Dual boot using 2 physical drives?

[Larryboy57]

Hello all! Newbie here.
I have Windows 11 installed on a SSD and Kubuntu installed on a NVMe drive. Motherboard is MSI PRO H610M-G
I don't see a way to set this up in BIOS and wondering if it can be done with software settings without having to reload the OS's?
TIA for any help!
Looking forward to being an active member of this community.

[claydoh]

Hello!

So:

1. Can you boot both operating systems?
2. If so, what is the specific issue you have?
3. What does your BIOS settings show for boot order?
4. How did you set up and install Kubuntu? (options, extra steps not involving the installer, etc)

Windows likes to be the first boot choice, so that often means boot orders can be changed after an update, depending on the BIOS, but without knowing more, it seems unlikely that you'd need to reinstall either OS.

[Larryboy57]

Thanks for the reply!

Both hard drives are fully bootable on their own. Just trying to find out if there is a setting in Kubuntu at startup to select a boot disk. I had Linux Mint on for a while and their was actually a setting that you could set that would bring up a menu to select the disk you want to boot from. I see no options in BIOS for that. Whatever I choose in BIOS for first boot will boot as long as it's a bootable disk. Kubuntu was installed from an ISO image file loaded on to a USB with Rufus and installation was done with standard parameters.

[oshunluvr]

Just trying to find out if there is a setting in Kubuntu at startup to select a boot disk.

I believe you're looking for os-prober which is disabled by default. Enabling it will allow grub to add Windows to it's menu and thus you can select it at boot time. You may also have to enable the boot menu to make it visible at every boot.

Do do these, use Kate to open /etc/default/grub and make these changes:

Change GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden to GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
Change GRUB_TIMEOUT=0 to GRUB_TIMEOUT=5 (or some other number of seconds to your liking)
Change #GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false to GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Then save the file and quit Kate. Open Konsole and enter:

sudo update-grub

Then reboot. You should see the grub menu for whatever number of seconds you choose and you should be able to "down arrow" to Windows in the menu. If you want to set Windows as the default rather than Kubuntu, another edit would be necessary.

[Larryboy57]

Tried editing the GRUB file and updated it. Unfortunately that didn't achieve what I'm trying to do. The Windows disk didn't show up on the list. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[jlittle]

Change #GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false to GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true
sudo update-grub

That's wrong, it should read GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

(A nasty double negative. We want the OS prober to be not disabled.)

As before, make this edit and run sudo update-grub

[Snowhog]

That's wrong, it should read GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

That was my bad! Corrected my edit. Didn't notice that the change to the line was removing the #. I'm a doofus sometimes!

[skyfishgoo]

Tried editing the GRUB file and updated it. Unfortunately that didn't achieve what I'm trying to do. The Windows disk didn't show up on the list. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

when you updated, did you get the confirmation/warning that OS_PROBER was going to run on the next boot?

run sudo update-grub again and post the result here.

[oshunluvr]

Check is make sure /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober is executable. I believe it is by default but worth checking.


Also to reiterate and help clear the confusion about enabling os-prober in GRUB. The line in /etc/default/grub at installation is:

#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

The leading hash means the line is "commented" i.e. ignored. Sometime in the last couple of years, not enabling os-prober by default became the standard.

To enable os-prober in grub on must simply remove the hash so the line looks like this:

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

and update-grub.


Another thing to consider is if NTFS tools have been installed. I'm not sure if this would impact grub or not, but also something that would be needed to access the Windows file system if desired.

[Goshawk]

Is there a way to login to windows from the startup menu when you have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
Currently I have to plugin a hardwired USB keyboard to navigate through the menu.
I continue to use this keyboard while in Windows, as otherwise I need to setup my Bluetooth devices each new boot into kubuntu 25.10.

For the audiophiles amongst us I have been able to install and run MusicBee through wine.

goshawk.

[claydoh]

Is there a way to login to windows from the startup menu when you have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

No, bt doesn't come on until an OS loads drivers during boot, unlike USB input devices, which have support in the BIOS.