problems with 13.2 and window 10 dual boot

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi Guys,

I have been happily (and mostly still am) running a dual boot of win 10 (upgraded from win 7) and OS 13.2. But I have recently found out that my system will no longer update to the latest version of win 10. I have been doing some investigations and it seems that GRUB has stopped windows from identifying that I have win10 and that is why its not updating. Also I cannot remove grub by putting back the original boot records using bootrec that I think are required to allow win 10 to reconise that it exists.

My current system works fine but I would like to be able to update.

So questions are has this been seen before and a solution found? how have others got win10 and OS working together?

Grub is not in the disk MBR but in its own partition /boot I thought this was the safest dual boot and just replacing the MBR using bootsect does not work.

Long term I would like to remove grub and just boot to windows. If I did this is it possible to have just /boot on a USB stick that then loads and run OS from the same HD. I have to dual boot from the same drive as its a laptop with only 1 drive and I don’t want to run OS from a USB drive or stick

Thanks for any help given
Robert

2

Sounds like you are doing legacy booting not EFI.

Generic code in the MBR would require a boot flag to indicate to the boot chain which partition to continue boot from. Normally Windows will change the flag willy-nilly without a by your leave. But maybe try change the flag to the Windows boot partition do the upgrade then change it back to opneSUSE boot partition (usually root /)

If you have installed grub to MBR then you may need to change it to generic. But then again Windows is not shy about putting it’s own in the MBR. Should be able to rearrange things in Yast-boot

Though it may be possible to boot Linux from Windows it is not the best of ideas and may require boot helpers. It is best if Linux controls the boot since Windows does not play well with others.

3

What? Even if it is running W10 doesn’t know that it is W10? How weird can it get?

Perhaps this may be of help:http://www.multibooters.com/articles/multiboot-with-windows-latest.html

Save yourself (and others) time and do it now. Re-install W10 and be spied upon happily ever after.

Personally, I wouldn’t even touch it with a barge pole.

4

Easy fix. I’m not certain this will work, but I’m more than 99% sure.

Step 1: Use linux “fdisk” (as root) to set the active flag on the Windows partition (and remove from the linux partition).

Step 2: Reboot. It should boot straight into Windows.

Step 3: Apply the Windows 10 update.

Step 4: Boot from your your linux install media or just about any live linux CD/DVD/USB, run “fdisk” and set the active flag back to your linux partition.

5

Some more notes on this, with some alternatives.

This first happened to me with Vista and service pack 1. It is going to happen to you again.

There are three ways that I know to avoid this problem:

Alternative 1: Have opensuse “boot from the MBR”. That way, you can leave the Windows partition as the active partition, yet always get the grub boot menu.

The disadvantage is that if Windows decides to put its own boot code in the MBR, you will have to do a linux rescue to reinstall grub.

Alternative 2: Setup Windows so that the Windows boot manager has an entry to boot linux. For details, check my blog post: Using the Windows boot manager. I started doing this after I ran into the problem with Vista. The downside, is that I always saw the Windows boot manager first. But it is possible to set that up so that the linux boot is the default, and you can set a short timeout. I’m not aware of any other disadvantages. Oh, yes, if an opensuse update reinstall grub, you will have to make a fresh copy of the boot sector to the file that the Windows boot manager uses.

Alternative 3: Use different generic boot code in the MBR. I describe this in a blog post Generic boot code.

I am currently using this on my laptop (my main desktop is a UEFI box with a different booting setup). So I have the Windows partition as the active partition, but the generic boot code that I am using (“altmbr.bin”) ignores the active flag and always boots to opensuse (currently partition 5 – yes, it even works for logical partitions >= 5).

There is a possibility that Windows could put its own boot code in the MBR. I’ve kept a copy of the boot code I am using in a 440 byte file. If necessary, I can boot from live linux media, find that file, and copy it back to the MBR. So it is fairly easy to fix this if Windows breaks it.

And a note about Microsoft. It isn’t that they are being nasty and trying to give linux users problems. It’s simpler than that. They made a bad design decision, such that finding their boot configuration depends on seeing which partition is marked as active. So, if you change the active flag, Windows can no longer find its boot setup, and this interferes with any Windows update that involves boot changes. (In my opinion, they should have made it depend on the partition used for booting the system this time, rather than on the active flag).

6

thanks gogalthorp moving the boot flag to the windows partition worked and I now have the update.

thanks nrickert I will look at these alternatives I used to have Alt 1 as my setup but that caused the issues you mentioned. Alt 2 looks like a good way to progress I will report back on that when I get some spare time (next weekend).

Imaginator I would love not to use windows but the applications I need for work only run on windows so I am forced to have it. OS is used for all non work activities.

Thanks everyone
Robert

7

For GRUB (legacy) you can also set the boot-flag via the Yast-Bootloader (“Activate this partition when selected for Boot”).
Having the Windows-partition set to “active” is also necessary if you want to use Window’s s2disk (hibernate).

Interesting. Alt 1 has been working for me for years now without the slightest problem (W7). In my experience however, it is important to de-select “Write generic Boot Code to MBR” in “Bootloader-Options”.

I’m not an ideologist. And if MS revoke their new privacy policy, I may consider their products again. Although I see less and less reason to do so - given the progress in OpenSource-software. In many cases a pre-10-Windows in a VirtualMachine will do.