I’m inclined to think you just answer no when it asks if you want to go back and continue partitioning but am reluctant to have you do that without someone else confirming. MBR/legacy setup doesn’t have a separate EFI boot loader partition.
I would be good to have a Picture from Your Partition Table (The Overview where You see the Partitions).
When Windows is installed, You should have under ''Device for boot loader installation'' have the Option ''Windows Boot Manager'' and take this.
But You coul create an EFI Parititon, too. You could take a bit from Your Swap Partition. Take ... let's say ... 300mb and when You have the window from above, choose on ''Use as'' EFI-Partition.
There is no Windows option in the 'Device for boot loader installation' drop down menu.
But You could create an EFI Parititon, too. You could take a bit from Your Swap Partition. Take ... let's say ... 300mb and when You have the window from above, choose on ''Use as'' EFI-Partition.
Thanks, I've just tried that (I set the new EFI partition to 1024 MB, as I don't know if it will need more space than you suggested, in time) and it is called
/dev/sdb3 efi 1024 MB
and I deleted the swap file and recreated it minus 1024 MB, of course:
/dev/sdb4 ext4 / 53687 MB
and now, when I click on 'Install Now' I get the message:
"Do you want to return to the partitioner?
The file system on /dev/sdb4 assigned to / has not been marked for formatting. Directories containing system files (/etc, /lib, /usr, /var, ...) that already exist under any defined mountpoint will be deleted during the install.
Please ensure that you have backed up any critical data before installing."
Edit: Nevermind, I noticed the tickable format circle, so I've done that, and it's now (hopefully) installing.
in another thread someone had suggested that going into terminal and inputting sudo update-grub then restarting would solve this problem but not clear if this actually worked. Should be a low risk option worth trying though.
I don't think his windows boot manager is in his EFI partition because his windows installation is in MBR. The EFI partition was one someone suggested he create for his Zorin installation. Will OS Prober find the windows boot manager in that scenario? Or will he have to go into BIOS and select WBM every time he wants to run windows?
Sorry, I meant to post this earlier, but today has been hectic at work.
It turns out that by changing the BIOS boot order on the laptop, I can decide whether Windows 10 or Zorin Linux boots up. The Zorin installer somehow added a 'Zorin' option to the BIOS boot order (which I didn't know was possible), and if Zorin has the highest priority then when I boot the laptop then Zorin loads and works fine. If I set the ATA ORICO hard drive as the top priority, then Windows 10 loads and works fine.
NickS and Forpli, I will try to fix this if necessary, but if I keep it as it is, so I can decide which OS to load simply by booting to the BIOS, and setting the right boot priority, then is there any drawback to that? Or would being able to decide the OS by using the Zorin Lunix boot menu that should have been installed but wasn't, if I do install that menu, that would it give me extra options or functions that it would be useful to have available?
Otherwise I'm quite happy with the present situation, and won't bother to further alter anything in case I stop something from working.
BTW, where is the BIOS' Zorin boot data stored? I mean the data that is used in the 'Zorin' menu option (such as the name 'Zorin', and the Zorin Linux boot data necessary for the BIOS to boot Zion from the hard drive? I take it the data is store in the BIOS, and not on a hard drive somewhere?
Yes, the Grub Menu offers functions that you could need, in an emergency.
This includes the Recovery Menu
Or the ability to boot into a different kernel.
Whether these can be called critical - is really a user choice.
Apologies, I am jumping into this thread just reading the last post. I have not followed along all of it.
So If I make a comment that is off kilter - just slap me upside the head.
Aside from what I said above, no.
There are no other drawbacks aside from emergency situations.
Even those can be worked around in other ways - so having the Grub Menu makes things easier, bit is not a dealbreaker.
As to 'Why' you are having trouble...
If Windows OS is in MBR (Legacy) mode but Zorin OS is installed using EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface), then they cannot see eachother.
So - Grub was installed.
It is present.
It probably works just fine.
But you are not seeing it... Because Zorin sets it by default to only appear if you have more than one O.S. installed so it can give you the choice to boot into either - and yours cannot detect Windows OS, since it is not listed in an EFI partition (If it is MBR).
You have a Boot Mode Mismatch.
Selecting your boot order at BIOS is fine. This works because BIOS is bottom level firmware.
But...
The MisMatch is not good.
I recommend (I am still assuming WIndows OS is still MBR at this point) switching Windows OS to EFI to Match.
Booting into Windows OS, in a CMD prompt:
mbr2gpt /validate
mbr2gpt /convert
Enable UEFI-only mode in firmware. Disable Legacy - in your BIOS Settings after.
Boot into Zorin OS,
In a terminal prompt:
sudo update-grub
This should resolve the mismatch.
And, it would allow Grub to appear.
Thanks @Aravisian for picking this up. I said a few times in this thread that I had no experience with MBR/Legacy, though I realized that the mismatch was the source of most of the problems @Merlin_M2025_GD had been encountering. I am glad to learn that switching it is as simple as the three command prompt/terminal lines you listed and I hope @Merlin_M2025_GD is now good to go. I will make a note of the solution for the future,
Before going this route I would suggest atleast verify once whether the Zorin is installed under EFI or MBR.
I know the OP has created an EFI partition during Zorin installation. But still I highly doubt that if the installation has actually happened under UEFI mode.
Speaking from one of my experience, back in the days of Z17 when I was installing it. My BIOS was set to legacy but during installation I also created a separate EFI partition and proceeded with the installation, despite of the creation of EFI partition the installation still happened using legacy MBR mode. While Installation was ongoing looking at the logs I noticed that for grub installation I saw a warning like EFI not supported (something like this, can't recall exactly) and then the grub installation happened with sudo grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda. After the installation I tried to run efibootmgr and it threw the warning "EFI variables are not supported", that gave me the confirmation that Z17 installation was happened under legacy MBR mode. And the EFI, I had created, acted as a separate boot partition.
So I assume the OP might have a similar situation like mine. So before converting Windows OS from MBR to EFI, it will be better to confirm it first for the Zorin installation to avoid any further headaches.
I had mentioned that at the beginning but this was perhaps got missed by the OP in the confusion:
But the same command can be run from the installed system to check the installed mode. I again suggest @Merlin_M2025_GD to verify this first before going through the Windows MBR to EFI conversion.
If the output is BIOS then good to go and just need to follow these steps shared by Forpli to get the grub menu.
If the output is UEFI then follow the instructions from Aravision as mentioned above.
