Hi,
I know there are some topics about this combination, but I wasn’t able to make this work.
I have installed Windows 8 on my notebook and then I install openSUSE 12.3.
When in BIOS is choosed Legacy bios for boot, grub starts and I only see openSUSE 12.3.
When in BIOS is choosed UEFI, the windows boot manager starts and I only see Windows 8.
I want to see Windows 8 also in my grub. Could you please tell me which information you need to help me? I’m practically beginner to linux.
Thanks
Hi, welcome,
Please start openSUSE 12.3.
Plug a USB stick.
Open a text editor (e.g. Kwrite).
Open a terminal (click on the chameleon in the lower left corner and search for ‘terminal’).
In the terminal enter
su -
You will be asked for the root password. Enter it.
Then in the terminal enter
parted -l
Copy what output you get by this by selecting this output with the mouse and using the ‘Edit’ pull-down menu of the terminal window to copy,
and paste that in the window of the text editor and save that to a file on the USB stick.
Post this output here.
If you should have any difficulties in carrying out this don’t hesitate to ask here.
Your problem is that you have installed opensuse in BIOS mode, and not in UEFI mode.
This is fixable if you installed as a 64 bit system. If you installed a 32 bit system, then I’m afraid that you will need to repeate the install.
I am not sure how you installed.
Booting from the install DVD should have booted in UEFI mode.
Booting from the live KDE or Gnome system also should have booted in UEFI mode.
It is possible that you switched your system to BIOS mode before installing. That was a mistake if you did that. It is also possible that you installed from the live media (KDE or Gnome), but the defaults for those media (based on some reports) make the wrong boot selection and install so that the system can only work in BIOS mode.
So:
With that information, I can try to help. I do have opensuse 12.3 and Windows 8 in a dual boot setup on a UEFI box, and I think I have already discovered most of the difficulties.
Just that was the reason for me asking for the output of ‘parted -l’
Installation was from Live USB and it is 64 bit.
I’m not able to boot to UEFI mode with Live USB. There’s this error: USB HDD has been blocked by the current security policy.
here’s the output
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ01ABD1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 420MB 419MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag
2 420MB 735MB 315MB fat32 EFI system partition boot
3 735MB 869MB 134MB Microsoft reserved partition msftres
4 869MB 216GB 215GB ntfs Basic data partition
5 216GB 724GB 509GB ntfs Basic data partition
7 726GB 748GB 21.5GB ext4 primary
8 748GB 970GB 222GB ext4 primary
9 970GB 980GB 10.7GB linux-swap(v1) primary
6 980GB 1000GB 19.9GB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag
Model: Kingston DT Mini Fun G2 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8011MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 207kB 4401kB 4194kB primary type=ef
2 4401kB 999MB 995MB primary boot, type=83
I’m not sure if I switched my system to BIOS mode before installing, but probably yes…
Thanks for quick replies.
Hi lingi,
That is normal, it is to be expected under secure boot (which is required by Microsoft for new PCs/laptops booting windows 8).
So I guess you switched to old BIOS mode (using CSM=Compatibility Support Module ?) before booting from the openSUSE Live image on USB, right ?
Your Kingston SSD has a ‘msdos’ partition table, so it is likely that openSUSE boots from there (which as well means that openSUSE installer
modified something there).
Try disabling secure boot, and then see if you can boot to UEFI mode. Also check if there are other BIOS setting that might be able to change this.
So I finally disabled the secure boot and now I’m able to boot from live media.
What should I do now? Do I need to install openSUSE again in UEFI mode?
Hi again,
… which on the other hand you must have been before, or you wouldn’t have been able to at all install openSUSE 12.3.
In your 2nd post you wrote
but on the other hand as well
and still in the same posting
You don’t seem to be really aware what BIOS / firmware settings you currently have, which is not good.
Now back to your last posting:
Wait with re-installation !
First carefully read
Linux and Windows 8: Fast Startup puts data at risk - The H Open: News and Features
and
Prevention - The H Open: News and Features
and then tell here if you had ‘fast startup’ enabled in windows 8.
I checked it now and I have fast startup enabled.
Before I can’t boot from live usb in UEFI mode, due to enabled secure boot. So I can boot it only in Legacy Bios.
