MX Linux Forum

Hello everyone,

I plan to install MX Linux alongside Windows 10 in Dual Boot. I followed every step in this tutorial video https://youtu.be/PA0QGL2d2Zk and used the MX Tool Boot Repair afterwards but, when turning on the computer, the startup goes directly to Windows and not GRUB. I can still acess GRUB through the UEFI on Boot Options or as an option to restart using a device in Advanced Restart (pressing Shift while clicking Restart on Windows).

I disabled Fast Boot, Legacy Support and Secure Boot.

This is after using MX Tool Boot Repair

$ sudo efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 5 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,3000,2001,2002,2003
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0001* MX18.1
Boot2001* USB Drive (UEFI)
Boot2002* Internal CD/DVD ROM Drive (UEFI)
Boot3000* Internal Hard Disk or Solid State Disk
Boot3001* Internal Hard Disk or Solid State Disk
Boot3002* Internal Hard Disk or Solid State Disk

and after a restart

BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 5 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,3000,0001,2001,2002,2003
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0001* MX18.1
Boot2001* USB Drive (UEFI)
Boot2002* Internal CD/DVD ROM Drive (UEFI)
Boot3000* Internal Hard Disk or Solid State Disk
Boot3001* Internal Hard Disk or Solid State Disk
Boot3002* Internal Hard Disk or Solid State Disk

What can I try next to overwrite Windows Boot Manager?

With some UEFI firmeware you cannot do much, as it always try to boot into Windows first.

But there is still hope : One easy way which I would try fist is this one.
Windows does place two EFI-boot loaders on the ESP (EFI System partition)
Its official own Boot loader:
ESP-Partion: : /EFI/Microsoft/bootmgfm.efi
and a 2nd one:
under the so called EFI-fallback bootloader:
ESP-Partion: : /EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi

Some UEFI firmware re-reading or ignoring the internal stored
boot order, when Microsoft is not first or something have changed and
do rescan the /EFI-directories and do choose very often to start the EFI-fallback loader

So you could try to first re-name (so you have a backup)
/EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi to /EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi.Windows
and
than copy
/EFI/MX18.1/grubx64.efi to /EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi

With some luck you are in business, again ;=), as UEFI firmware might now boot directly into MX Linux.

Another way you might also try:
There are some other efibootmgr tricks, but all depends on the UEFI firmware of the device.
You could also try to NOT change the boot order with efibootmgr,
but instead "de-activating" the first Windows entry, but such that it still
stays on first boot position. As this might not trigger UEFI-firmware reordering.
But the deactivated "Windows" entry get ignored during UEFI-boot and next MX18.1 is choosen to boot into.
Good Luck.

HTH

Some machines also require you to go into the "BIOS" and add the MX grub efi file to the list of trusted boot files--the Acer I have, for example. Can you tell us the make and model of yours?

sometimes you do have to overwrite that file: /EFI/Microsoft/bootmgfm.efi in the location of /EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi
with the other file - thus: /EFI/BOOT/grubx64.efi

- - which is what fehlix has stated.
and you may have to do that file manipulation, with your Linux Live media - - due to permission issues.

The easiest way to solve the multiboot problems is still:
https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

noClue wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 4:34 am The easiest way to solve the multiboot problems is still:
https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

Open or closed source?

It is closed source, but free to download for non-commercial use.
And in my experience it works well.

noClue wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 4:34 am The easiest way to solve the multiboot problems is still:
https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

OP asked for dual boot on UEFI. EasyBCD is good on BIOS(legacy) booting, but limited on EFI booting.

https://neosmart.net/wiki/easybcd/uefi/

Option 3: Use GRUB2 EFI as your main boot manager

EasyBCD controls the Windows boot menu, and has traditionally been used as the primary boot manager. With EasyBCD, it is possible to add entries for Linux and older versions of Windows to the top-level BCD menu seen when your machine first boots. Since the Windows boot manager running in UEFI mode does not support the loading of legacy and non-Microsoft operating systems, another option is possible.

When installing Linux or any other 3rd party OS that ships with its own bootloader, instead of choosing to install GRUB to the bootsector as is traditionally done when opting to use EasyBCD to control your boot menu, choose to install GRUB to the MBR (or disk, in this case) and make it the main bootloader for your PC. You can add the Windows boot menu to the GRUB2 EFI boot menu – in this case, you’ll see GRUB’s boot menu when your PC starts, and from there you can choose Windows. You can still use EasyBCD to control the Windows boot menu and set up multi-boots and re-configure Vista+ entries in the BCD boot menu, but with the GRUB2 EFI menu loading first, you can use that to boot into Linux and to chainload NTLDR to boot into Windows 9x.

How well does it do it, I don't know -- I'm disabling UEFI wherever possible.

However, the main point about it is, no matter what OS boots, you have a possibility to fix it out of the OS in which you could boot.

noClue wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:24 pm How well does it do it, I don't know -- I'm disabling UEFI wherever possible.

You need read it cearefully - twice. It just says GRUB2 EFI, which is not part of their offering.
EasyBCD is a nice build around BCD and GRUB, kind of. Internally it uses grub4dos to boot into grub2 for bios by chainloading from grub4dos into GRUB2 (bios). It was and still is very good to help to understand and use BCD and to boot into other os.
And yes UEFI, is a bit more complex, and can lead to booting issues... but in the end there is always hope ...