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submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by Tehdastehdas@lemmy.world to c/actually_infuriating@lemmy.world

Every time Windows updates itself, my Linux disappears. Actually, it's just hidden, only the boot menu was overwritten. You need a computer maintenance technician to make a new boot menu. I use a USB stick with a live Linux with automatic boot repair tools.

Recently, Windows has become resistant to Boot Repair Disk. Now I have to open computer firmware by tapping "Esc" right after power-up, then select "Boot options", then "Linux".


EU must ban all US-made smart products for its own safety. All closed-source software and electronics that can be used for strategic manipulation and sabotage -- Google, Apple, Amazon, all of it.

We have functional, clunky open-source software that could easily be fitted for any purpose with the money we waste propping up foreign monopolies sabotaging us. Europe has taken a huge risk. I suspect bribery.

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[-] merthyr1831@lemmy.ml 79 points 6 days ago

FWIW dual booting from the same physical drive is never a good idea in my experience. Even Linux-Linux dual booting is just asking for problems when one of them updates the grub configs and messes it up for the other.

Save yourself some sanity and move your Windows install to a new drive.

[-] biokernel@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 6 days ago

and when one drive fails you can boot from the other drive and repair your system

[-] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I tried to do a dual boot from 2 hard drives (windows main), had to restore the Linux side early on, using its built in restore tool, and the computer would not boot after beyond a black screen without pulling the battery for the BIOS off the motherboard. No boot menus or firmware or bios menus were accessible until I did that.

That's the worst oh shit did I fully break my computer moment ever.

[-] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 days ago

One if my laptops only has 1 bay for a drive unfortunately. Currently going through the motion OP describes. Updating Windows and repairing the bootloader. It's still MBR, not uefi, too.

[-] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Does it have an optical disk drive? You could replace that with an HDD caddy if you really want an extra disk

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

That's actually why i don't auto-mount ~~/bin~~ /boot in linux. It only messes things up when it updates the kernel.

[-] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

As someone who just started using Linux regularly, this seems bonkers to me.

Unless you're building your own kernel and compiling apps from scratch, why would anything in /bin break?

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Sorry i meant /boot, on some systems it seems to link to the EFI partition, so when you have a dual-boot setup, updating the kernel breaks the other system's kernel or something.. I just checked and it seems to not be an issue on my current setup, as they aren't links to the EFI partition.

[-] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Oh, that makes more sense.

Still, from my tests with Mint, it looks like it probes other disks and partitions when updating grub, and reinstalls it correctly. But I suppose there are cases where the probe could fail and you'd have to boot from the grub prompt.

yeah it's more of a hypothetical worry, i guess. since every system seems to handle boot a bit differently (unfortunately), it's difficult to get a definite answer to that.

I personally love the UEFI boot system, but it's not typically directly used. Instead, some complicated grub setup is often in place. That makes it a bit of a complicated question.

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[-] ober9000@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago

I mean Microsofts programming is also just shit. I remember installing Windows 7 back then. The computer had an SSD and a HDD in it with old files. I later removed the HDD and it wouldn't boot. Because even though I installed Windows on the SSD, it put the bootloader onto the HDD.

[-] kadup@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Windows still does that to this day. For some random reason, it will often create the EFI boot partition in a different drive than the one you're installing Windows to.

[-] Ashelyn 4 points 5 days ago

Yeah... It's typically best to only connect the drive you want the OS on, then add the other(s) post install

[-] hark@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

I had the exact same thing happen to me and it pissed me off so much.

[-] CubitOom@infosec.pub 36 points 6 days ago

Safest thing to do is run windows only in a VM or container with Linux as the host OS and pass the hardware required in. Windows actually runs better this way and can't mess with your Linux install.

[-] Khanzarate@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

How does it run better?

I've avoided it specifically for performance reasons, this is new to me, for one program that WINE doesn't like.

