I finally started the move over to Linux, and installed a dual boot system. So far liking it, except for 1 or 2 things. The big one is the process of dual booting.

I vaguely remember a friend a bunch of years ago always having the option to pick the OS on startup. Not having to hit F11 to pick the OS. Is there a way to do this? Everything I’ve found so far is about windows dual booting, which isn’t exactly helping.

Here’s my setup, so there’s an idea of what I’m working with.

Motherboard: MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC SSD 1 (Windows): Predator GM7000 2TB SSD 2(Linux Mint): Crucial P5 Plus 2TB

I just want to always have the choice of OS when starting up, without always having to hit F11 to get to the boot option. Any help is appreciated.

Edit: In case it matters, I installed windows on SSD 1 without SSD 2 installed, then did the same with Linux, removed SSD 1, and installed Linux to SSD 2 (using their respective slots) then put both in. So I didn’t install Linux with the dual boot option on the install screen.

Edit2: Got it working! As suggested, I had to change the boot order so Linux was primary instead of windows. Then had to change the timeout for grub from 0 to 30 (tried 5 but it was still too fast) and once I was able to see grub, I had the option to let it go into mint, run windows, or just pick Mint without waiting.

Way easier than going about it thinking windows first, since it refused to acknowledge i had another OS installed. Now I get to play around with drivers and software, and figure out why I can’t align my multiple monitors properly.

Thanks everyone!

  • TootSweet@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    So, just from what you’ve said, without getting more info from you, my guess as to what’s going on is that Windows has set things up to where it uses its own bootloader which isn’t set up to boot into Linux or chain-load your Grub2 or whatever Linux-capable bootloader.

    And this F11 you’re talking about is probably the key your BIOS uses to let you into the BIOS configuration, yeah? And from there you can tell it to load Grub2 or whatever bootloader Mint set up when it was installed – the one that was nuked by Windows.

    (I keep saying “Grub2”. It’s possible you selected something else like Syslinux or rEFInd or something when installing, but I think Grub2 is default for Mint.)

    I think, just from some googling, what you’ll want to do, assuming the assumptions I’ve assumed above haven’t made asses out of anyone, is (in Mint with both SSDs plugged in):

    >sudo grub-install <whatever your boot drive is -- something like /dev/sda or /dev/nvme0n1 or some such>
>sudo update-grub

    (And you’ll need to replace the angle brackets part above with the actual drive name. sudo grub-install /dev/sda or whatever.)

    I think that first one should tell your system to switch from the Windows bootloader (which… I don’t think can even boot Linux… I haven’t used Windows since XP, so I don’t know for sure) to Grub2 which is capable of booting Linux, and capable of asking you which OS you want on boot. The second command is just to ensure Grub2 is properly configured. (It probably is already, but it won’t hurt to make double-sure.)

    If that doesn’t work, it’s likely your Mint install is set up with a different bootloader. If that happens, I’d say:

    • Let us know any error message you get from the above commands.
    • Let us know what behavior you’re seeing instead of the desired results. (Like, no change and it’s still booting straight into Windows? Now it shows an OS-selection menu but only Mint as an option? Something else?)
    • Search in your package manager for “bootloader” and report back which bootloader it says is installed.

    Good luck! Hopefully that gets you going, but if not, definitely let us know your results!

    • drzoidberg@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      So, for me at least, it was a matter of changing the boot order in my bios so Mint amwas primary, and windows secondary, then changing the timeout for grub from 0 to 30.

      From there, I’m able to let it boot to Mint, boot into windows, or just force the mint to go through quicker.

      Windows just refused to acknowledge any other OS.

      Thank you for the help though!

      • cecilkorik@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        Grub timeout setting “-1” is infinite, and will force it to wait until you have manually selected either option, if that’s what you desire as you described in your initial post. But I agree in practice 30 seconds is plenty.