Could it have anything to do with the fact I installed openSUSE TWICE? I think there were only 7 partitions the first time but I could remember incorrectly.
Cordially,
TwoHoot
This does look like the same problem that oldcpu had in his thread with a Toshiba. Apparently the Toshiba UEFI firmware wants to boot disks rather than NVRAM entries.
In reply #86 of that thread, I suggested:If you want to test that last possibility, then backup "\EFI\Boot". Then copy the full content of the “opensuse” directory to there, and rename “shim.efi” as “bootx64.efi”. And then see what happens on the next reboot.
The one difference is that you don’t have “shim.efi”. So, instead, rename “grubx64.efi” as “bootx64.efi”.
Let me fill in a bit more detail.
While booted to your live system:
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
#### - backup the file(s) in "/mnt/EFI/Boot" (copy to a USB perhaps).
# cp /mnt/EFI/opensuse/* /mnt/EFI/Boot/.
# cd /mnt/EFI/Boot
# mv grubx64.efi bootx64.efi
Then reboot and see what happens.
Can you give me a bit more instruction on backing up the files to USB?
Cordially,
TwoHoot
Sorry. I was confused about what I was supposed to do. I just copied the folder to the USB from Dolphin. If that isn’t what you had in mind let me know soon.
Success!!
The boot loader screen appeared with 3 options:
openSUSE 12.3
Advanced Options for openSUSE 12.3
windows Boot Manager (on /dev/sda2)
I chose the first and the openSUSE installation finished (ran auto configuration)
Then I restarted and chose Windows Boot manager. Windows 8 started as usual.
I have not tried the Advanced Options boot yet.
I did not take time to see if the two things work normally under either OS. However, I did notice a strange array of devices listed in Dolphin under openSUSE.
What other information can I give that might be helpful to the experts here?
Cordially,
TwoHoot
I am knocking off for the night. Thank you for your expert help.
I will check in in the AM to see if I can gather additional info that might be helpful.
Cordially,
TwoHoot
That’s fine. You will probably never need to restore. This was just for safety in case the next step didn’t work.
Great.
I’ll check back in the morning to see if other issues have arisen.
If you want to go turn secure-boot back on, then you can mention that and I give you some pointers.
it is not that simple. Apparently whatever bootloader was used as \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI originally does call Windows bootloader from \EFI\Microsoft. Otherwise Windows would not boot after replacing files under \EFI\Boot. We just need to find out how to configure it 
Anyway I opened Access Denied to track it.
I would like to see the output from
df
on the running system. That will fill in some details.
And some information for you. I had previously been asking you to mount your EFI partition at “/mnt”. However, now that your system is up and running, that partition should be automatically mounted at “/boot/efi”. Note that this is not something for you to do. But if you do:
ls /boot/efi/EFI/Boot
you will see the files that you copied there.
I had the impression from the oldcpu thread, that Toshiba had implemented most of the UEFI specification. They appear to have misunderstood how to start the booting process.
I thought a bit more about that. Here’s a wild guess.
Maybe they originally installed Windows, and quality control testing at the factory revealed a bad disk. So they replaced the disk. That entry could be a left-over, referring to the bad disk that they replaced.
Here it is:
linux-qw13:/home/HighBoss # df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs 2983480 0 2983480 0% /dev
tmpfs 3000032 80 2999952 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 3000032 3720 2996312 1% /run
/dev/sda7 20641788 4191688 15401528 22% /
tmpfs 3000032 0 3000032 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 3000032 3720 2996312 1% /var/lock
tmpfs 3000032 3720 2996312 1% /var/run
/dev/sda2 262144 47488 214656 19% /boot/efi
/dev/sda8 426151208 229400 425055916 1% /home
linux-qw13:/home/HighBoss #
I was going to add an image of the devices shown in Dolphin but will have to go read up on how to upload the image to the forum again.
Cordially,
TwoHoot
In post #25, I listed the options on the Boot Screen:
*The boot loader screen appeared with 3 options:
openSUSE 12.3
Advanced Options for openSUSE 12.3
windows Boot Manager (on /dev/sda2)
I chose the first and the openSUSE installation finished (ran auto configuration)
Then I restarted and chose Windows Boot manager. Windows 8 started as usual.
