Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Arch linux and Windows 7 Dual boot on an encrypted drive

Neat shrink option. Easily reduce size of Windows partition.

I wanted to use windows bootloader to load grub. Made a fat32 partition to store this. Made one other. Not sure if I can keep adding.

Arch linux seems fast. A little slow to install but after that, impressive speed.

Boot from USB. Partition and parts of disk are available. Encrypted partition is not. Hence cant directly copy to ntfs.

Direct install of grub to any of the partitions did not work. Impossible unreadable.

Arch booted, but same error as before. /disk didn't show up. Neither did tty.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=77815
Also userguide says do not use unetbootin. ok. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_Installation_Media#Using_UNetbootin

copy copy boot for EFI . booted. but similar error.

Looking by default for ARCH_201308. change grub line to actual label. Maybe this long a label cant work in fat32 ? Use actual label. works. Argh. Arch has well written docs. I skipped the label write .....

dhcpcd

modprobe efivars before chroot. grubinstall worked to main partition.

dd from here to separate boot partition.

oh boy. no boot. Removing newer partitions did not help.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2004518
Use a windows 7 rescue cd and the bitlocker recovery key to get back to nominal. Auto repair after key worked. Could not use regular password/pin here.

Just changing the partitions without touching W7 , still needs key. suspend, resume of bitlocker.

Simple in w7 shows extended. Extended in linux shows primary in w7.

Shrink once more, UEFI partition, 0xEF, FAT32, mount to /boot/efi, install grub there EFI.. Boots ok.

So disable bitlocker , do bios, hardware, other stuff, enable bitlocker. Still had to enter keys, suspend resume.

Also problem with a rolling system like Arch. stale incomplete installs are problematic, if you are looking for older packages/signatures. Multiple downloads rather than just from one cd.

Yet another kink: nvidia optimus. Can't run just the nvidia driver. But a mixed mode. Intel for graphics. Use bumblebee optirun for nvidia.
Improvement for NVS 5200M over Intel HD 4000 in i7-3540M ~ 2x with glxspheres

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