Re: [gentoo-user] Dual booting with Windows 10

[Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk>]

On Wednesday, 26 May 2021 14:49:01 BST Michael wrote:
> On Tuesday, 25 May 2021 16:23:01 BST Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > Thanks for the offer, Michael, but let me clear a few things up first.
> > 
> > 1.  I don't use symlinks in /boot.
> 
> This allows a simpler single boot partition (ESP) & filesystem set up
> (VFAT).

How do symlinks work on a FAT32 partition?

--->8

> I notice you have /dev/nvme1n1p1 named as "boot".  Is this a secondary boot
> partition?  What is its mountpoint?  What does it contain?

It's a hangover from my attempts earlier. I'll remove it soon.

--->8

> > I followed the installation handbook, boot-loader section, to create a
> > UEFI
> > boot entry. I followed the syntax precisely, with several variations at
> > various attempts. In every case, the UEFI BIOS listed the new entry but
> > couldn't execute it.
> 
> This should work to launch your systemd-boot:
> 
> efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/nvme0n1 --part 1 --label "systemd-boot" --
> loader "\EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi"

It didn't, but ...

> This would also work, if vmlinuz-5.10.27-gentoo, config-5.10.27-gentoo, and
> System.map-5.10.27-gentoo are stored on the ESP under the EFI/ directory,
> e.g. in EFI/Linux/, to launch your current kernel directly:

That's the point I was missing - where those three files live. I had them at 
the root of the FS, as implied by the installation wiki.

> efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/nvme0n1 --part 1 --label "Gentoo-5.10.27" --
> loader "\EFI\Linux\vmlinuz-5.10.27-gentoo"

--->8

> 2. Use some other better suited 3rd party boot manager (not systemd-boot).
> The principle is broadly the same as your present setup.  Each boot manager
> has its own idiosyncrasies and commands of choice.  GRUB is quite automated,
> although you can overwrite its grub.conf menu and decline using
> update-grub, or grub-mkconfig to generate it.  Then again, why would you
> select such a heavily automated and complicated piece of software, only to
> bypass the very functionality its devs wanted to offer?   Contrastingly,
> syslinux is very simple and lightweight, but you have to manually configure
> its also very simple boot menu.

I don't want to start on about grub. I washed my hands of it a few years ago, 
after struggling to set it up to offer a choice including a kernel with three 
run-level options: default, no X and no network.

> PS.  The UEFI firmware will scan more than a single VFAT partition marked as
> ESP type, but as far as I know this will only work if the ESP is on the
> first disk - I haven't tried it.

That may be Wol's answer.

Thanks again for all the work you've put into this, Michael.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.