Windows 10 boot MX-23 ISO from a partition w/o using a USB (this thread was split from another thread)

[DukeComposed]

To EasyBDC's credit, there was a warning window that appeared when opening EasyBCD stating that Microsoft has limitations that may keep EasyBCD's multi-booting features from being used while in the EFI mode.

When I learned that EasyBCD has allegedly been changed to disable dual-booting Linux I checked three different file download locations easily obtained through a web search and they all had the same version of EasyBCD v2.4, but it is a different binary than the version of EasyBCD v2.4 that I downloaded two and a half years ago, so I can't recommend anyone trust it without doing more research.

I know for a fact EasyBCD v2.4 supports dual-booting Linux because it's how I dual-booted Windows and Linux long ago in this now very old and, frankly, mutated thread. I do not recall if I ran my tests in MBR or UEFI mode, but my suspicion is that, if the feature is greyed out for you and not for me, that I used MBR and you used UEFI.

[fehlix]

To EasyBDC's credit, there was a warning window that appeared when opening EasyBCD stating that Microsoft has limitations that may keep EasyBCD's multi-booting features from being used while in the EFI mode.

When I learned that EasyBCD has allegedly been changed to disable dual-booting Linux I checked three different file download locations easily obtained through a web search and they all had the same version of EasyBCD v2.4, but it is a different binary than the version of EasyBCD v2.4 that I downloaded two and a half years ago, so I can't recommend anyone trust it without doing more research.

I know for a fact EasyBCD v2.4 supports dual-booting Linux because it's how I dual-booted Windows and Linux long ago in this now very old and, frankly, mutated thread. I do not recall if I ran my tests in MBR or UEFI mode, but my suspicion is that, if the feature is greyed out for you and not for me, that I used MBR and you used UEFI.

Yes, we should always specify DualBoot on UEFI or DualBoot on MBR/BIOS booted system, otherwise we create confusion.

[Stuart_M]

Okay, I couldn't help myself, after reading fehlix's Post #111 Post #30 (this thread) and showing the excellent link on how to set up rEFInd on Windows (https://www.easyuefi.com/resource/set-u ... yuefi.html), I decided to give it another go.

After uninstalling Grub2Win (for the nth time) on my Windows SSD for a fresh start, I was easily able to successfully install rEFInd on Windows 10. After configuring rEFInd according to the link tutorial, a boot menu was then displayed on boot up. That menu, among other things, included Windows 10, the Live MX-23.2 extracted ISO files I had put on a partition, and the installed MX-23.2 that was made with Grub2Win when it was installed and tested on Windows 10 (my Post #91 Post #10 [this thread]). Never at any stage was a USB Flash Drive used. Everything came from downloading into Windows 10 from the Internet.

Ultimately rEFInd was easier than Grub2Win. rEFInd that was able to automatically determine the two MX-23.2 partitions and include them on the boot up menu, something Grub2Win also did but was more complicated, although Grub2Win is much more configurable whereas rEFInd is much less (the rEFInd boot menu cannot be configured at all, at least not in the 30 minutes I was testing it), which is really an insignificant point.

What made all the difference in being able to install rEFInd was using EasyUEFI - that was key. That was the link that fehlix gave (see first paragraph above). As good as that tutorial is, I found some errors that made it a little difficult at first but they were minor.

I will now be drafting a post that will be based on that link showing step by step how it's done. I will include images where appropriate, realizing the 3-image per post limit (if memory serves). It will take several hours as I go through the process again, this time making notes.

[fehlix]

Okay, I couldn't help myself, after reading fehlix's Post #111 and showing the excellent link on how to set up rEFInd on Windows (https://www.easyuefi.com/resource/set-u ... yuefi.html), I decided to give it another go.

After uninstalling Grub2Win (for the nth time) on my Windows SSD for a fresh start, I was easily able to successfully install rEFInd on Windows 10. After configuring rEFInd according to the link tutorial, a boot menu was then displayed on boot up. That menu, among other things, included Windows 10, the Live MX-23.2 extracted ISO files I had put on a partition, and the installed MX-23.2 that was made with Grub2Win when it was installed and tested on Windows 10 (my Post #91). Never at any stage was a USB Flash Drive used. Everything came from downloading into Windows 10 from the Internet.

Ultimately rEFInd was easier than Grub2Win. rEFInd that was able to automatically determine the two MX-23.2 partitions and include them on the boot up menu, something Grub2Win also did but was more complicated, although Grub2Win is much more configurable whereas rEFInd is much less (the rEFInd boot menu cannot be configured at all, at least not in the 30 minutes I was testing it), which is really an insignificant point.

What made all the difference in being able to install rEFInd was using EasyUEFI - that was key. That was the link that fehlix gave (see first paragraph above). As good as that tutorial is, I found some errors that made it a little difficult at first but they were minor.

