Tumbleweed dual boot with Linux Mint 20?

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I am new to OpenSuse but loved KDE edition. I am using Linux Mint 20 and trying to install Tumbleweed as a UEFI dual boot but with no success. I just get Mint or Tumbleweed whichever I installed last. It looks like installing Tumbleweed over Mint caused a second EFI partition to be created and left a confused boot process.

#2

It should work. It is permissible to have two EFI partitions. However, some UEFI firmware is excessively fussy.

Can you provide the output from

efibootmgr -v

Use CODE blocks for that.

Most UEFI firmware has a boot menu. On my systems, I access it by hitting F12 during boot. If you have something similar, see if you can use that to gain access to the other linux system.

Beyond that, the trick is to have a boot menu entry on each system that can be used to boot the other system.

#3

How big are the two ESP partitions, and which is which?

My Mints boot from my Tumbleweeds’ Grubs.

I never have more than one ESP in a PC at once, except briefly while in the process of performing a disk cloning operation.

#4

Yes, that’s what I’m trying to accomplish. Did you install mint first or opensuse first? both on the same drive in different partitions? Both ext4?

#5

Always OS first.

# parted -l
Model: ZTC-PCIEG3-128G (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 128GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name                                 Flags
 1      1049kB  337MB   336MB   fat32           ZM2P01 EFI System (ESP)              boot, esp
 2      337MB   2174MB  1837MB  linux-swap(v1)  ZM2P02 Linux Swap                    swap
 3      2174MB  2593MB  419MB   ext2            ZM2P03 Linux reservation
 4      2593MB  6787MB  4194MB  ext4            ZM2P04 Linux /usr/local
 5      6787MB  13.5GB  6711MB  ext4            ZM2P05 Linux /home
 6      13.5GB  26.7GB  13.2GB  ext4            ZM2P06 Linux /data
 7      26.7GB  35.1GB  8389MB  ext4            ZM2P07 openSUSE Tumbleweed
 8      35.1GB  43.5GB  8389MB  ext4            ZM2P08 openSUSE 15.0
 9      43.5GB  51.9GB  8389MB  ext4            ZM2P09 openSUSE 15.1
10      51.9GB  60.3GB  8389MB  ext4            ZM2P10 Debian 10 Buster
11      60.3GB  68.7GB  8389MB  ext4            ZM2P11 openSUSE 15.2
12      68.7GB  77.0GB  8389MB  ext4            ZM2P12 Tubuntu 2004 Focal
13      77.0GB  85.4GB  8389MB  ext4            ZM2P13 LinuxMint 19 XFCE
14      85.4GB  93.8GB  8389MB  ext4            ZM2P14 Debian 11 Bullseye
15      93.8GB  102GB   8389MB  ext4            ZM2P15 Fedora 32
16      102GB   111GB   8389MB  ext4            ZM2P16 Linux 15.2 copied from gb250
17      111GB   119GB   8389MB  ext4            ZM2P17 Tubuntu 1804 Bionic
#6

Hey, thanks nrickert! You sent me off on the right track … I installed OpenSuse tumbleweed over existing Mint 20, both in ext4 partitions on the same disk. Could not see or boot Mint. Ran bootrepair which created some magic solution that allows me to step thru UEFI boot menus to get to either system. OK for now, and I am reading tutorials on UEFI and efibootmgr. After that I will play around with installs again and then perhaps bug you here with more informed questions if that’ OK.

Thx again, Phil

#7

Yes, I’m ok with that. I’m glad to hear that there is progress.

#8

With EFI boot the order defined in the UEFI static memory controls which OS boots. In the EFI boot partition you should see directories for each OS installed. the EFI boot is FAT and is mounted at /boot/efi

Note if you install a lot of OS the EFI boot is not cleaned out since there is no remove OS option. Also same with the UEFI static memory. So you must remove entries manually