Two Windows 10 and one Scientific Linux boot. Can't boot Linux

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barryhf

Member
I have pre-existing installations on three separate hard drives.
Two with Windows 10.
One with Scientific Linux


Installed EasyBCD 2.4, and added 3 entries, one for each Windows 10 instance, and one for Linux.


Both Windows installations boot fine (though one of them disappeared from BIOS after I installed the other. Looks like EasyBCD allows that other one to boot. Thanks for that.)
I've tried several options with Linux, with no luck so far. The Linux booted just fine when it was the only thing on the system. And before EasyBCD, it booted from BIOS just fine (though I haven't tried booting it from the BIOS since installing EasyBCD).
The drive with linux has three partitions (the drive was setup with defaults in the installer). I have assumed Partition 1 is the boot partition.
- Partition 1 200MiB
- Partition 2 1 GiB
- Partition 3 953 GiB

In EasyBCD, under "Add New Entry"->"Linux/BSD" I've tried GRUB (legacy) and GRUB 2. Both "Automatically locate and load" as well as choosing Partition 1 directly. The best thing that happens is that it loads GRUB4DOS.

I was hoping to see the kernel boot screen that normally happens when booting Linux.

Do I need to use GRUB4DOS to boot linux, and if so what are the commands?

All suggestions are welcome.

Thank you.
 
If you bought the PC with W10 onboard, it's most likely a UEFI PC in which case MS does not allow the UEFI bootmgr to boot "foreign" OSs (or even its own legacy OSs like XP)
To dual boot a UEFI W10 PC with Linux you'll need to make Linux grub take control of the boot when you install it (the default is not to do so).
Grub has no qualms about booting Windows 10

EasyBCD and UEFI

With the release of Windows 8 and Windows 10, many new computers are shipping with something known as the UEFI firmware and boot manager in place of the traditional BIOS and MBR approach to startin…
neosmart.net
 
Thank you, it's good to hear.

Following your link. If I do an "Automated Repair" using Easy Recovery Essentials, then all of the boot partition(s) reverts to legacy mode.
My BIOS has a "Legacy-UEFI mode" option, which is set.

Will it then be possible to boot into my existing Linux partition by selecting it in EasyBCD following this procedure? Or do I need to re-install Linux and have "Linux GRUB take control of the boot?" (A procedure I still need to research).

Thanks again.
 
I'm never had cause to use EasyRE so I don't know its capabilities, but I do seem to remember mqudsi mentioning something of that nature in another thread.
I personally wouldn't want to back level W10 from UEFI to MBR just to keep Windows bootmgr in control.
In the distant past (when I last used Linux) the default action of any Linux installation was to grab control of the IPL of the boot process (for which reason the EasyBCD > BCD Deployment > Install the Vista+ BCD bootmgr... exists to undo what Linux did if you let it have its own way) and dual-booting tutorials always warned (in about step 2) to actively prevent Linux from its default intention of grabbing the boot.
After many years Linux switched policy and changed the default behaviour NOT to take control.
Whatever tutorial you used should mention it somewhere pretty near the front if you want to go back to the old ways.
 
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