[-] CubitOom@infosec.pub 9 points 6 days ago

I've not actually benchmarked it. Although others have and I couldn't really tell you why but windows spends a lot less time and resources trying to manage itself when it's in a VM or container. It's just much snapier and even when passing in a GPU to play games it preforms well.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

None of this has ever been my experience

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[-] marcos@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

Linux manages disk access way better than Windows.

But anything that depends on CPU, memory, or IO lattency will get slower.

[-] xyz1195@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

"That's not how anything works" meme material right here.

How can literally anything run better on a vm compared to physical?

[-] CubitOom@infosec.pub 3 points 5 days ago

To understand why windows runs better in a vm or container, you'd have to understand how the windows kernels work... And that means understanding how all the code from every previous Windows kernel that is still in windows 11 works. Since they never did a full rewrite. For example you'd have to understand why blue screens of death happen, and how windows telemetry works, what code from windows 3.1 still exist, and what windows 11 really does when it tries to serve you ads. I'm not qualified, and as far as I can tell no one at Microsoft is either.

I know your wrote some kind of gotcha but you really should try it and see for yourself if you actually need windows for anything. At a minimum I guarantee it's more stable.

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[-] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 5 days ago

The fix for this is pretty simple. Uninstall Windows and never look back. I haven't used any Microsoft products in years now.

[-] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago

Removing windows, like putting on an ad blocker, is just basic security at this point.

[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

Worked for me

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I'm surprised that Windows overrides the UEFI partition at every boot. They should not be allowed to do this.

But also, i'm kinda surprised that Windows allows the wubi.exe Ubuntu installer to write to the UEFI boot menu.

I agree that better regulations need to be put in place. I too suspect bribery. How else would you explain that we're getting surveillance package instead of this?

[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

I got do pissed one day that I figured out a good work around. Get a second drive just big enough for Linux and a third just big enough for windows. Then just remove windows and Linux from your big "must be safe" drive. Now install Linux on your Linux drive and Windows on your windows drive. Next, go to Fstab on Linux and Mount your big drive as either home for all users or a single user's home. Similarly go to Windows and mount the Linux home drive. You'll probably need to install drivers to even see the thing. I don't mix my Linux home. Instead I have a small drive for windows to fuck up shit into (which is what it does). Finally use the Linux bootloader and tell Windows to stay in its fucking place or shut the fuck up. It works.

[-] ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

As sad as that sounds in terms of maintenance and work for the average person,it checks out.

As someone that learned this the hard way in the 2000s with no other family computer backup, with some technical skills, this is a small slip up from Microsoft.

Instead of installing Linux in my computer and maintaining some un-maintainable windows copy on my dads computer, I’ll just install Linux mint or similar on his computer and tell him to click the big Firefox icon on the desktop as usual.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I have my pc with linux only. Works like a charm.

Then I have my winbox for stuff that doesn't run on linux.

I won't mix those two together ever.

They are doing everyone a favor. Why woukd you want that shit on your computer at all?

Or if you simply must use Windows, why not use KVM?

This seems like Windows developers doing everyone a solid: "You sure you want this shit to have root access over everyrhing?" they are asking.

[-] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 22 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I agree with your post but I must ask - is that King Charles taking the ~~wheel~~ UEFI Boot partition?

Thanks for the confirmations. It indeed seems to be King Charles taking the UEFI Boot Partition. ~~Microsoft~~ Monarchy at it again taking what belongs to the people.

[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

That it is, old Chucky Sausagefingers

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[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

what is windows?

[-] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 12 points 6 days ago

Win11 bricked my linux install usb. Microsoft also colluded with intel to make intel cpus appear to perform better by sandbagging AMD cpus.

Bill Gates may be a nice guy but his company has become trash.

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 11 points 6 days ago

Bill Gates may have become a nice guy but his company is trash.

Better, no?

[-] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 days ago

has become trash

It was always trash and always fucked with Linux and other OS. The only solution is no Windows.

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Sad thing is, the NT kernel itself is POSIX and compatible and all. But the UI on top doesn't support half of it.

Edit: it was POSIX and OS/2 compatibel, then they removed it.

