Laptop HP 17T, Leap 42.1 & Win10 Install – don't do what I did!

I have a HP 17 inch 17T Optimus, Uefi, Secure Boot laptop which was running perfectly with openSUSE 13.2 and Windows 8.1. (Note: HP uses Windows install for HP, Win and BIOS updates) I only use Windows for programs that run best there (like Turbo Tax).

Prior to installing Leap 42.1, I started a Windows 8.1 update and up popped a free upgrade to Windows 10 from HP. I normally do not do an update/upgrade of two major events at once, like win10 and Leap42.1; but, as I had already installed Leap in 2 other computers with little problem, why not? So, I upgraded to Win10. In hindsight, I believe it included a BIOS update, as I now have more features than before (where before I could only change the boot order).

What I failed to do was make the Win10 Backup/Recovery USB/DVD. DON’T DO THAT, MAKE A RECOVERY USB/DVD!

  Tip
 Open up Settings from the Start menu and type Recovery in the Search box at the top right, then select 'Create a recovery drive' from the list of options that appears on the left side of the screen. You can also find it by typing Recovery drive in the Cortana Search box on the taskbar.

The Win10 upgrade went smooth and included all my 3rd party & HP apps. Then I installed Leap 42.1, The install went OK except during partitioning, I tried to have the Win10 partition mounted as /win10 and it could not, or would not, which may have caused my following problem.

Upon reboot, I only had Leap and 13.2 presented – no Windows 10.

And remember, I didn’t make a Recovery USB/DVD!!!

Not to worry, I copyed over the “shim.efi” from opensuse 13.2 to Leap /boot/efi/EFI/opensuse/shim.efi. Nothing changed; still no joy.

Start my trouble shooting; mount win10 & /boot/efi files and look, I could not find any Win10 Uefi files, and in the BIOS, I only had Leap and 13.2 as boot options.

So, with no Recovery USB/DVD. What to do? Long Story short, get the Windows 10 ISO – it’s free as an upgrade (for a while). Here the relevant link:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
I wound up with Win10 Pro.

Google for: How to upgrade to Windows 10 and get your new license key

at least make sure it’s activated/authenticated.

So, I run the Win10 install DVD and click “Repair Computer”. “Troubleshoot” > “Advanced Options” & select Command Prompt.
There I try all the older commands like Fix MBR, etc., no joy.
Then, I try the more sophisticated apps like “Startup Repair” have to look for it, Uefi firmware settings, etc., no joy.
Finally, I do “Reset this PC” (takes a while) – worked (except, I lost all my 3rd party apps including “HP update app” (However all those apps are listed in a folder on the desktop). Now, Win10 is listed in the BIOS as bootable, but, not included in Grub.

Note: the next thing I did was to boot Win10 and make a Recovery Disk (or, I made it from the install DVD).

Continuing, I did not wish to try a new install of Leap42.1 in case it gave me more problems, so, I downloaded Tumbleweed KDE Live 20151110; it booted fine (and I was able to mount files and troubleshoot). By the time I went to download the tumbleweed install DVD, it was version 20151111 and I could not get it to boot. I installed Tumbleweed from the Live 20151110 CD resulting in a minimal install – see release notes and – it worked, I can boot everything!

I reset the Tumbleweed repros to online and did a “zypper dup” and it gave me a full bag to include those omitted during the minimal install.

I’m up and running with a full bag, Yea!

(However, I still have to go back and add back my needed Win10 apps & programs – it will be a minimal install.)

You may have inadvertently formatted the efi boot partition. Also perhaps were the start of your problem, mounting the Win10 partition. Did you turn fast boot off? You can not mount a dirty file system and fast boot leaves the partition dirty (ie not properly closed)

I doubt I elected to format the /boot/efi partition, but maybe…

I had fast boot off with the win8.1 install; I bet the Win10 Upgrade turned it back on – and of course, I did not check it!

Great insight; beau coupThanks! That’s one for the lessons learned note file

I have a bad experience with the secure boot and fast boot in the bios on a hp desktop.
I enabled both disregarding the red warning that it is for windows 8, mine has windows 7
and opensuse in efi. After saving the bios changes, the machine failed to boot, I can only hear the loud beep
in successions. I disconnected the power and then the battery to reset. Luckily it work and I was able to boot
opensuse and windows. I wonder which of the two is the culprit, secure boot or the fast boot.

Both

Windows 7 does NOT support secure boot.

Linux does not support Fast boot.

Also you must install Linux to use secure boot if you installed without checking the the secure boot box it will not use it and will not boot with secure boot on

Secure boot does not make the machine secure it only will stops boot if anything in the boot chain is changed. If a person or program is in the position to change the boot stack you are already owned.

Thanks,
I never played with that bios setting again for the sake of not wanting to pull-off the power and battery in case of the same problem arise.
With Linux yeah, I install it with secure boot enabled in grub-efi options.

Then Linux should boot with secure boot on but Windows 7 won’t

On Wed 18 Nov 2015 01:16:01 PM CST, gogalthorp wrote:

Both

Windows 7 does NOT support secure boot.

Linux does not support Fast boot.

Also you must install Linux to use secure boot if you installed without
checking the the secure boot box it will not use it and will not boot
with secure boot on

Secure boot does not make the machine secure it only will stops boot if
anything in the boot chain is changed. If a person or program is in the
position to change the boot stack you are already owned.

Hi
You can turn secure boot (YaST Bootloader) on and MokManager will ask
you to enroll the keys on next reboot (You need the root users password
to enroll).

This system (HP ProBook 455 G1) dual boots winX and SLED (it did have
Leap/Tumbleweed), winX was installed with secure boot on, turned it off
and installed SLED (aka same as Leap) then turned it back on to see what
happened (see above). One thing HP include is an option to add a
‘custom’ boot so you can set this first and then add the path to
shim.efi (or grubx64).

The other option is to check with efibootmgr (even boot from a rescue
device [13.1/13/2] in uefi mode) I have found deleting the winX and
openSUSE entries and re-add openSUSE first and then windows also flips
the boot order in some BIOS’s.


Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 | GNOME 3.10.1 | 3.12.48-52.27-default
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