Seven ways to set up multi-booting with Windows 8 and Linux

This is good advice, and I'm happy to follow. If all we do is sit and complain dual boot Linux on UEFI systems is actually deter some people from trying, and the truth is that there are options that work without a huge amount of effort. First though, I'll repeat something I've said many times before. UEFI firmware each application is different - and not just a little "different, either.

Some work very well with Linux installations, dual boot without problems from the beginning. Others are difficult, unpredictable and downright maddening in its inconsistency, and they seem to go out of their way to avoid boot Linux. So if you want to dual boot Linux and Windows, try to find one written by someone with the same system being used, or at least the same manufacturer.Ok system, then why description what the possibilities are?

1. Install the Linux GRUB bootloader

Well, the first and certainly the easiest if it works correctly, install the Linux bootloader GRUB as the default boot order, and have it monitor the dual boot with Windows.

This, of course , you need to have a Linux distribution compatible with UEFI - I've tried and I can testify are openSUSE , Fedora, Linux Mint and Ubuntu, but there are others with more to come in the near future .

If you have a safe boot Linux distribution support UEFI, do not even have to change the configuration of the UEFI settings, although many people choose to disable secure boot anyway.

When you install a Linux distribution compatible with UEFI, if everything works as it should and the UEFI firmware settings do not work correctly and incorrectly " Reset" (I've seen it happen too often), then reboot after the ' full install to get the menu GRUB boot, and you will be able to choose between Linux (default) or Windows 8 to boot from it.

At this point you are almost home free - but note that I have personally seen (and personally own) systems sometime after a sudden restore the Windows boot for no reason in particular. If this happens, you should use one of the other methods described below, as my experience has been that this does not happen just once.

2. Use the BIOS Boot Select Key

The second possibility is to choose a Linux distribution support UEFI, the installation goes well, but when you restart Windows instead of Linux. This can be very daunting, but really is not that difficult to work with.

The important thing to remember is that the installation of Linux have been added to the startup list: just to get to that list to start.
The easiest way is to use the BIOS boot selection, which is activated by pressing a special key in the ignition process or reboot. That “special key” varies between systems, I have seen Escape, F9 and F12 used in some of my systems, and I'm sure there are others.

When the boot process of Windows you press stop and you will get a list of available operating systems - Windows 8 and probably Linux. I personally do not care for this option because I do not like having to "race " with the boot process to make sure I press the start button Select in time, and if I get distracted or too slow then I have to get to the bottom boot Windows and then just restart immediately to return to the boot menu selection.

But many people do not seem to care, and it is certainly an option that requires a minimum of fiddling and fighting with rebels BIOS settings. One way that this can be done a bit easier than it is to enter the BIOS setup and select a delay start-ups , many systems allow you to set anywhere from 5-30 seconds delay before starting Windows in reality , thus giving more time to press the magic button .

3. Enable 'Legacy Boot'

The third "simple" possibility is to enable 'Legacy Boot' in the BIOS configuration, and just ignore the whole UEFI issue.

This is not an option that I personally prefer, in part because I am stubborn and in part because as Adam Williamson explained to me some time ago there are some functional advantages to UEFI boot. But it certainly is a viable option, and strictly in terms of getting Linux installed and booting it might actually be the absolute simplest solution.

The only problem that I have seen with this option is that some systems make it difficult to enable Legacy Boot, either the option is well hidden in the BIOS configuration, or you actually have to set a BIOS password before they will let you change it. I have heard that there might be some systems which don't have Legacy Boot support at all, but I have never seen one like that.

Anyway, if you choose this route not only does it make things much simpler for installing and configuring dual-boot, it allows you to install pretty much any Linux distribution you want, without regard to UEFI compatbility.

I have personally used this option to install non-UEFI Linux distributions, such as SolydXK, PCLinuxOS and Linux Mint Debian Edition in a multi-boot configuration with some other UEFI-compatible distribution. I can then go back and disable Legacy Boot, and just use the UEFI-compatible GRUB to boot the non-compatible Linux.

4. Try using the Windows bootloader

The fourth option would be to use the Windows boot loader on dual-boot with Linux. I say it should be, because people continue posting comments that say " just use EasyBCD to configure " or even " use credit " , but try as I might I cannot get it to work .

I wrote about this about a year ago when I had my first UEFI system, and I assumed at the time that the problem was just that EasyBCD has not been fully adapted to support UEFI boot, but now I tried it again with the latest version of EasyBCD recently I could get from the website NeoSmart and still cannot get it to boot Linux at all.

Now it may be too dense to figure it out, but if someone is going to come and leave a comment that says “works well " , so please be prepared to be very specific , and give the exact details of what you did to get work. Because I've tried everything I can think of , and no matter what I do the only thing I get when I try to start any Linux installation is a message that says "Windows cannot start. "

I also searched the web for more information, and the only real examples I can find are the ones that have failed in the same way that I have. I find a lot of places that say " EasyBCD works," and " use EasyBCD to multi-boot Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP , MacOS and Linux," but no one actually says " we did this with Windows 8 and UEFI Linux , it worked , and this is what you must do. "

What I did was this. I downloaded and installed EasyBCD 2.2 on two Windows 8 (recently acquired HP Compaq and Acer Aspire One 725 mi) different UEFI systems. When then ran EasyBCD (as an administrator, of course), I was surprised that they came up with a list of startup configuration of the operating system. I know that the Windows boot loader had not been watching or offer to launch Windows 8 than anything else. It took me a minute to realize what was listed was all that was on the list of BIOS boot.