I have not tried the Advanced Options boot yet.*
The “Advanced Options for openSUSE 12.3” selection takes you to a **second **Boot screen where the options are:
- openSUSE12.3 with Linux 3.7.10-1.1-desktop
- openSUSE12.3 with Linux 3.7.10-1.1-desktop (Recovery Mode)
This doesn’t seem right to me. Shouldn’t all the boot options show on one screen?
When we have learned all we can from this setup, I would like to wipe it all out and start over.
How is the easiest and safest way to clear all the Linux and leave the WIN 8 as is?
This laptop will replace my wife’s aging Win Vista desktop system. It will be her introduction to open source, Linux and openSUSE. I don’t want to give her a patched-up clunky system.
Cordially,
TwoHoot
PS -I figured out why I can’t post an image. I thought I had forgotten how but it turns out I don’t have permission.
For images less that 512 KiB, you can post them here in: SUSE Paste , if it is too big, use gwinview to scale down. I use png images mostly and make sure to select Never Expire.
Thank You,
Thanks for that “df” output.
You are seeing the way that grub2 does things. Yes, I liked the older legacy grub way better, too. But I can live with grub2. With efi hardware, you are actually using grub2-efi, which is grub2 compiled as 64 bit and with added support for UEFI systems.
I am seeing kernel “3.7.10-1.16-desktop”. You will need to run Yast online updates to get the security and bug fixes.
I’m not sure I see a good reason for that. The changes - copying those files to “/EFI/Boot” in the EFI partition – will still be needed. Those are dealing with a shortcoming in the Toshiba BIOS.
To have it default to booting Windows, you need only delete the files in “/boot/efi/EFI/Boot”, and copy back the file(s) that you backed up. There was probably only one file there, namely “bootx64.efi”. And the original version of that file was probably identical to the file “/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi”.
From what I have seen, I don’t think you have a “patched-up clunky system”. Your only patch-up is to deal with a problem in the Toshiba BIOS, and any linux install will run into that problem.
People normally upload an image to suse-paste or to a public image site, and then link to that image.
Thank you very much for walking me this problem. I had no idea what I was getting into.
I don’t think (read I hope) the Win 8 boot will be used much. OpenSUSE is ready for prime time and consumer use. I think my wife will find it easier to transition to openSUSE than to learn how to use Windows 8. I know I will feel better knowing our files are not in the cloud on Microsoft’s server.
If, in your opinion, the current setup is stable and isn’t likely to lead to problems later on, I will proceed with setting the computer for daily use. Past hard experience has taught me to to get the OS perfect before spending time on anything else.
Should I check with Toshiba to see if they have a firmware BIOS Update? I didn’t do that. In fact, I just thought of it.
The images aren’t important unless they are helpful to someone else. I have already seen them. I will use Sure-paste now that I know the procedure.
If you need or want additional information, I will be happy to provide it if I can.
Again, Thank you.
Cordially,
TwoHoot
Your welcome. Many people will have problems with UEFI. It is still new, and different vendors have different problems with their UEFI firmware. It may take a year or three for this to all shake out.
My UEFI box is a Dell, and it has some minor quirks that I have been able to get around.
Yes, I think that’s a good assessment.
That wouldn’t hurt. My guess is that they don’t yet have a fix for the particular problem in Toshiba UEFI.
I suggest running online-updates. Then add the multi-media support with packman repos (there should be a post or blog at the forums on how to do that).
Running updates is always the first step in my procedure after I am comfortable with the OS and set up the internet connection; then comes adm/user accounts and security. After that, I start transferring old files and data, set up hardware drivers and then add and configure software. This is a time consuming process, particularly when there are two OS (separate computers really).
I will check into and install multi-media support and packman repos. Usually, I stick to the official repositories that come with the OS since I am suspicious of others unless someone I trust recommends them.
Again, Thank you.
Cordially,
TwoHoot
I thought this might be informative if not useful:
http://paste.opensuse.org/47887534
Plus it gives me an opportunity to learn to use paste.
Cordially,
TwoHoot
Well it doesn’t look like it works. The url is http://paste.opensuse.org/47887534
What did I do wrong?