Announcement

**claydoh** · Jan 11, 2021, 12:13 PM

I installed Kubuntu on my system and the installer didn't give me any specific option, to set it up besides the existing Windows 10

This would indicate that it could not see the Windows drive, so thinks it is the only OS. Normally, you would see the option to install alongside Windows, and you would see the option to boot Win 10 in Kubuntu's boot menu.

If this were an Intel system, I would suspect that at least one of your drives is an NVME, and/or is set in the bios to use Intel's RST as opposed to ACHI. RST does not support Linux, so those drives do not show up in the installer.
But this is an AMD one, and I have no idea if this is a thing there.
In Kubuntu, can you view and browse your Windows drive?
What kind of drives are they, and where are Windows and Kubuntu installed?

There have been two users that have had drives not visible due to this RST thing, in the past two days.
it is fairly common, unfortunately. My current and former lenovo laptops have this, and I believe my HP PC as well.

**Theverath** · Jan 11, 2021, 01:09 PM

Oooook. First of all: Thank you for your answer.
I don't know the abbreviations NVME, RST and ACHI. So I'll just google them and write, what I understand and perhaps you can tell me if I'm right. NVME seems to refer to SSDs and, if I understand the Wiki article correctly has nothing to do with HDDs, right? That would rule it out since all my Drives are HDDs. AHCI is a kind of universal driver so that the HDDs don't need their own drivers, is that at least half-correct? RST has something to do with RAIDs, which are groups of redundant data storages, if I read that correctly.
So you are suggesting that Kubuntu cannot find the drive that has windows installed because the used drivers are not supported and therefore didn't give me the option to install Kubuntu alongside Windows 10, right?

In Kubuntu, my partitions are all shown as "Wechseldatenträger", changeable drives like USB sticks. I don't know, if that's the way, Linux normally shows drives. This is also true for the partition, Kubuntu is on, but this partition has a different symbol. The others have a usb-stick as a symbol, the partition Kubuntu is on has a hard drive as an icon.[IMG]/home/diesvenerys/bilder/Screenshot_20210111_200649.jpg[/IMG]

**claydoh** · Jan 11, 2021, 03:05 PM

Ok. NVME is a type of SSD drive, it connects and mounts directly to the motherboard.

As opposed to the SATA kind that comes in the same shape as a spinning drive (HDD), and connects like them via a cable.

Do you know which drive Kubuntu was installed to?
Can you see your Windows files from Kubuntu? What about the other drive
If you can't , then for whatever reason, your drive with Windows, and perhaps the other drive of the three, are not being detected by Linux.

Can you provide more details about the computer, like make and full model number?

The problem is, Windows does not provide an easy, simple way to choose between Win and Linux for booting. Linux does provide a boot menu, but as the drives are not detected so it cannot set this up.

**Theverath** · Jan 11, 2021, 03:29 PM

Kubuntu is installed on a regular spinning drive, connected to the mainboard via sata cable.
I have 3 Drives with 5 Partitions.
Drive 1 houses 1 Partition with Windows and 1 with... stuff. Pictures, Music etc.
Drive 2 consists of 1 Partition with games, audio books and pictures
Drive 3 consists of 2 Partitions, 1 with Kubuntu and one with games.

All of them are visible in Kubuntu and I can browse all data on them, the windows partition too.

The Computer doesn't have a make of model number. It consists of parts from my old pc (the graphics card, the... I'm not sure about the correct word, "the housing" should be a good translation, and some cables) and other parts I bought new (Mainboard, Ram, CPU, Power unit) because my old mainboard started to behave in odd ways like crashing when a certain USB Port was used.

**oshunluvr** · Jan 12, 2021, 08:14 AM

So let's boil this down a bit.

So I'm clear, you're saying when you boot Kubuntu, the grub menu does not have windows in the list of options? Or is there no grub menu at all - it just goes to Kubuntu with no options?

Are you are using EFI to boot since your machine has Windows on it? You didn't list the existence of an EFI partition. So either you left that out or you are using Windows from a legacy install (only possible if you upgraded from Windows 7 or 8). I'm going to assume that you are not using EFI

If your drives are all accessible from Linux, update-grub should "see" either the Windows EFI entry or detect the existence of the Windows boot record. Let's check that first. With the Windows drive mounted (files visible in Dolphin), open Konsole and run this:

sudo os-prober

You should get this result (or something similar):

/dev/sda1:Windows 10:Windows:chain

Report what you see.

**oshunluvr** · Jan 12, 2021, 08:18 AM

Claydoh's comment about RST is because newer computers often have RST enabled in BIOS by default even with only a single drive. Linux, by default does not have the RST driver built into the kernel so drives configured that way are not visible to Linux.

