Installation Question

[Arminius]

Mint 21.1

On installation from an USB stick, the questions asked as to which partition to install. I don't know where to direct the installation of the boot loader. I have a windows partition that I don't want to overwrite. I want the installation to dual boot. However, there is an existing Mint 18 installation. The question asked is: Do I want a side by side installation. No. I want to overwrite the existing Mint 18 installation.

So I select, something other. The install program brings up the partitions where I want the boot loader installed.

I don't know. I want to preserve the existing windows install. What do I select in order to achieve a dual boot system that preserves the existing windows install?

Gratefully,

Silverfox.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

do you know if mint 18 was installed in uefi or legacy/bios boot mode? if it was installed in uefi mode, there should be an entry for it if you run the command

efibootmgr -v

this is an entry for mint (which is always labeled as ubuntu) 20.3 installed in uefi mode:

efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0019
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0019,0000,0001
...
Boot0019* ubuntu    HD(2,GPT,0998ad70-912a-4def-9458-d431aec510eb,0x1be24000,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)

this part of that entry (0998ad70-912a-4def-9458-d431aec510eb) refers to the PARTUUID of my system's efi system partition. i can find that with the blkid command:

blkid
...
/dev/sda2: LABEL="EFI" UUID="3BC1-ADE0" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI System Partition" PARTUUID="0998ad70-912a-4def-9458-d431aec510eb"

if mint 18 was installed in bios or legacy boot mode, the boot loader is installed to the disk itself which is usually /dev/sdX where X is often a, b, c or the like. you should be able to see those designations with blkid as well.

another wrinkle is that if you boot the installer usb in bios mode it may not let you run efibootmgr. in that case, you would still want to check the blkid output to see if you have any partitions that might be an efi system partition like the one above.

 

[Arminius]

So I executed the command on a different system and this is what I received in response. What does this mean? If I can understand the response on this system, I may be able to understand the response on the target.

I will run the command on the system in question in the morning.

Again, the question is: Where should the installation, boot loader be directed so as not to corrupt the existing windows operating system boot loader?

Thank you.

efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0005,0001,0000,0006,0003,0004
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,9e5a30ea-c8c5-47fc-8d0c-fa86c3e1c77e,0x800,0x145000)/File(\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}...O................
Boot0001* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,9e5a30ea-c8c5-47fc-8d0c-fa86c3e1c77e,0x800,0x145000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0003* Onboard NIC(IPV4) PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(004e01b1b907,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0004* Onboard NIC(IPV6) PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(004e01b1b907,0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0005* UEFI: SanDisk Extreme SSD 1012 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(13,0)/CDROM(1,0x4bc,0x8240)..BO
Boot0006* UEFI: SanDisk Extreme SSD 1012 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(13,0)/HD(2,MBR,0x5d908bc1,0x4bc,0x2090)..BO

 

[kc1di]

It would be easier for us to tell if you could post the output of the partition manager's output. Which file system your using would also be helpful. Normally in a UEFI boot situation you'll have a small boot partition that is where the boot loader would install UEFI boot stuff. If your not sure what partition you have. Using the live usb open gparted, I believe they still have it on the live usb and let us see how your disc is partitioned now.

 

[camtaf]

Looks to me like you just need to tell the UEFI installer to use the 'Ubuntu' (Mint) partition, it will overwrite Mint, & add a boot entry to the EFI boot partition.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,9e5a30ea-c8c5-47fc-8d0c-fa86c3e1c77e
...
Boot0001* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,9e5a30ea-c8c5-47fc-8d0c-fa86c3e1c77e

given these two entries, you would still need to run the command

blkid

to figure out which partition has a PARTUUID of 9e5a30ea-c8c5-47fc-8d0c-fa86c3e1c77e. the 1 in this section [HD(1,GPT] of those entries indicates that the boot manager for windows and the boot loader for ubuntu or mint are installed on the first partition of that disk. in blkid it would likely be /dev/sdX1 where X is a, b, or something like that. unless you have an nvme, then the labels are a bit different (/dev/nvme*).

to help verify you have the right partition, it may have these other identifying fields in the blkid output:

LABEL="EFI" ... TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI System Partition"

in GParted, the File System is listed as fat32 and the partition would probably have the Flags boot, esp.

 

[Arminius]

I'll get to the suggestions later today and get back to ya'll.

Thanks.