Power up boots directly to Windows

[Falcon]

I have a Windows 7 partition on my computer in addition to MX-21. Normally, the computer boots to the GRUB boot manager with MX as the default. I was doing some work trying to restore the Windows partition. When I got done with all of this, I found that when I boot the computer, it boots directly to Windows without displaying the GRUB boot manager.

If I start up using the BIOS boot menu, I have the choice of booting from the Windows Boot Manager, or from the disk. If I choose to boot from the disk, then the GRUB boot manager will be displayed as usual.

I opened the UEFI BIOS program and checked the boot order. The only boot devices that were displayed were Windows Boot Manager, the CD/DVD drive and an additional HDD where I keep my data. The disk that contains the operating systems was not shown as an option, even though it shows up in the boot menu. Something must have gotten altered when I was working with Windows, but I don't know how to go about correcting it. Can someone please help me to get this fixed?

Thanks in advance.

[CharlesV]

Possibly running MX from your bios and then trying MX Boot Repair will fix it up easily. Try the first choice first - Repair GRUB, and then if that doesnt do it try the second choice - Reinstall Grub.

[Falcon]

If I choose Repair GRUB configuration files, I'm asked where the repair should take place, and the default is the root of the MX partition. I thought that the boot loader was installed in the MBR of the disk. Is the default location of the MX partition the one that I should be using?

[CharlesV]

I believe that it can be setup in different ways, but normally yes.

[Falcon]

Okay, I used Boot Repair from MX Tools and selected the repair option. Then I tried to reboot, but it still went right to Windows. The I restarted from the boot menu and tried to reinstall GRUB to the MBR. I got a message window that the operation completed successfully, but when I rebooted it still went right to Windows.

I don't know if this has any bearing on the subject, but when I boot from the disk in the boot menu, the option to boot to Windows does not appear on the boot selection screen as it had before all this started. Does this give you any clues?

[CharlesV]

hmm... it sounds like the bios is dictating which drive / partition to boot too and they both have a boot record.

Post your QSI please.

[Falcon]

I should have done this before:

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20250509_0749
System:    Kernel: 6.2.14-1-liquorix-amd64 [6.2-23~mx21+1] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: audit=0 intel_pstate=disable hpet=disable rcupdate.rcu_expedited=1 
           BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.2.14-1-liquorix-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21.3_x64 Wildflower January 15  2023 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: B150M-A D3 v: Rev X.0x serial: <filter> 
           UEFI-[Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 0212 date: 07/10/2015 
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard serial: <filter> 
           charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-6100 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake-S 
           family: 6 model-id: 5E (94) stepping: 3 microcode: F0 cache: L2: 3 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 29598 
           Speed: 3699 MHz min/max: 740/3700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3700 2: 3700 3: 3700 
           4: 3700 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: retbleed mitigation: IBRS 
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: IBRS, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling, 
           PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 530 vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           chip-ID: 8086:1912 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.14 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0 driver: 
           loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1200 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x317mm (20.0x12.5") 
           s-diag: 599mm (23.6") 
           Monitor-1: DP-1 res: 1920x1200 hz: 60 dpi: 94 size: 518x324mm (20.4x12.8") 
           diag: 611mm (24.1") 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.5 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK H110I-PLUS 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_avs bus-ID: 00:1f.3 
           chip-ID: 8086:a170 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.2.14-1-liquorix-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
           vendor: ASUSTeK RTL8111H driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000 bus-ID: 05:00.0 
           chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL88x2bu [AC1200 Techkey] type: USB driver: rtw_8822bu bus-ID: 1-2:2 
           chip-ID: 0bda:b812 class-ID: 0000 serial: <filter> 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 960.77 GiB used: 196.8 GiB (20.5%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> 
           rev: 045 scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Western Digital model: WD5000AZRX-00A3KB0 
           size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD 
           rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> rev: 1A01 scheme: MBR 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB vendor: Walgreen model: Infinitive 
           size: 29.25 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> 
           rev: 1.00 scheme: MBR 
           SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure? 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 210.42 GiB size: 206.06 GiB (97.93%) used: 95.95 GiB (46.6%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 100 MiB size: 96 MiB (96.00%) used: 17.4 MiB (18.1%) fs: vfat 
           dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 50 (default 100) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 16 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8 C mobo: 27.8 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 2394 lib: 1206 flatpak: 0 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ bullseye main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
           2: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bullseye ahs
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/softmaker.list 
           1: deb http://shop.softmaker.com/repo/apt stable non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:      Processes: 249 Uptime: 34m wakeups: 5 Memory: 15.51 GiB used: 2.01 GiB (13.0%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)

[Eadwine Rose]

In UEFI manager, manage UEFI entries, I have two entries, one windows, one UEFI OS (which is mx).

I have the UEFI OS on the top. Might be that yours has windows boot manager on top.

[Falcon]

Eadwine Rose,

I tried using the UEFI manager as you suggested but I got the following message:

"This system doesn't seem to support UEFI, or was not booted in UEFI mode. Exiting."

I don't know if what I wrote in the first post was very clear, but when I boot up the computer from the BIOS boot menu, one boot option is Windows Boot Manager and the other is just the disk itself. But when I open the UEFI BIOS configuration and check the boot order, the only one shown is Windows Boot Manager.

[baldyeti]

Your first drive is GPT-partitioned and the second MBR-partitioned.

Does the ASUS firmware allow you to choose which drive to boot from, and either in legacy or UEFI mode ?

And are Windows and MX installed on the same unit, or each on its own disk ?