**Theverath** · Jan 12, 2021, 04:28 PM

Or is there no grub menu at all - it just goes to Kubuntu with no options?

A grub menu is the menu, my Laptop gives me at startup where I can choose whether I want to start Linux Mint or Windows 10, right? Just a black screen with white text. No, I don't get this at startup on my PC, it goes directly to Kubuntu or Windows, depending on which drive I select in the Bios to go first in the boot order.

Ok, I opened the drive with windows on it. I can see all the folders and files. The I opened the console and used your command. This was the result.

diesvenerys@DiesVeneryUbuntu:~$ sudo os-prober
[sudo] Passwort für diesvenerys:
diesvenerys@DiesVeneryUbuntu:~$

Are you are using EFI to boot since your machine has Windows on it? You didn't list the existence of an EFI partition. So either you left that out or you are using Windows from a legacy install (only possible if you upgraded from Windows 7 or 8). I'm going to assume that you are not using EFI

Erm since I don't know, what EFI is... ;-) Hm google as so often helps a bit, but I find it hard to actually understand what EFI is and does since the description is very technical. If I understand it correctly it is a kind of Bios architecture but I don't know anything about that. In the windows-partition-manager I saw a pretty small partition that was not shown in the explorer called "restoration partition". I don't suppose, that this would be an EFI-partition?
But yes, I upgraded from Windows 7 because there were no drivers available for my mainboard under Windows 7 which is why I thought "eh whatever, can't be that worse". On a totally unrelated sidenote: I don't like Win 10 :-/
I mainly use my PC for work (I'm a teacher) and Pen&Paper RPGs (so pdf and doc files). But I also use it for gaming, which is why I installed Kubuntu in the first place.

Kubuntu for my work, so I'm not that easily distracted, and Windows for gaming.

**claydoh** · Jan 12, 2021, 06:37 PM

Something easy to check, is to see if the grub menu for some reason is being hidden, and isn't showing for its default timeout.
When booting Kubuntu, just after selecting it via the bios option, hold down the **** key (or possibly stab it repeatedly) and see if it shows up.

It will look similar to this (and it will say Ubuntu, not Kubuntu)

**jlittle** · Jan 12, 2021, 09:58 PM

Originally posted by Theverath View Post

But yes, I upgraded from Windows 7...

That suggests that your problem is that Windows is doing a legacy boot, and Kubuntu is using UEFI. The two don't mix, in that if the computer boots in UEFI mode it can't run legacy bootloaders, like the Windows one; they use the "BIOS", and with UEFI it's not there.

In principle, speaking without any experience of these, you could:

Convert the Windows install to UEFI; sounds risky, people did it years ago but not for a long time. I've no idea how to do that.
Reinstall Kubuntu in legacy mode; to do this you need to boot the installer in legacy mode, and how to do that varies with the hardware. If you boot the installer in UEFI mode it can't do a legacy install. I'm not sure that for 64-bit Kubuntu you can even get isos that will boot in legacy mode.
In Kubuntu install the grub-pc package (not grub-pc-bin). Then grub should see Windows. It won't make much difference to Kubuntu once it's running. (Some aspects of updates and upgrades will be different.)
Install grub-pc to a USB stick, and boot from that usually. The boot should be quick, not the slow boot of a USB installer. Maybe worth a try as it's non-destructive, but I'm not sure of the details, such as, how to do it.

**oshunluvr** · Jan 13, 2021, 06:52 AM

The reason you don't have a boot menu is by default it's hidden. To change that, edit /etc/default/grub and change this:

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0

to this:

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5

and then run "sudo update-grub" in konsole and next time you'll see a boot menu.

OK, to the larger issue - one step at a time. First, let's verify whether or not EFI is playing into this. Back in konsole, type this command:

lsblk -fl --sort name

This will list all your drives ( /dev/sda, dev/sdb, /dev/sdc) and partitions in order. It should also show a file system type. What you're looking for is a very small partition - only a few hundred megabytes - and the file system on it will be vfat or fat32. Once you can tell which drive it's on, then run this command (replace /dev/sda with the drive that has the small partition):

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

This will give us more detail on the partitions. The small partition will be of type EFI (or ef or EF00). If you have this partition, jlittle is right and you've ended up with a mixed installation of EFI and non-efi.

You may not have to convert the windows install if GRUB will allow a chainload execution of the windows boot record. We just have to make an entry in /etc/grub.d/40_custom to do that. I honestly don't know if that will work as I've never had to deal with this problem before, but it's an easy thing to try.

