[SOLVED] Dual booting with Windows and Pop OS

[f33dm3bits]

I've tried some things without success, I don't have recent experience with grub, multi-boot and UEFI. I think @wizardfromoz may have be able to help you out since he is the king of multi-boot.

 

[Hbayram]

Thank you very much for your help. Do I need to contact him, or will he pick up on this thread?

 

[f33dm3bits]

I tagged him my last reply so he should be notified when het logs on.

 

[Hbayram]

Thank you so much. You are too kind

 

[f33dm3bits]

I did find a how-to of how to dual-boot PopOS and Windows, so it should be possible with systemd-boot.

weywot/Pop_OS_Dual_Boot.md at main · spxak1/weywot

My notes on using Pop!_OS. Contribute to spxak1/weywot development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Dual Boot Windows 10 Alongside Pop!_OS

Learn how to install Windows alongside Pop!_OS.

support.system76.com

 

[Hbayram]

I have read that. Good write up. However, I really don't want to wipe and start again since I can boot either os.

Worset comes to worset, I can always do ESC during power on.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I can understand that it was just to show it is possible with systemd-boot. I did find another article by System76, that when a Windows update breaks systemd-boot or Grub of how to fix it. You could try either redoing grub or redoing systemd-boot.

Repair the Bootloader

How to repair and reinstall the bootloader.

support.system76.com

Grub:
1. Boot in to PopOS
2. Open a terminal
3. sudo apt install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64 linux-generic linux-headers-generic
4. sudo update-initramfs -c -k all
5. sudo update-grub
6. Then reboot and see if grub works

Systemd-boot:
1. Boot in to PopOS
2. Open a terminal
3. sudo apt install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64 linux-generic linux-headers-generic
4. sudo update-initramfs -c -k all
5. sudo bootctl --path=/boot/efi install

It might be worth trying?

 

[Hbayram]

I have just gone through the grub commands, but it is still the same.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I'm out of ideas, I'm thinking you may have some more with your experience of multi-booting @wizardfromoz
Short summary: OP first installed PopOS and then Windows, afterwards installed grub(PopOS uses systemd-boot by default) and ran update-grub. When booting they first get a grub screen, when they enter the following PopOS boots.

set prefix=(hd0,gpt3)/boot/grub
insmod normal
normal

Here's the partition layout.

nvme0n1 259:0 0 476.9G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 498M 0 part /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 4G 0 part /recovery
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 393.9G 0 part /run/timeshift/backup
├─nvme0n1p4 259:4 0 16M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p5 259:5 0 74.5G 0 part
└─nvme0n1p6 259:6 0 4G 0 part
└─cryptswap 253:0 0 4G 0 crypt [SWAP]
nvme1n1 259:7 0 27.3G 0 disk

Although I'm still not sure which is one is the Windows partition.

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
#PARTUUID=5142cec2-d485-4563-8c75-a5cf4bbd3d5e /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 0
PARTUUID=9a9854ec-afad-41c6-aa7e-cb438532e499 /recovery vfat umask=0077 0 0
UUID=3fe5911f-18d3-456f-9f71-6a27e3eb8b62 / ext4 noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/mapper/cryptswap none swap defaults 0 0
#UUID=5100-A6CA /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1
#UUID=5100-A6CA /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1
#UUID=5100-A6CA /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1
#UUID=5100-A6CA /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1
UUID=5100-A6CA /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1

efibootmgr

BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,0001,0000,0003
Boot0000* Pop!_OS 21.04
Boot0001* UEFI OS
Boot0002* pop
Boot0003* Windows Boot Manager

 

[Hbayram]

nvme0n1p3 is Linux
nvme0n1p5 is Windows

 

[f33dm3bits]

nvme0n1p3 is Linux
nvme0n1p5 is Windows

nvme0n1p3 is time shift according to your partition and mount point setup.

 

[Hbayram]

No, it is definitely the Linux main partition. SSD is 512gb, around 80gb was given to windows and the rest Linux.

 

[f33dm3bits]

What's the output of the following?

ls /run/timeshift/backup

 

[Hbayram]

ls: cannot access '/run/timeshift/backup': No such file or directory

 

[f33dm3bits]

I didn't do a dual-boot setup just a PopOS install with systemd-boot but I figured out how to install grub and to get it working. This is what I did.
1. Install Grub packages: sudo apt install grub-efi
2. Run grub-install: sudo grub-install
3. Copy grub efi file to pop efi location: sudo cp /boot/grub/x86_64-efi/grub.efi /boot/efi/EFI/pop/grubx64.efi
4. Remove systemd-boot: sudo bootctl remove
5. Set time-out in /etc/default/grub to 10 seconds, so this line

GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

6. Update grub: sudo update-grub
7. Reboot and you should now get a grub menu.

I did it in a virtual system but I expect that it should work for you too. See attachment.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Lastly since you already have grub installed I'm thinking, you will only have to do steps 3-7 to get it working on your system. The most important steps is step 3, without step 3 it I got back to a grub prompt as you mentioned in your first post. Setting the time-out to 10 seconds will give you some time to choose between booting into PopOS or Windows.

 

[Hbayram]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Been tied up lately. You sir are a genius! It has worked! Got a feeling step 4 was the key. Thank you so much mate. I truly appreciate your help.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Glad that worked, so now you are getting a grub menu where you can choose between PopOS and Windows?

 

[Hbayram]

Yes, that is correct! Just one thing the menu is displayed as 80 lines so the text is really small. İs there a way to switch to 40 so it is more readable?

 

[f33dm3bits]

Can you make a picture of what you mean, I don't quite understand what you mean?