Windows 10: Dual boot with Arch Linux

I have windows 10 installed on a 1tb ssd booting in UEFI BIOS mode. I want to install arch linux on a seperate 120gb ssd. Ive previously installed arch a few times so i’m familar with its installation. However, i cannot seem to find any clear information on how to be able to “dual boot” them. Previously i have had to go into the BIOS and select which hard drive i want to boot from. I would prefer if i could use the windows boot manager or GRUB to select between the two. Following the archwiki installation guide it tells you to create a gpt partition table on the ssd you want to install the linux OS on, then create an EFI partition, swap partition etc... my question is, do i need that EFI partition on the second drive or is there some way in which i use the existing EFI partition that windows created upon its installation?

:)

 

Dual boot with linux: only linux boot

Hi Xelany

My name is Andre Da Costa; an Independent Consultant, Windows Insider MVP and Windows & Devices for IT MVP. I'm here to help you with your problem.

You should try repairing your Windows 10 installation using the following steps:

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/fix-windows-10...

If that restores Windows 10, use EasyBCD to add an entry for Linux mint:

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/dual-boot-wind...

Information in the above link is sourced from a trusted Microsoft MVP blog.

 

Dual boot Arch Linux with Windows 10

On my Acer laptop I have Windows 10 installed on /dev/sda4 and the ESP partition is /dev/sda2.

As described in the Beginner's Guide I installed Arch Linux on a newly created partition /dev/sda5 and swap /dev/sda6 with the Windows 10 created ESP /dev/sda2 as /boot.

As the bootloader I chose systemd-boot which is recommended by the guide if the motherboard is UEFI (which it is).

I configured the /boot/loader/loader.conf as follows:

I created an entry for arch.conf at /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf as follows;

But after rebooting Windows 10 boots by default. I couldn't even see the bootloader menu. Also no option to select the Linux boot loader in the boot options. What am I doing wrong?

Note: Both fastboot(Windows 10) and secureboot (UEFI) are off.

In the question Windows 10 / Linux Dual Boot - Boot-loader Problems the OP uses GRUB for the bootloader. In my case I'm using systemd-boot. And in my setup fastboot aka fast startup is already disabled.

#efibootmgr -v returns all my boot options. It has the Linux boot manager in the list, but the boot order didn't specify anything about it. So, I manually edited the boot order by # efibootmgr -o 1003,1001,2001. But, the problem is the same. The boot order is reverted back after an reboot.

 

Musings about Dual Booting Linux & Windows, HELP!

Hi roadie133

Were there any steps attempted to setup the dual boot with the Linux and Windows 10 as described in the article?