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EFI Dual-boot issue with Windows 7 and xubuntu 12.10

rated 0 times [ 1] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 5139 / 1 Year ago, mon, april 3, 2023, 1:28:50

Thank you so much for reading. I'm pretty desperate for an answer at this moment.

So anyways, I recently solved this issue allowing me to install xubuntu 12.10 correctly. This was a problem with the MBR. (even though I use EFI? :/ )

Now when I boot up the computer, I get to go into grub. OK. xubuntu works perfectly, no weird things over there. But when I try to boot Windows, there is this error: "error: invalid EFI file path".

(Both OSs are x64 and they also both use EFI.)

This is the log from boot-repair. I can't seem to understand why Windows won't boot :(

Any help is greatly appreciated!

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answered 1 Year ago ditery · Accepted Answer

Your GRUB configuration is set up for booting Windows in BIOS mode, but this won't work because you've clearly got an EFI-mode installation of Windows. There are a number of possible solutions. Here are a couple....

First, you could edit the file called /etc/grub.d/40_custom and add an entry like this:

menuentry "Windows 7 (custom)" {

    insmod part_gpt

    insmod chain

    set root='(hd0,gpt3)'

    chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.grb

}

Then type sudo update-grub. With any luck that will create a new GRUB entry called "Windows 7 (custom)" that should work. This isn't guaranteed, though; GRUB is pretty finicky and flaky about launching Windows. What works on one system may not work on another. You'll also probably continue to have the non-functional entry in the GRUB menu.

A second option is to install rEFInd, which is an alternative to GRUB. If you install it via the Debian package, it should set itself up automatically and launch the next time you boot; however, the Windows icon in its menu will probably launch GRUB, thanks to the way the Boot Repair tool "fixed" things. To fix this problem, you can type the following commands in Ubuntu:

cd /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/

cp bootmgfw.efi.grb bootmgfw.efi

Thereafter, the Windows entry should boot Windows. You'll also have an entry with an Ubuntu icon that will boot GRUB and one or more Linux penguin icons that will launch Ubuntu directly. If the penguin icons work to your satisfaction and you don't want the GRUB icon any more, you can remove it by deleting the /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu directory or by editing /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf, uncommenting the dont_scan_dirs or dont_scan_files line, and adding entries to them to keep GRUB out of the menu.