… and so you installed openSUSE 12.3 in non-UEFI or legacy mode, right ?
I suggest you now first boot up windows 8 and use it to check your NTFS partitions, otherwise called windows “drives” C: …
Then you will have to make a decision:
(1) If you want to use any Linux (not only openSUSE) you will only be able to mount the NTFS and FAT partitions read-only,
if you continue to use ‘fast startup’. Under openSUSE I think you’ll still have to set up this manually, i.e. use the partitioner of YaST.
This (read-only mounting in Linux) makes exchange of data between Linux and windows uncomfortable.
IF you keep ‘fast startup’ switched on you shouldn’t even write to your NTFS partitions after booting from a live CD / live USB !
(2) On the other hand, you can disable ‘fast startup’.
Your windows 8 will then take more time to boot, but you then can use Linux to as well write to the NTFS partitions.
Right I’ve installed openSUSE in non-UEFI (legacy) mode.
So if I disable fast-startup, I will be able to make it work without reinstalling?
Hmpfhh …
I don’t think so, although I can’t tell for sure in the end.
At least I never heard that the old version of the Linux boot loader,
i.e. legacy Grub or Grub1,
is able to run from a partition with a GPT,
that your hard disk has according to the output of ‘parted -l’ that you posted above.
So I fear that your installation in legacy or non-UEFI mode changed the contents of the small Kingston SSD that you have in your notebook.
According to the output of ‘parted -l’ that you posted above this SSD (Partition Pable ‘msdos’) has an old style MBR.
I don’t know for Grub2.
And it isn’t clear yet which boot loader you installed, and where.
So possibly there’s trouble ahead.
I would like to ask you for two more things:
(1) Please tell more about your hardware’Smart Response Technolgy’,
, i.e. manufacturer, type / name of your notebook.
(2) Could you check in your BIOS setup whether RAID mode for your SATA controler, and/or ‘Smart Response Technolgy’ is enabled.
In principle this should not be the case, because Intel seems to require a minimum size of 20GB for the SSD in order to use
Intel Smart Response Technology
but who knows?
I think we are misunderstood here.
The Kingston is USB Flash, not SSD in notebook. It is the live usb.
I have only 1 disc in notebook.
The notebook is Acer | Aspire V3 | V3-571G-53218G1TMaii | Datasheet. It is in czech, but you can find main attributes here.
I think so, but I have not tried.
You will need an EFI partition, other than the one that Windows is using. If you have some free space on disk, you can create an EFI partition using “gdisk”. If there’s oodles of space, I suggest 100M size, but you can make do with less. Format it for vfat:
mkfs -t vfat -F 32 /dev/whatever ## change the device to whatever
Mount that as “/boot/efi”. Add an entry to “/etc/fstab” so that it automatically mounts.
With that done, you need to boot into UEFI mode with your install media. Follow the wiki instructions for reinstalling grub, but make sure that you install grub2-efi as your grub version.
I can fill in the details if you need them. This should at least get you thinking on the right track.
I suggest that you read my blog post Dual boot opensuse 12.3 and Windows 8 on a UEFI box
Aaaaaah, yes !! 
Did you understand what nrickert suggested?
Otherwise you should ask.
A tutorial on “gdisk” (a command line tool) besides can be found here:
GPT fdisk Tutorial
In any case you should do that:
Whenever possible, personally I would prefer to use graphical tools to create an additional EFI partition,
in order to minimize the probability of errors with a potential for severe consequences (like e.g. loss of partitions).
You could check if
GParted – About
or
Parted Magic
are able to do that.
I never created an EFI partition manually, so I can’t tell you.
You should have understood that:
These are 2 (in words: two) different points that are not linked to each other:
(1) In any case you will have to disable ‘fast startup’ in windows 8 if you want to be able to write to windows partitions (or “drives” C:, D:, …) from Linux.
This already is true if you boot from any Linux live USB / CD / DVD !
(2) Re-installing (i.e. using the openSUSE 12.3 installer) in UEFI mode would provide you with the comfort of an automated setup.
If you don’t know much about Linux then that is much easier, and then you will probably need much less time for that.
Good luck
Mike
Yes, I agree with that.