I will now be drafting a post that will be based on that link showing step by step how it's done. I will include images where appropriate, realizing the 3-image per post limit (if memory serves). It will take several hours as I go through the process again, this time making notes.

Cool, great stuff. And I guess with help of the blab= boot paramter you have been able to boot into the LiveGRUB and further boot into the "extracted ISO.
Also please note you have probably seen both boot options within rEFInd pointing to /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi and to /EFI/BOOT/grubx64.efi.
Note: Both will work, the former is actually a shim-efi signed by Microsoft and Debian, which would allow to boot into this "frugal" extracted ISO,
from a SecureBoot enabled system - well kind of - after having refind's secureboot "MOK"-key ("Machine Owner Key") loaded into the UEFI firmware,
and when using Debian's signed kernels (that's the standard Debian kernel used by the none-KDE MX Linux ISO's).
Thank you.

[Stuart_M]

...
And I guess with help of the blab= boot paramter you have been able to boot into the LiveGRUB and further boot into the "extracted ISO.
Also please note you have probably seen both boot options within rEFInd pointing to /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi and to /EFI/BOOT/grubx64.efi.
Note: Both will work, the former is actually a shim-efi signed by Microsoft and Debian, which would allow to boot into this "frugal" extracted ISO,
from a SecureBoot enabled system - well kind of - after having refind's secureboot "MOK"-key ("Machine Owner Key") loaded into the UEFI firmware,
and when using Debian's signed kernels (that's the standard Debian kernel used by the none-KDE MX Linux ISO's).
Thank you.

Yes, the blab=MX-LINUX was one of the key things (the whole snippet) that allowed the extracted ISO file to boot without the need for a USB Flash Drive. And yes, I have seen those other boot option files.

Back to the draft to post the tutorial.

[Stuart_M]

Installing rEFInd for configuring it to bootup MX Linux.

This is how I installed the rEFInd boot manager on to Windows 10. The purpose is based on this thread, to be able to boot up to a Live MX-23 ISO file. The key was to extract the ISO file and put those files in a separate partition. That was explained in several places in this thread but I tried to summarize everything in my Post #82 on page 9 Post #1 (this thread).

That later changed to booting up to a Live MX-23.2 that is automatically loaded to RAM using the bootup "toram" option in a line of text added to the Grub2Win grub file. All that was detailed in my Post #91, page 10 Post #10 (this thread), Step 4. It's satisfying watching the MX Linux progress bar loading to RAM. The second half was launching the MX Installer using the Terminal with the sudo minstall --brave command. That allows installing MX-23.2 on the same drive that the Live ISO is booted from. This and the previous tutorial used Grub2Win as the boot manager and that worked very well.

Finally, it was desired to use rEFInd for the boot manager. This was easier to incorporate in Windows and in some respects is better than Grub2Win, in my opinion. But Grub2Win is more configurable, especially the boot menu appearance.

This is how I installed rEFInd in a test Windows 10 installation.

First I uninstalled Grub2Win from the last test so the system would be "fresh".

1. Download the desired MX ISO file > extract this ISO file > place them in its separate FAT32 partition named MX-LINUX, etc. as shown in my Post #82 on page 9 Post #1 of this thread.
2. Download the rEFInd binary zip file from here https://rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html > save it anywhere on Windows > unzip it. These files will be copied in Step 9 below.
3. Download EasyUEFI > install and run the program.
   
   NOTE: I used https://www.easyuefi.com/index-us.html which was the latest version (5.2) but note that is free but only as in a 15-day trial. Note the "EasyUEFI Trial" in the upper left corner on a couple of the below screen shots. Elsewhere there is a countdown of the number of days left (from 15) on the lower-right corner of the window for the "trial version". There might be a TOTALLY free version but I have not found it in my limited searching.
   
   Another download page https://easyuefi.en.lo4d.com/windows says:

   EasyUEFI is a restricted version of commercial software, often called freemium which requires you to pay a license fee to unlock additional features which are not accessible with the free version. Download and installation of this software is free...

   Again, what I downloaded said it is a free 15-day trial. I have not waited 16 days to see what happens.
4. Open an installation instructional page https://www.easyuefi.com/resource/set-u ... yuefi.html that may help follow the below steps. Some of the images there may be useful since I can only post a limited number (unless I use an image hosting site...) Any of the images in that link will be referenced if need be.
5. The window that opens when launching EasyUEFI will show two options; 1) Manage EFI Boot Option and 2) Manage EFI System Partition. Click on "Manage EFI System Partition".
6. On the window that appears click on "EFI System Partition Explorer"
7. On the window that appears click on the Windows FAT32 EFI directory and then click on the lower-right "Open" button. In my case there are only two partitions that can be opened and both are EFI (see below images - the red arrow points to the Windows EFI partition). The left is for Windows and the right is for MX-23.2 (both have a radio-button on the top meaning they can be opened). See the below screenshot that has a red arrow pointing to the Windows EFI partition (left side), and is selected as shown by the red text in that partition. The partitions are VERY narrow but if viewed full screen it the entire text can be read.
   