Finally, as jlittle said there is a way to convert Windows to EFI but it's not guaranteed. Unfortunately, re-installing Kubuntu probably won't work. I was totally unable to get Kubuntu 20.04 to install in legacy mode no matter what I tried. Canonical (the company that develops Ubuntu) simply stopped supporting legacy mode for graphically installations. I had to install Ubuntu Server legacy version without a desktop and then install plasma-desktop afterward. Not really as hard as it sounds and took way less time than all the time I spent trying to get Kubuntu to accept a legacy install.

Not to worry, this is Linux and there are almost always more than one way to a solution. I can think of 3 or 4 possible solutions to this problem.

**Theverath** · Jan 14, 2021, 07:42 AM

Code:

diesvenerys@DiesVeneryUbuntu:~$ lsblk -fl --sort name
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE%MOUNTPOINT
loop0    squash 4.0                                                    0   100%/snap/core
loop1    squash 4.0                                                    0   100%/snap/shat
loop2    squash 4.0                                                    0   100%/snap/snap
sda                                                                          
sda1 ntfs               C824A74124A7317C                                     
sdb                                                                          
sdb1 ntfs         WinRE 5658224558222469                                     
sdb2 ntfs               B2B874DCB874A111                                     
sdb4 ntfs               723C854A3C850A75                                     
sdc                                                                          
sdc1 ntfs         Volume                       8C4E0B794E0B5B7A                                     
sdc2 ntfs         Volume                       060A07590A074561                                     
sdc3 vfat   FAT32       54E0-DCA9                             504,2M     2%/boot/efi
sdc4                                                                         
sdc5 ext4   1.0         cac938fd-d287-44b0-9fda-e6ef02de4c0d  577,3G     2%/
sr0

Ok, I see a drive that fits your description. But:

Code:

diesvenerys@DiesVeneryUbuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l sdc3
fdisk: sdc3 kann nicht geöffnet werden: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden

(fdisk: sdc3 can not be opened: file or directory not found)
And now that someone, as we would say in germany, bumped my nose onto it, I see that this partition is not shown in dolphin. But in Windows, it is there. It has a Letter (G

, a size of 511MB and in it, there is:

Code:

G:\EFI        
G:\System    Volume    Information
G:\$RECYCLE.BIN        
G:\Listebatch.bat        
G:\FILES.csv        
G:\EFI\ubuntu        
G:\EFI\BOOT        
G:\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi        
G:\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi        
G:\EFI\ubuntu\mmx64.efi        
G:\EFI\ubuntu\BOOTX64.CSV        
G:\EFI\ubuntu\grub.cfg        
G:\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI        
G:\EFI\BOOT\fbx64.efi        
G:\EFI\BOOT\mmx64.efi        
G:\System    Volume    Information\IndexerVolumeGuid
G:\System    Volume    Information\WPSettings.dat
G:\$RECYCLE.BIN\desktop.ini

The reason you don't have a boot menu is by default it's hidden. To change that, edit /etc/default/grub and change this:

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0

to this:

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5

and then run "sudo update-grub" in konsole and next time you'll see a boot menu.

I did that but no boot menu appeared. Now that I have done it some times, just hitting F12 while starting and just choosing Kubuntu from that menu doesn't feel too much of a hassle ;-)

**oshunluvr** · Jan 14, 2021, 08:00 AM

So both windows and Kubuntu are using EFI based on those drive G: entries. Boot to Linux and back to konsole:

sudo os-prober

If the results show Windows, then just running

sudo update-grub

should add Windows to the grub menu. If os-prober returns nothing, there's some other issue. It's a little concerning that fdisk could not read the sdc3 partition...

Re. the grub menu, did you run update-grub after making the edits?

**oshunluvr** · Jan 14, 2021, 08:03 AM

BTW, Dolphin is a file manager not a partition tool. The /boot/efi partition is not supposed to be "browsed" by Dolphin. The fact that Dolphin doesn't "see" it just means you don't have permission to see it.

**Theverath** · Jan 14, 2021, 08:55 AM

Yes I did the update-grub and now there is a grub menu... BUT! It only appears when I boot from the kubuntu-Partition. If I the windows-Partition comes first in the boot order, then no grub menu is to be seen and windows just directly starts. Windows is not in the grub menu. os-prober returns nothing.

Code:

[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#54ff54][B]diesvenerys@DiesVeneryUbuntu[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#5454ff][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ sudo os-prober [/COLOR]
[sudo] Passwort für diesvenerys:  
[COLOR=#54ff54][B]diesvenerys@DiesVeneryUbuntu[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#5454ff][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$  [/COLOR][/FONT]

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Kubuntu with Windows 10

[Installation] Kubuntu with Windows 10

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