… I used to know exactly what I was doing to install OS over Win, but between GRUB2, UEFI, SB, and W8, allofasudden I’m tres confused. :\
Hi
It’s not an issue as far as the operating systems, as in uefi and secure boot. It’s just knowing what goes where… 
First off, you need to ensure windows is completely shutdown (disable hybrid boot)
I create a desktop shortcut with the following command;
shutdown /s /t 5
What is the HP hardware, do you want to use the single disk or multiple disks?
This is my setup with windows preview and openSUSE 13.1 secure boot;
lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 298.1G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 300M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 260M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda3 8:3 0 128M 0 part
├─sda4 8:4 0 40G 0 part /
├─sda5 8:5 0 160G 0 part /data
├─sda6 8:6 0 8G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda7 8:7 0 89.4G 0 part
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000
Boot0000* opensuse HD(2,96800,82000,f2f4834e-fa8e-4f24-a423-5c372f6a81c8)File(\EFI\opensuse\grubx64.efi)
Boot0001* opensuse-secureboot HD(2,96800,82000,f2f4834e-fa8e-4f24-a423-5c372f6a81c8)File(\EFI\opensuse\shim.efi)
Boot0002* Windows Boot Manager HD(2,96800,82000,f2f4834e-fa8e-4f24-a423-5c372f6a81c8)File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}...}................
How was your windows 8.1 installed, or was it pre-installed?
If it’s pre-installed, probably better to use two disks, I got annoyed with windows 8.1 I blew it away… I have the restore dvd’s but even then it takes hours to re-install.
Turn off secure boot Win 7 does not support it. + what Malcolm said
It should support EFI. or if not you can install using the old MBR method But I’d recommend starting with a totally clean drive. Mixing MBR and EFI GPT can be a bother
Hi
It’s windows 8.1 on the system 
no windows 7 drivers…
LoL need new glasses. Thought she was moving to 7
Problem is Win8 came installed already. I think it boots in a different way than Win7. Plus, I think the BIOS is different - so confusing!!
I’ll review the emails and see if this old person can larn new trix…
It is most likely an EFI BIOS. Also is is most likely that the drive is partitioned using GPT rather then MBR. So
MBR no longer means anything unless you are running legacy which is not the greatest idea unless you run everything legacy ie don’t mix modes
To install openSUSE boot the media in EFI mode press F12 at boot to select boot mode ( note you should consult the machine docs to be sure it is F12)
Booting is now controlled from a FAT formatted partition It should be mounted as /boot/efi as FAT in the install (note that should be automatic if you booted to media in EFI mode)
The boot loader should be grub2-efi and you should check secure boot box even if you turned it off in the BIOS
That is it. The only tricks is to boot the install media in EFI mode then follow your nose and be sure the defualts are as above and check the secure boot box
Oh and be sure that Windows is fully shut down it has a irratating fast boot mode that leave the file systems in a state that can’t be mounted so turn that off in Windows