Dual Boot: Mint installed but the GRUB menu won't show

[rapid musk]

Hello.

I've finally completed a dual-boot installation of Linux Mint 22.2 (Cinnamon) alongside Windows on my ThinkPad, but I'm stuck at the final step. Mint is installed and Windows works, but upon reboot, the PC bypasses the GRUB menu and boots straight into Windows. I used Ventoy USB for the installation and configured the BIOS with UEFI First and Secure Boot Disabled. I decrypted (turned off) BitLocker on the Windows drive to allow the automatic "Install alongside Windows Boot Manager" option to proceed and to stop the PC from locking up on every restart. The core issue is that the GRUB menu never appeared after installation. When I press F12 to access the Boot Menu, no entry for "Linux Boot Manager" shows up, even though Mint is installed.

Can somebody please help? Thank you very much.

[odd aspen]

can you press F12 at power on, and show us what does show?

if you see model name of hard drive/ssd, then launch that

or if you did something weird like enable legacy to boot the usb, and now you turned legacy off, you will have no option

[rapid musk]

hello, sorry I was sleeping

if I press F12 without the USB attached, this is what I see

[rapid musk]

i remember there was the UEFI/Legacy Boot option and I could choose between "both", "uefi only", "legacy only" and the Secure Boot option and I could choose "enabled" or "disabled". I put "both" and "disabled"

if i press on "Windows boot manager" it boots on windows

[junior crypt]

try moving the nvme in the 2nd image up

[rapid musk]

it doesn't let me move it, i clicked on it and it booted windows again

[junior crypt]

oh huh

[odd aspen]

go into Windows,

n give some info here plz

open a run box (win+r keys) and do msinfo32

what does it say for 'BIOS mode:' ?

[neat kayak]

In Windows open cmd with admin privileges and post results for bcdedit /enum firmware

[rapid musk]

Now I set UEFI only. I put the USB, done some steps and I managed to enter in the Mint desktop again. In the terminal I wrote:

sudo add-apt repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y boot-repair

boot-repair

They gave me this URL: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/jGKnnpkNQ4/

Then I restarted my computer, but still no GRUB menu shows up.

[rapid musk]

done, it says UEFI

[neat kayak]

Can you boot Linux Mint ISO on USB?

Windows is installed in UEFI

[neat kayak]

If you can boot the MInt ISO on USB, open Boot Repair and use it to create summary report and post URL here

[odd aspen]

it's aready included this tool, btw

at least it is on the live USB

I figure u installed Mint in legacy. Windows is in UEFI . wrong move

[rapid musk]

I think I already did using Ventoy. Indeed, after I put the USB I managed to see the Ventoy screen with the linux-mint-cinnamon file

[odd aspen]

ya boot live 'normal' mode, start cinn. mint

then do the summary thing Jeremy asked for

DO NOT send it to ubuntu pastebin . that is absolute shit, and needs a speciall account for anyone to read it

log into Discord from live mode there on Firefox, and send the text file instead into the chat

[neat kayak]

https://dpaste.com/5LYV2AB7R

Doesn't look like Mint installed

[rapid musk]

Sorry guys but I don't understand what I have to do

[odd aspen]

boot the usb up

when u reach the live desktop do two things

• open terminal, and do the command df -h

and show

[rapid musk]

the desktop of mint?

[odd aspen]

the LIVE DESKTOP yes

[rapid musk]

okay i'll try, thanks

[odd aspen]

which shows the 'install linux mint' icon on it

[odd aspen]

I guess you have a fancypants ubuntu account.

[neat kayak]

I am an Ubuntu member

[odd aspen]

that change they made to the boot repair app stinks

it used to use sprunge.us as the pastebin provider

[neat kayak]

Only Yannabuntu makes the changes

[odd aspen]

and any Joe-Blow helper could easily view it

[odd aspen]

ok good. this proves you're in EFI mode

as was Windows confirmed to be

now, open the DISKS app from the start menu, and show all internal drives

separate photos

@rapid musk

[rapid musk]

yup im doing

this is 512GB disk

this is 7.8GB drive

this is 2.6GB loop device

thanks very much for the help to both of you by the way

@odd aspen Is this correct?

