problems with rEFind and booting GhostBSD/Windows 10

[ko56]

I have Windows 10 and GhostBSd installed on a Dell Inspiron 5566 that
has a 1TB hdd:

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[ko@wlt ~]$ gpart show
=>        34  1953525101  ada0  GPT  (932G)
          34        2014        - free -  (1.0M)
        2048  1134321664     1  ms-basic-data  (541G)
  1134323712      819200     2  efi  (400M)
  1135142912   629145600     3  freebsd-zfs  (300G)
  1764288512     8388608     4  freebsd-swap  (4.0G)
  1772677120   180848015        - free -  (86G)

[ko@wlt ~]$

Windows 10 is on ada1.
GhostBSD is from the GhostBSD-22.06.18-XFCE.iso, and I followed the
instructions for Custom Installation using rEFind.

But I am having problems with multi-boot using rEFind:

1) I must have done something wrong with rEFind, because I don't see
it installed in /boot/efi. /boot/efi is empty. Nevertheless "pkg
info ghostbsd-refind-0.2" shows that the package *is* on the system.
Apparently installing the package is not enough.

2) Further, it seems that *somehow* rEFind got installed in Windows,
because when I interrupt the Dell's boot process with F12 and get into
its BIOS, rEFind is shown as one of the boot options. The other boot
option is GhostBSD.

3) Windows itself has become inaccessible.

I don't know how to unmess this. Thanks for any help.

[wb7odyfred]

I am typing short reply on my cell phone. Can explain more verbose , when on computer with real keyboard.

Use Linux Gparted to examine your ada0 and ada1 partitions and flags that are set. Puppylinux.com already has gparted.org application installed. Download puppylinux .iso file and burn to USB then boot from USB flash drive.

Alternative boot GhostBSD live image from USB flash drive and use BSD commands to examine partitions and flags.

First is your BIOS set for MBR or GPT.?

How are disks ada0 and ada1 partitioned? MBR or GPT ?

rEFInd easily boots windows , Linux, and BSD OS.
So maybe windows UEFI boot went missing?

Efibootmgr -o
Efibootmgr -v

Efivars

See what boot order is setup?

[wb7odyfred]

www.rodsbooks.com/refind


https://t.me/ghostbsd/120629




vimanuelt:
Not a good situation. Windows will likely clobber refind during a major update or recovery action. I suggest using a second hard disk drive and simply swapping when using a laptop.

Getting a second hard disk drive will set someone back perhaps $20 to $60 dollars. Paying for a second hard disk drive will save time and sanity in the long term.

[wb7odyfred]

https://teejeetech.in/2020/09/05/linux- ... th-refind/. Read this tutorial to understand rEFInd tool.

I am learning these concepts too. We have 2 documents in the t.me/ghostbsd. Search on Word triple or word dual to find these documents.

Thanks for explanation and confirmation that you used that triple boot document. Others can find this triple boot pdf document in this groups files area.

Triple Boot doc from google share
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pLFXTr ... sp=sharing


Dual boot document
https://t.me/ghostbsd/89171

Use a tool to examine partitions and flags. Write a drawing on paper to map details that you learn with a diagram.

[wb7odyfred]

Neville Goddard:
I think I remember a BSD user saying that a windows update deleted his whole BSD partition

vimanuelt:
Yes. It happened to me, as well. It is good to have Windows on a separate disk.

[wb7odyfred]

mount
Shows what partitions are mounted where on file system.
gpart show -l

gpart status

geom disk list

camcontrol devlist

[wb7odyfred]

T.me/GhostBSD you can reach me on telegram and direct message me there. I have shared tools to discover more details, yet have not solved your windows booting problem. I am learning about booting multiple O/S from different partitions on a single disk.

gpart list

See my disk info at this post.
https://forums.ghostbsd.org/viewtopic.p ... 946#p10946

[ko56]

Thanks @wb7odyfred . Here is a reply to the questions in your first post.

1) There is only one disk, which is GPT-partitoned ada0 is the whole disk, ada1, etc are the partitions.
I gave the result of "gpart show" in my original post.
2) Both Windows 10 and GhostBSD have been installed (and boot) in UEFI mode.
3) I first installed Windows, then shrank the partition to make room for GhostBSD.
Then I installed GhostBSD from a USB stick following the "Custom Installation" instructions.
4) I never installed rEFind on Windows. I only installed it as part of the GhostBSD custom installation. But, as I said, rEFind didn't get installed in GhosBSD, it ended up in Windows for some mysterious reason.
5) I have been reading the rEFind manual pages ... and still am.
6) I don't want to use a second disk. What I'm doing now is a trial, the laptop on which I want to
do the final installation has only one SSD (can't add another).
7) I can't access the document

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Dual boot document
https://t.me/ghostbsd/89171

you mentioned. Maybe because I don't have Telegram?

[wb7odyfred]

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/prob ... mbr.86781/

Found this reading FreeBSD today.

Here is the triple boot document
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pLFXTr ... sp=sharing triple-boot.doc document