If you absolutely have to use dual boot . . .

If you absolutely have to use dual boot . . . (maybe your P4 doesn't have enough resources to run Windows in Virtual Box smoothly?)

Here's a little trick I use on both my wife's and my daughter's notebooks.  They currently use a dual boot with Xubuntu and Windows 7.

Open a terminal.

Use your favourite text editor.  (I used nano, you may have gedit, mousepad, joe, &c.)

sudo "text editor" /etc/default/grub

set the following lines:

Save and exit the file.

Run the command

sudo update-grub

Now, grub will automatically select the last boot you used.

Say you need to run a bunch of updates on Windows, and need to reboot a few times.

Grub will select Windows when you reboot, because that was the last OS you chose.

Go get a cup of tea and a hot buttered scone, instead of sitting there watching the screen because Linux is your default.

The next time you boot to Linux, it will be set back to default.

Cheers!

Naught

Nice little trick there Naught! I actually didn't know about that, cool stuff!

I will try this.

Beautiful thank you for this!!!! 

Gentlemen,

You're kind responses are most welcome.

Naught

Naught, thanks for this!

Now I know how to setup my dual booters from here on out, otherwise when reboot is required, will go straight into whatever Linux distro installed. There is another option that I've discussed on more than one occasion, although won't cover it here, don't want to disrespect your work.

Again, Thanks for sharing, many dual booters will appreciate this, my posting will bump the Topic for others to see today.

Cat

@Bleeping Cat

You are most welcome, sir!

Cheers!

Naught

Wow! Great tip/trick. Thanks.

For me I usually have a seperate /boot partition and or separate efi partition so that if windows does something funny I will always have GRUB.

Trust me its a lifesaver.

Edited by MadmanRB, 19 October 2017 - 10:26 PM.

Slight 'diversion', I know, but:-

For me, Pup's Grub4DOS covers all the bases, including chain-loading into the separate AntiX install on the second small, internal drive. 

Owt goes wrong, a 'Pup-on-a-stick'll usually fix it! 

Mike. 

Still though having skills in gparted helps.

My main SSD has no less than 7 partitions

Partition 1 is recovery

Partition 2 is for windows EFI

Partition 3 is windows reserved

Partition 4 is windows itself

Partition 5 is linux EFI

Partition 6 is a separate /boot partition

Partition 7 is my root for linux

MadmanRB, just wondering, is the point of having Partition 5 simply to avoid damage to the Windows one?

And while here, although have seen the option for years, just never used it, what does the /boot Partition accomplish? Am mostly on UEFI systems now, when on mostly BIOS/MBR ones, just created root, Swap & /home as a dual boot & everything fell into place. Have never used the /boot option, does it serve as the same as one of the Windows ones, and how large must it be?

Am getting ready to setup a dual boot of Linux Mint MATE (x64) on this Samsung Series 7 Chronos notebook for my wife (UEFI w/GPT Partitioning), using GParted while in Live Mode to create these, just want to know what I'm getting into before diving into these extra steps. Since you're the only one I've seen taking these extra steps, figure you know the benefit of having the extra two. Although I can envision why a separate EFI, maybe to cover the first sentence of this post. Am not certain to what /boot is supposed to accomplish, what I'm supposed to place in there or maybe the magic simply takes place during install or after reboot, hopefully you'll explain a little more, so that we'll know what's going on (other than possibly protecting the Windows install in case Linux is deleted with a partition tool from Windows).

Will await your response before proceeding with install, both OS's are on the same SSD. While I'd like to add a bay for a Data drive, whomever engineered this (overly priced) piece of crap deserves a demotion to overseeing the sanitation department, rather than computer design. Would be very hard even for me to add a bay, too many of those golden color 'see through' wire strips that's tucked into a small notch. It's no wonder as to why Samsung has taken an bow from the Windows computer market & later began distributing Chromebooks, although the corporation still earns cash hand over fist with OEM RAM sales, consumer & professional SSD's, as well as VRAM chips for some GPU's. So they're still getting plenty of business from Windows consumers, as well as those whom are dual booting or have went full blown Linux.

Cat

Firstly using another efi partition ensures that Windows UEFI dopesnt muck with the linux bootloader same thing with the separate /boot partition.

Even on modern uefi systems linux still installs the boot loader like it did before with MBR, remember linux really isnt officially supported on UEFI and most distros dont have the magic key.

Only Fedora, openSUSE and ubuntu are officially supported with UEFI, most other distros have to cheat.

Trust me having a seperate /boot partition is a lifesaver as windows always overwrites the bootloader in versions 8 and up.

This is me with a battering ram getting into the castle that Microsoft and Apple built, and I also have a passage underground just in case.

The method I use is very brute force, even with secure boot off Microsoft still is tricksy and false.

Sneaky Hobbitses :D

As for how big you must make a boot partition I say at least 800MB as your kernel updates would make the boot file larger.

The only caveat to this is you may wish to remove older kernels that you dont use anymore.

Edited by MadmanRB, 21 October 2017 - 07:48 AM.

Hey, Madman.

Only Fedora, openSUSE and ubuntu are officially supported with UEFI, most other distros have to cheat.

 

You can add Puppy to that 'short list' of distros with the 'magic key'.

Jamesbond & Kirk, the developers of FatDog, forked over the asking price of $99 for an official SecureBoot 'key' 3 to 4 years ago, but made sure that the distro name was not 'specific'.....so the newer Pups have been using it for a while now. All perfectly kosher, and 'above-board'.

No 'cheating' allowed here at the 'kennels'..!   

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 21 October 2017 - 08:19 AM.

MadmanRB, Thanks for the fast response!

Have already imaged the drive, so will install & all fails, will at least have a starting point to turn back to.

Since many of the Linux distros are built on those you mention, maybe this is why the Secure Boot key is included, at any rate I always disable this. Not only on my own computers, also those I perform work on for others, it doesn't make the computer more secure, rather places these in chains & shackles. We once had a discussion in the 'The Speak Easy' section of the issue long ago (a Moderator that's very active in the Linux Forum was the main participant & I believe the OP), along with complete details, yet the Topic was taken down. Have no clue as to why the Topic was removed, it was the truth in regards to Secure Boot. Think of it as running your computer within a jail cell as presented, the folks in the article were (jokingly) saying how 'secure' they felt.

Will report back with the outcome of install, on that notebook!

Cat