MX Linux and Windows 10 / dual boot from two drives [Solved]

[Butters]

Greetings,

I plan on building a new computer, and want to be able to boot to either MX Linux or Windows 10.
I did searches on this subject, and watched youtube videos, and have concluded that the least problematic way to accomplish this is to use two storage devices (one SSD for MX Linux and one SSD for Windows 10).

The more I research this topic, the more questions I add to my list than questions I can remove from my list.

My goal is to be able to boot, and have the BIOS (or grub, etc) default to one or the other OS (and be able to choose which is the default, and also be able to manually pick either one at boot time).

But I have heard that Windows will sometimes perform an update that will screw up the boot loader. Is this a legitimate issue? And if yes, then what commands/tools, etc should I have ready on a repair-flash-drive?

Also, will backing up the drives be more complicated? Will I be able to use a Linux based tool to backup the SSD that has MX Linux, and use some Windows tool to back up the other SSD that has Windows 10?
And which SSD will have the boot loading code? I assume that the hardware will initially look at only one of the two SSDs, and that SSD will contain grub or the boot loading info? How to I back that up and restore it if, for example, that SSD dies?

Any advice is welcome.

Thank you.

[JayM]

Greetings,

I plan on building a new computer, and want to be able to boot to either MX Linux or Windows 10.

Oooh, a new computer! Sweet!

I did searches on this subject, and watched youtube videos, and have concluded that the least problematic way to accomplish this is to use two storage devices (one SSD for MX Linux and one SSD for Windows 10).

That should work pretty well.

The more I research this topic, the more questions I add to my list than questions I can remove from my list.

My goal is to be able to boot, and have the BIOS (or grub, etc) default to one or the other OS (and be able to choose which is the default, and also be able to manually pick either one at boot time).

It's a lot easier to make the drive with MX and grub on it the default boot device then just choose Windows 10 from the grub boot menu so you don't have to keep going into your BIOS or UEFI settings and changing the boot device priority. In MX Boot Options you can set it to remember and default to your previous boot choice, so if you select Win10 on the grub menu it will continue to boot into Windows by default until you select MX. That's a lot easier, huh?

But I have heard that Windows will sometimes perform an update that will screw up the boot loader. Is this a legitimate issue? And if yes, then what commands/tools, etc should I have ready on a repair-flash-drive?

What happens is that sometimes Windows 10 will put itself to the top of the available boot systems in UEFI boot order. Should that happen just go into your system's setup utility and put MX Linux (with grub) back to the first slot.

Also, will backing up the drives be more complicated? Will I be able to use a Linux based tool to backup the SSD that has MX Linux, and use some Windows tool to back up the other SSD that has Windows 10?

MX Linux's backup utlities are able to read and write from/to NTFS partitions so a Windows-specific backup program isn't necessary.

And which SSD will have the boot loading code? I assume that the hardware will initially look at only one of the two SSDs, and that SSD will contain grub or the boot loading info? How to I back that up and restore it if, for example, that SSD dies?

See my answer above re: making the MX drive, with grub installed on it, the default boot device.

The hardware will boot from whatever drive/operating system is set as the default in your system settings (probably UEFI setup as this will be a new computer.) Should the drive ever fail you'll need to reinstall MX onto the replacement drive. When you do, grub should detect Windows 10 on the other drive when grub is installed during the installation process. Then it's just a matter of making sure that MX is the default OS to boot to, and Windows 10 will be on your grub boot menu.

What I would actually do, assuming this will be a desktop computer that's relatively easy to work on vs. laptops, is install Windows with only its intended drive connected, then power down and remove the power cord, connect the MX drive, boot from your MX live USB and install MX to the second drive being careful not to install it onto the drive you just installed Windows to. You can examine both drives in gparted on the live USB and note which one has one or more NTFS partitions and which one contains only unallocated space and check their drive designations, i.e. which is sda and which is sdb, to make sure that when you install MX you do so to the correct drive.

[Butters]

Thank you, JayM. That was very helpful, and simple enough.

Would you please recommend a tool that I could use for the backups/restores?

I am currently using Acronis' True Image, from a boot disk (it runs some Linux OS GUI that offers lots of options, such as encryption, compression, passphrase protection, full, incremental, and differential backup).
If my True Image boot disk will recognize my new hardware (which will be a desktop, by the way), then I will probably stick with True Image -- because I know what to do.