This was exactly what was offered if I used the option to boot selection, as described above, but if I let Windows start normally there was no sign of these others. Even if I put a 30 second delay the Windows Start using bcdedit or EasyBCD, stopped, and the list just for Windows 8. So why EasyBCD listing all the others? I did not understand, but I was hoping it might be a good sign that EasyBCD was, at least, find other options, and all you had to do was add to the regular menu of the Windows bootloader.

I tried to do it in the first place with only control one of the Linux distributions as the default boot order. EasyBCD let me do it with no complaints, but when I rebooted just returned with Windows. Bah.
Then I tried to use the option "Add" in EasyBCD, and gave all the details of the Linux partitions. This time, at least, when I rebooted the Linux option showing in the startup list, but when I tried to boot I got the message "Windows Boot Error". I yelled at the computer criticized was not even trying to start Windows, so how could it fail, but that did not help either.


Then I realized what was actually changing EasyBCD was an attempt to start something called / NST / neogrub.efi ( or something like that regard, I have the exact name in my head right now , and are powered EasyBCD and Windows , so do not I want to look back again).

So I tried to put several files that start with the name - before I tried to picture the grubx64.efi Linux distributions, then I tried to copy the boot block (first 512 bytes) of disk and / or Linux file system, as it used to be done in order to dual boot Windows XP and Linux, and then I became desperate and just put a Linux kernel with that name. Of course, none of this has worked.

Finally I decided, based on my personal experience and the lack of success stories and real configuration information on the web, which is of no use EasyBCD to create a dual boot Windows / Linux with UEFI boot enabled. It may be possible to use if you enable Legacy Boot, and then set up exactly as they did in Windows XP, but if you're going to do it, then just use the method above three and save a lot of trouble.
After fighing with EasyBCD long time, and eventually give up, I decided to make a career in the utility bcdedit, which is the standard Windows method for this type of configuration. I'm pretty familiar with this program, because I used to dual boot with Windows XP, so I was not exactly in the dark unreasonable.

But again, no matter what I tried unbootable. I was able to get the item added to the menu of the Linux boot loader in Windows, and could set all kinds of different things like boot order, but none of them worked. Finally, just to prove to myself that I was not just doing something fundamentally wrong (or stupid), just set the boot order of my Linux tries to be Windows 8, and pulled away.

So my conclusion from this is that one of the main reasons why EasyBCD is of no use in creating a dual boot of Linux is that it is virtually impossible to use the boot loader to boot Windows 8 Boot Linux UEFI enabled. Even in this case, it may be possible with Legacy Boot enabled, but I do not care enough at this time to find out.

If you know that I'm wrong about this , and he has personally set up a system of Windows 8 to boot Linux using the Windows boot loader , then please tell me this in the comments, and please, please be specific and tell me how you In fact, because I'd like to know.

5. Install a different Boot Manager

The fifth option is multi-boot UEFI install a different boot loader, how to find by Roderick W. Smith. This has the advantage of being able to start almost everything - Windows, Linux, MacOS - is very powerful and very flexible and automatically find what could be the disk and present with a list of boot selection.

Unfortunately, the only thing that does not solve the problem "of uncooperative setup / BIOS unpredictable" above. If Windows or the boot process, or something else is screwing around with the BIOS settings and avoid permanently fix GRUB as the default bootloader, then it is almost certainly going to keep adjusting to get too.

6. Try a workaround

The sixth option is not exactly a solution to the problem of lack of cooperation Setup / BIOS unpredictable, it is rather a bad solution for it.

It turns out that , in addition to the normal list " boot sequence " configuration in UEFI boot , there is an option "next boot" , which Specifics a home environment for once.

This is usually equal to zero, so that the system continues the boot sequence, but if the system is set first attempt to begin this article, and it will be obvious that the creation so that the next time you start dating the ' use of the default startup sequence.

The following settings can be adjusted by using the Linux boot efibootmgr - No XXXX, where XXXX is the number of element in the list of departure to discover the number of your Linux installation (s), just use efibootmgr without options (or efibootmgr - v if you want to see all the gory details): the number is something like 0001 or 0002 in most cases.

This option "next boot" could become a semi- permanent work around efibootmgr add scripts to boot Linux command , so every time you start Linux would reset the value so that it would boot Linux again next hour. I did not say it was okay, or elegant, or even pretty, but it works because I've tried.

7. Trick the default boot process

Finally, the seventh option is to "trick" the process of putting the default boot image shim.efi Linux (or if grubx64.efi secure boot is off) in the place where it is usually the Windows Boot Manager.

In systems I've tried, this is the EFI boot partition (typically, / dev/sda2 in Linux, mounted as / boot / fee), under the name / EFI / Microsoft / Boot / Bootmgfw.efi. I have had some success in doing this , but know that some systems (in particular , HP Compaq ) are so aggressive in monitoring and restoring default UEFI boot sometimes really realize that the program is not original Bootmgfw.efi " " insttalled , and actually go and get a copy of the original and put it back in place, thus nullifying his cunning deception . You can probably imagine how irritating and frustrating it is when this happens...

So, there you have it. Seven options to configure multi-boot with Windows 8 and Linux.I guess there are others that I have not thought of, or that I 'm not remembering at the moment, but these are what I think are the most obvious.

I tried this at one time or another. The most beautiful and simple, of course, is the first, just install and start eating, if it works on your particular system. I know some people swear that the second option, press the start button, and I think I'm being lazy and stubborn, do not use that.

Beyond these two, which probably requires more dedication, learning and trial and error to get another job (some still have not gotten it to work). But in the long run, if determined to dual boot Linux and Windows, you should be able to.