Unable to dual-boot Leap 15.1 and Windows 10 on separate drives

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Good afternoon,

I’m trying to dual-boot my Lenovo M92p desktop with Leap 15.1 (1T drive) and Windows 10 (500GB drive) but not having much luck. Everything I’ve tried thus far has me booting into Windows 10; Grub never shows up during the boot process. Post-install I can interrupt the boot process but no matter which drive I boot from my computer boots into Windows 10. I tried dual-booting with Leap and Windows on the same drive and that works fine but I want to keep them separate. When I install Leap, before I commit, I check the Grub settings and they contain both the Leap drive and the Windows drive so the Leap drive isn’t hidden. I tried changing the default settings for MBR and BOOT but I get red warnings telling me my system won’t boot that way. Googling this problem brings up results pertaining to re-configuring Grub but since I never see it and can’t get into Leap I’ve pretty much ignored them. I’ve dual-booted in the past with two drives with various combinations of Linux and Windows without problems. I must be missing something simple but I have yet to figure it out. Any ideas, suggestions, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Joe B

2

Ok, I did some creative rewording and found Super Grub 2. I booted using SG2 and I found these:

grub.cfg (no grub.cfg file detected)
menu.1st (no menu.1st file detected)
core.img (no core.img file detected)

Booting to Leap IS possible using the Super Grub 2 utility. So, my question now is if I can see that Grub has been configured during the installation process why is it disappearing later on?

Thanks,

Joe B

3

First question:

Is openSUSE set to use traditional BIOS/MBR booting, or is it set to use UEFI booting?

Second question:

Is Windows set to use traditional BIOS/MBR booting, or is it set to use UEFI booting?

Since you seem to manage booting with SuperGrub2, can you post the output from either

fdisk -l

or

parted -l

You will need to run those commands as root.

4

Good evening nrickert,

Sorry for the long delay; I’ve been busy but not “that” busy.

  1. I believe this means that I’m using BIOS:
    linux-away:/home/jobee # ls /sys/firmware/efi
    ls: cannot access ‘/sys/firmware/efi’: No such file or directory
    linux-away:/home/jobee #

  2. Here’s my fdisk -l result:

**linux-b91l:/home/jobee #** fdisk -l  
**Disk /dev/sda: 477 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors**
Disk model: KingFast         
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xa2c2a84f

**Device****Boot****  Start****       End****  Sectors****  Size****Id****Type**
/dev/sda1  *       2048    1187839   1185792   579M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2       1187840 1000212479 999024640 476.4G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT


**Disk /dev/sdb: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors**
Disk model: Samsung SSD 860  
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 2DC045BE-87DB-49E4-B400-AA80B18E12E2

**Device****     Start****       End****   Sectors****  Size****Type**
/dev/sdb1        2048      18431      16384     8M BIOS boot
/dev/sdb2       18432 1949329407 1949310976 929.5G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb3  1949329408 1953525134    4195727     2G Linux swap


**Disk /dev/sdc: 7.5 GiB, 8019509248 bytes, 15663104 sectors**
Disk model: USB Flash Drive  
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00268dc0

**Device****Boot****Start****     End**** Sectors**** Size****Id****Type**
/dev/sdc1  *     2048 15663103 15661056  7.5G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
**linux-b91l:/home/jobee #**

I did learn that when I use GRUB2 to boot my computer the boot screen pops up that gives me both the OpenSUSE and Windows 10 boot options. Did any of this information help you see what the problem is?

Thanks,

Joe B

5

After this long delay, I did have to go back and refresh my memory about your problem.

Yes, you are using BIOS booting.

It is typical for computer with BIOS booting, that there is BIOS setting on which disk to boot. So maybe go into BIOS settings and see if there is a setting for “boot order” (or similar). If possible, set it to boot “/dev/sdb” as the first in boot order. That would be the Samsung SSD.

If you can boot that way, you should get the grub2 menu. And that should include an entry for booting Windows.

6

Hi
Boot from the rescue and swap the boot flag from sda1 to sdb1, reboot into openSUSE and check it sees the other boot partition with os-prober and rebuild grub…

7

Well, the world may never know. I just bought a new computer, swapped out its hard drive with my current hard drive, booted it up, and now I get the GRUB menu. There’s a part of me that still wants to to know “Why?” There’s another part that says “It’s working. Leave it be.” And still another that asks “Is there any pie left in the fridge?”

Thanks for the help,

Joe B

8

Hi
As in the hard drive sdb?

9

That’s where I would be. But that’s just me.

There’s another part that says “It’s working. Leave it be.”

I’ll suggest you go with that.

And still another that asks “Is there any pie left in the fridge?”

You might as well go with that, too.

10

→ MalcomLewis - No, I moved both hard drives to the new computer. On the old computer I put the SATA cables in different ports but no joy in that. Thus my comment that there’s a part of me that still wants to know what was causing my problem. Maybe a setting in BIOS…?

→ nrickert - I tell people at work that my motto is, “If it’s not broke, fix it till it is.” I get a lot of sighs and eye rolls; apparently they don’t get true humor. And yes, now that it’s working like I want I’m not going to change anything.

Thanks for the replies and see you around,

Joe B

11

Hi
Likely the boot flag and BIOS order, is the fdisk -l output the same as you initial post?