But in case True Image will not work, what is a good Linux app or command for backing up the two SSDs containing different OS's. Keep in mind that I will do one backup for the Linux SSD and a separate backup for the Windows SSD.

Thank you.

[JayM]

LuckyBackup comes preinstalled in MX. I suggest just using it, at least for manual or user-generated backups which are the kind most people do. If you want to set up something that does automated incremental backups there are other options available in MX's repository. I can't suggest anything because my own backup system is a combination of Lucky Backup backups along with reminders in the Orage clock's calendar to nag me when it's time to do one. I also create a personal snapshot of MX at (semi)regular intervals, burn it to a USB stick, make sure it's bootable and set it aside in case I need to reinstall. I use Orage reminders for this too. I also don't use Windows in any form on any of my machines.

Another option is to use Clonezilla to create an image of your Windows drive every so often so you can restore that installation too if needed. You can do the same for your MX installation. They have an iso available that you can burn to a DVD (and probably to a USB flash drive) to boot from when you need to use it. A web search will let you find it and download it when the time comes. These Clonezilla disk images have to be done manually and require a destination disk large enough to hold the images, such as an external USB hard disk.

[acecombat2]

I'm using my computer as server mainly. So I don't usually need dual boot.

What I'm using right now practically make use of virtual machine, mine using vm workstation with windows 10. using windows 10 for printing since the driver is the main issue for linux.

For backup using mx tools of snapshot, and duplicati or timeshift. since I just need to backup mx-19 as the windows 10 reside as virtual machine. less headache.

If your machine will make use for games. then dual boot with 2 different drives is recommended.

[Gerhard S.]

I have Dual Boot on 1 datastorage/hdd
Use Windows 10 bootmanager, (had configured it after MX-install with GUI EasyBCD v2.3)

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Windows 10 on 1. partition (I do not touch this)
MX19 on 2. partition ext4
Linux-swap on 3. partition

Near end of MX19 installation

Code: Select all

 I select grub -> in PBR(of MX-partition)

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Boot menu:

Windows 10
MX19Linux
...
... (and others too; for example: complete ISO's)

Edit: EasyBCD v2.3

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Near end of MX19 installation

Code: Select all

 I select grub -> in PBR(of MX-partition)

That is likely to break:

installing to a filesystem means that GRUB is vulnerable to its blocks being moved around by filesystem features such as tail packing, or even by aggressive fsck implementations, so this approach is quite fragile

https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manua ... stallation

For UEFI systems it is possible to force Windows to chainload GRUB: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ue ... boot_order

[Gerhard S.]

@Head
I forgot this detail: I wrote about BIOS driven HDD.
Hm hm, 'quite fragile'. I will do further tests for you.
No problems until today. MX19 does every boot a quick fscheck - but no detected failures at all.

Do you prefer UEFI ?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Do you prefer UEFI ?

Well it's definitely easier to manage multi-booting with UEFI but the extra complexity of the firmware provides more opportunities for bugs & vulnerabilities so it's a bit of a mixed bag tbh.

[fehlix]

I forgot this detail: I wrote about BIOS driven HDD.
Hm hm, 'quite fragile'. I will do further tests for you.

To add: legacy BIOS booting is in sense simpler to manage.
For two drives ( A + B ) you have two MBR's which BIOS can boot from.
UEFI seems to be easier, but sometimes it can be get also a bit more complex.
Note, avoid mixing UEFI and BIOS booting, that is possible but in most cases confusing.
So in case your System is setup to boot from drive A (with Windows-MBR installed), which BIOS boot's by loading MBR from drive A.
Grub can be installed into both MBR drive B and PBR of the MX-root-partition.
And, you can add chainloading into MX-grub from WinOS Boot menu, which you have done. The method used is to "chainload" from WinOS boot menu in MX is to use the PBR.
And sure we can "install" grub into PBR and also into the MBR.
You might try to chainloadin into MBR from Windows boot menu.
Grub booting from PBR is fragile, as pointed out by Head_on_a_Stick.
So in case of BIOS-booting, you can leave the "fragile" booting from PBR into MX within WinOS boot menu or try to use the MBR of MX-drive.
But I would suggest to boot from the drive B (MX-drive) by changing the boot order with the BIOS(UEFI)-firmware. As you have a boot entry for WinOS with the GRUB menu you can always boot ito winOS from here.
Alternatively start the whole setup from scratch and keep all in UEFI booting.