Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora

JaredBusch

So, the internet is full of the reverse. Installing Fedora or Ubuntu or any other Linux after Windows is installed.

But I have Fedora installed first and I want to install Windows as a dual boot to a separate disk.

Booting to the USB and installing windows to that disk is easy.

What I'm not sure about is fixing grub afterwards.

Google and the older Fedora docs tell me this.
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/23/html/Multiboot_Guide/GRUB-recreating.html

Boot to a live image and run this:

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

JaredBusch

@jaredbusch said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@Dashrender said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

have you tried it yet? I wonder if Windows installer understands grub and updates it automatically, like most linux distros have done to the windows boot loader for ages....

Windows puked, but I kicked it off and went to talk to my wife. Came back to a boot into recovery mode.

So I'm validating my local backup while I get some more work completed then I will try again.

I gave up trying to get Windows to play nice and let Windows win.

I nuked all my disks, installed Windows first to the disk where I wanted Windows. Then I installed Fedora 33 to the primary disk.

notverypunny

It's been a while, but I'm lazy and first try would be rescatux https://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/

DustinB3403

Are you partitioning off a separate disk or using a physically separate disk? If the latter how would grub know the Windows system exists?

Wouldn't you select your boot drive each time at start up?

travisdh1

@DustinB3403 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

Are you partitioning off a separate disk or using a physically separate disk? If the latter how would grub know the Windows system exists?

Wouldn't you select your boot drive each time at start up?

No need, grub can boot to any drive connected to the system.

How to make that happen, I'm not sure because it's been so long since I messed with dual boot rather than using VMs.

DustinB3403

@travisdh1 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

No need, grub can boot to any drive connected to the system.

I never noticed that - but again I've never really had a need for this either.

Dashrender

@DustinB3403 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@travisdh1 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

No need, grub can boot to any drive connected to the system.

I never noticed that - but again I've never really had a need for this either.

Yeah, it's been that way for as long as I can remember. Of course the boot loader (gurb) has to be on the first primary disk so the BIOS/UEFI knows where to boot from, but after that, the boot loader has been able to point to any disk on the system.

JaredBusch

I'm tempted to just nuke my entire setup and go from scratch, as my desktop has been running as is for a couple years now.

But at this point I would like to understand the dual boot process a bit more also.

Dashrender

have you tried it yet? I wonder if Windows installer understands grub and updates it automatically, like most linux distros have done to the windows boot loader for ages....

JaredBusch

@Dashrender said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

have you tried it yet? I wonder if Windows installer understands grub and updates it automatically, like most linux distros have done to the windows boot loader for ages....

Windows puked, but I kicked it off and went to talk to my wife. Came back to a boot into recovery mode.

So I'm validating my local backup while I get some more work completed then I will try again.

JaredBusch

@jaredbusch said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@Dashrender said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

have you tried it yet? I wonder if Windows installer understands grub and updates it automatically, like most linux distros have done to the windows boot loader for ages....

Windows puked, but I kicked it off and went to talk to my wife. Came back to a boot into recovery mode.

So I'm validating my local backup while I get some more work completed then I will try again.

I gave up trying to get Windows to play nice and let Windows win.

I nuked all my disks, installed Windows first to the disk where I wanted Windows. Then I installed Fedora 33 to the primary disk.

black3dynamite

@jaredbusch said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@jaredbusch said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@Dashrender said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

have you tried it yet? I wonder if Windows installer understands grub and updates it automatically, like most linux distros have done to the windows boot loader for ages....

Windows puked, but I kicked it off and went to talk to my wife. Came back to a boot into recovery mode.

So I'm validating my local backup while I get some more work completed then I will try again.

I gave up trying to get Windows to play nice and let Windows win.

I nuked all my disks, installed Windows first to the disk where I wanted Windows. Then I installed Fedora 33 to the primary disk.

I did this recently but I haven't confirmed if the steps is in the correct order since I was in a hurry. But here you go.

References:

Disk layout:

Disk 0 (/dev/sda): Windows 10 (Installed after Fedora)
Disk 1 (/dev/sdb): Fedora (Already installed)

Story board:

Fedora is installed on /dev/sdb and Fedora is the UEFI boot manager
Installed Windows 10 on /dev/sda and Windows is the UEFI boot manager
Used Fedora Workstation 33 Live to fix the missing UEFI entry
Open "GNOME Disks" to confirm the EFI System, which should be partition 1 on /dev/sdb
Open "Terminal" and enter sudo -i
Enter efibootmgr -v and you would see Windows (\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi) has the UEFI boot manager
Enter efibootmgr -c -w -L Fedora -d /dev/sdb -p 1 -l \EFI\fedora\shim.efi
Reboot
Fedora is now the UEFI boot manager but now you don't have access to Windows UEFI boot manager to boot into Windows. You can fix that by adding the Windows 10 boot information to Fedora Grub boot manager.
IN CASE GRUB MENU IS NOT DISPLAYING AFTER REBOOT bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\fedora\shim.efi in Windows 10 (command line).
os-prober to confirm if Windows is installed. /dev/sdb1@/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi:Windows Boot Manager:Windows:efi
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg should found Windows Boot Manager on /dev/sdb1@/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi:Windows Boot Manager:Windows:efi and then add boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings.
Reboot

dave247

@jaredbusch said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

So, the internet is full of the reverse. Installing Fedora or Ubuntu or any other Linux after Windows is installed.

But I have Fedora installed first and I want to install Windows as a dual boot to a separate disk.

Booting to the USB and installing windows to that disk is easy.

What I'm not sure about is fixing grub afterwards.

Google and the older Fedora docs tell me this.
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/23/html/Multiboot_Guide/GRUB-recreating.html

Boot to a live image and run this:
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

Who dual boots OS's these days? Just use VMware Workstation or VirtualBox...

JaredBusch

@dave247 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

Who dual boots OS's these days? Just use VMware Workstation or VirtualBox...

Obvious troll is obvious.

Gamers. Not everything runs under wine

dave247

@jaredbusch said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@dave247 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

Who dual boots OS's these days? Just use VMware Workstation or VirtualBox...

Obvious troll is obvious.

Gamers. Not everything runs under wine

I'm not trolling... I was genuinely wondering why you'd dual boot. I always used to hate that, shutting down one OS to bring up another. I'd rather have both available at the same time.

DustinB3403

@dave247 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@jaredbusch said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@dave247 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

Who dual boots OS's these days? Just use VMware Workstation or VirtualBox...

Obvious troll is obvious.

Gamers. Not everything runs under wine

I'm not trolling... I was genuinely wondering why you'd dual boot. I always used to hate that, shutting down one OS to bring up another. I'd rather have both available at the same time.

Sure, except you're having massive performance hits from running them at the same time.

Dual booting provides the full performance to whichever OS is running at that time.

dave247

@dustinb3403 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@dave247 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@jaredbusch said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

@dave247 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

Who dual boots OS's these days? Just use VMware Workstation or VirtualBox...

Obvious troll is obvious.

Gamers. Not everything runs under wine

I'm not trolling... I was genuinely wondering why you'd dual boot. I always used to hate that, shutting down one OS to bring up another. I'd rather have both available at the same time.

Sure, except you're having massive performance hits from running them at the same time.

Dual booting provides the full performance to whichever OS is running at that time.

Yeah I didn't know it was for gaming purposes when commenting.

JaredBusch

@dave247 said in Install Windows as a Dual Boot after Fedora:

I'm not trolling...

Then I completely apologize for taking you out of context.

drbtx

@black3dynamite works.

Thanks. I was looking for this article long time. Cheers.

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