[-] renzev@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

The funny thing is, as far as I can tell, the only reason why NT has a posix subsystem is to comply with some weird government regulation.

From Wikipedia:

The NT POSIX subsystem was included with the first versions of Windows NT because of 1980s US federal government requirements listed in Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 151-2. Briefly, these documents required that certain types of government purchases be POSIX-compliant, so that if Windows NT had not included this subsystem, computing systems based on it would not have been eligible for some government contracts.

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[-] MushroomsEverywhere@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

I'm just gonna put this here for no reason. https://youtu.be/lFS9DFXtj1M

[-] RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 days ago

I use a Dualboot with Windows 10 (there are unfortunately some very few games I couldn't get to run with Linux, otherwise I had removed Windows a long time ago) but I never ran into this problem. Someone here wrote about efimgr, could be that I installed that by accident and this helps. I just followed some random tutorial back then.

[-] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 6 points 6 days ago

Did you try the tinkering recommendations on protonDB? They're great. Might be able to help you if you hadn't tried them.

[-] RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yes, I did. Most of the time that works, but there is one game which I absolutely love, Space Engineers, and I could not get that to work with any amount of tinkering.

Edit: I just tried it again. Installation of Proton GE was necessary and had some hiccups. Used command line values from ProtonDB. Space Engineers kind of works now. Performance isn't great though, some sudden FPS drops.

[-] LucidNightmare@lemm.ee 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Hey, drag. I can tell you that most people trying to switch from Windows to Linux do not want to sit there after a long day at work and tinker with stuff to just get a game running.

Yesterday, after a 10 hour shift, I got home and tried to get WeMod working on my openSUSE Tumbleweed. I got home at 6 in the afternoon, and had been up since 6 that morning. It wasn’t until 9 PM that I was finally able to get WeMod working with Mass Effect Legendary Edition, thanks to the WeMod-launcher team over on GirHub.

That means I was only able to play for maybe an hour before bed just because I wanted something that is as simple as double clicking on Windows, and playing.

Now, I understand I’m an edge case, because I want to use cheats on my games. That’s just the general attitude I’ve seen when trying to get people to switch over myself.

“Why isn’t my program working?”

“Oh, yeah. Programs for Windows don’t work as they should. You have to do x and y and then sprinkle a little bit of z in this config file over here on this other other program”

“What the fuck? That’s stupid.”

“No man. It’s really cool once you start to understand!”

“Please help me get my Windows back. I don’t want to bother with this, I just want to play my game / use my program”

Literal conversation I’ve had.

[-] RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago

I have to say, my experience with Linux gaming was much better. Most of the games I play work more or less immediately without any tinkering at all. Of course if you play games which are protected by kernel-level anticheat measures then you are pretty much out of luck at this time. And there are other edge cases like you mentioned.

I think while glorifying the Linux gaming experience is wrong, it still has made enormous progress in the last years and it is worth a try for anyone who distrusts or dislikes Microsoft. Breaking monopolies isn't easy, but I personally think it is necessary to regain ownership over rmy own hardware, even if it makes things a bit more complicated in the beginning.

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[-] yessikg 10 points 6 days ago

Windows 11 gets worse with every update, might start running it in a VM

[-] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago

On my laptop I need windows for an OBDII dongle, luckily the software works fine in a VM.

[-] redxef@feddit.org 12 points 6 days ago

efibootmgr is your friend. Boot into linux and use it to set the boot records as you want, in the order that you want them.

Also, I have heard from a bunch of people, that this can be mitigated by having separate EFI partitions for Linux and Windows. That means one EFI partition per physical drive. You can go as far as having the EFI partition on different media than the Linux install.

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[-] HornedMeatBeast@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

I run Windows 10 on one NVME drive and Linux on a different one, but whenever I reinstall Windows it completely boffs my Linux installation.

If I reinstall Linux then my Windows installation is gone.

Took me a while but it seems that Windows is using my Linux NVME for its boot partition and so far the only way I've been able to avoid this is to unplug my Linux drive when reinstalling Windows.

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this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
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Actually Infuriating

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