[odd aspen]

wait. kinda busy

please dont zoom in

just one photo n that's it of the 512 gig

and that's it.

in its full extents of the disks window

u made 52 gigs space. that's not very much for longterm use

that's 48.4 binary gigs.

2 of them go into overhead of format, 10 get used by Mint

down to 36 binary gigs right out the gate

if u can shrink the Windows partition by another 25 gigs, it'd be better

then just run the installer, and choose 'install alongside Windows'

[rapid musk]

ok sorry

[rapid musk]

idk if you can see anything...

[rapid musk]

so i put partizion size 77gb for the free space?

[odd aspen]

wait

do it from Windows itself

please.

[rapid musk]

oops

[odd aspen]

and run powercfg /a first in windows command prompt

and confirm fast startup is disabled/unavailable

[rapid musk]

now it's 400GB NFTS for Windows, 75 GB free space

[rapid musk]

yes it's disabled

[odd aspen]

nice

k you are ready now

[odd aspen]

.

[rapid musk]

the installer? do i have to restart the computer and go back tò the mint desktop?

[odd aspen]

ofc

[rapid musk]

im doing it... it's taking a while

it got stuck in the copying files part

[odd aspen]

give it like half hour

should only take 10 minutes anyway on SSD

[odd aspen]

did u do what I asked in the windows command prompt?

[rapid musk]

i run powercfg /a

and i saw its disabled

[odd aspen]

ah ok good

can you open the Disks app . do NOT maximize it

click the hard drive, click the 75 Gig portion and show a photo.

u can safely do this while the installer is running.

[rapid musk]

i restarted and now i think its working (?) for the first time it asked me the password to my username and it gave me a welcome screen to mint

[odd aspen]

yep

that means you're in the final install.

it was successful.

that's how it's done.

[rapid musk]

now i can only see the 512gb disk, i don't have the USB attached

[odd aspen]

ok idc cuz that part is finished

do a reboot and watch the screen GOOD

ensure u see grub now

[rapid musk]

do i have to send something?

[odd aspen]

no just check grub

[rapid musk]

so i can see this (its in a very small font) but if i wait for 5 seconds without doing anything it automatically boots into mint

im wondering how to boot into mint/windows, what do i have to select?

[odd aspen]

that's normal

windows should show there, just highlight n press enter

https://youtu.be/_qZI6i21jB4?t=547

[rapid musk]

it works!! thank you very much!! first option boots into mint, third option boots into windows. I haven't tried the second and the fourth one... I don't wanna risk doing wrong things

[odd aspen]

watch that to fix your display n stuff.

[rapid musk]

thank you! i will

[neat kayak]

UEFI Firmware Settings will take you into UEFI/BIOS menu

[odd aspen]

2nd n 4th are nothing dangerous. just advanced stuff for kernels/safemode and to go to BIOS

[rapid musk]

okay great

[neat kayak]

Advanced options is for recovery, can boot older kernels with/without recovery mode

[rapid musk]

i only have another question

can i use this USB drive tò put other things like photos or videos or is it better if i just get another one?

[rapid musk]

okay thanks!

[neat kayak]

If you used Ventoy on the USB, you can put whatever you want on it

Some other tools make them read only until they are formatted

[rapid musk]

ok fantastic

thank you very much again to both!!

[odd aspen]

ventoy, Rufus, Universal USB installer all give a place u can use the usb as a regular data drive

so if u used any of those, you're all set

i can see u used ventoy.

just make a folder called 'General' or "data"

to keep things neat n separate from the ISO

and keep the ISO on it in case of repair emergencies

[rapid musk]

ISO is the linux mint cinnamon file?

[odd aspen]

yes the big file that ends in .iso

[rapid musk]

okay