   EFI_partition_selection_2.PNG
8. Once the partition is opened a window will allow the "refind" folder to be uploaded. Right-click the EFI directory > select "Upload". Make sure that it is the EFI (parent) folder that is highlighted and uploaded, NOT one of the EFI sub-folders! Step 4 in the URL link also has an image.
   
   EFI_folder_Upload_2.PNG
9. Once "Upload" has been selected a File Explorer window will open. Navigate to where rEFInd was unzipped and go down to the "refind" folder which is a sub-folder of the refind-bin-0.14.0.2 folder. Click on the "refind" folder to upload it into the EFI folder (see Step 5 in the URL link) > OK.
10. In the same window where the "refind" folder was uploaded, expand the "refind" folder and one level down you will see a refind.conf-sample file. Rename this file to just "refind.conf". See Steps 6-7 in the URL link.
11. "Exit" to close the EFI System Partition Explorer section.
12. Return to the main page (the one with only two icons - see Step 5 above).
13. Click on the left icon "Manage EFI Boot Option" (Step 9 in the URL link).
14. It's a little hard to see but click on the "Create a new entry." button which is between the two panes. Click on the second icon down (below the "up" arrow). Disregard the "rEFInd" entry on the left pane because the screenshot was taken after I had already finished this step.
    
    Create_Boot_Entry_button_2.PNG
15. In the next window that appears, in the upper-left corner drop-down menu, select "Linux or other OS". In the Description field to the right enter "rEFInd" (or whatever you want to appear on the boot up menu). This corresponds to Step 10 of the URL link.
16. In the same window in the previous step, select the Windows EFI partition, which will turn to red text when selected. Again, Step 10 of the URL link shows this window and it too has the same partition selected which is the second from the left. Once selected, at the bottom of the window, the "File path:" field will become available > Browse > expand the EFI folder > expand the "refind" folder > select the efi file that corresponds to your installation. In my case I selected "refind_x64.efi" > OK.
    
    FYI the three choices are: refind_aa64.efi, refind_ia32.efi, and refind_x64.efi.
17. Last step. Now go back to the previous window (Step 16 above, which is Step 11 in the URL link). Using the "Up" arrow between the two panes, move the rEFInd entry to the top of the boot order list so it will be the priority startup item.
    
    Note that this is what I told you to ignore is Step 14 above because it would not appear until this step.

That's it. Restart the computer and you should see the rEFInd boot up menu, which should have detected the partition with the Live MX-23.2 extracted ISO files. That boot up menu looks like this for me:

rEFInd_Boot_up_screen.jpg

The icons correspond to, left to right:

• Boot Microsoft EFI boot from EFI system partition
• Boot EFI\BOOT\grubx64.efi from MX-Linux
  This is the MX-23.2 extracted ISO file partition named "MX-LINUX"
• Boot Fallback boot loader from MX-LINUX
  This is for the Live MX-23.2 MX-LINUX partition - I don't know what a "Fallback boot loader" is...sorry, no time to search.
• Boot EFI\MX\grubx64.efi from EFI
  This is MX-23.2 installed
• Boot boot\vmlinuz-6.1.0-17-amd64 from rootMX23
• Boot\memtest+86+64.efi from rootMX23
  This is the memory test from the MX-23 installation

Below those 6 menu icons are, left to right:

• about rEFInd
• Manage Hidden Tags Menu (which is empty)
• Shut Down Computer
• Reboot Computer
• Reboot to Computer Setup Utility (this will take you to the BIOS)

NOTE: If the rEFInd boot up menu does not appear then go to your BIOS and ensure that the boot priority is "rEFInd". I mentioned this in my Post 98 Post #17 (this thread) - see the screenshot and the line "UEFI Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities" at the bottom of that image which allows me to move "rEFInd" to the top of the boot priorities. Note that this is different from the "Boot Priority" listing of 7 icons above the "HELP" and "INFO" column on the right. It is also different from the "FIXED BOOT ORDER Priorities" just above the bottom-most line. (I had to move "rEFInd" to the top for that boot menu to appear and everything was fine afterwards.)

[Eadwine Rose]

Topic with back and forths split off from OP's thread. Feel free to adjust the topic title to something more fitting.

@Stuart_M @fehlix a.o. Your topic is here.

[Tarq]

Were the OPs questions answered? I see some else getting help, someone other than the topic starter whose topic this is.

@Tarq

Follower, thank you for alerting me to this branching topic that interests me, but there may be members who are following the branching topic and are interested in it and were not informed of a move. It would have been better not to move or it is urgent that the title be modified, as I indicated here. My point of view is a message that does not require a response.