Hi there, I had been a long time Linux user, and recently I decided to switch things up a bit and try out
Haiku. So far I have had a lot of fun with it, but running it through my VM causes a lot of problems… I
decided I want to dual-boot Haiku with Windows, but I’m not really sure where to start. Initially I wanted
to try dual-booting with Linux, but I found it was quite troublesome to do with GRUB, and there were a
few other problems using Linux regarding compatibility, so I thought I’d use Windows.
When I tried dual-booting it with Linux (Fedora 34 Workstation) I realized that using an UEFI system does seem to complicate things a bit… I tried following some of the documentation provided to get it to
work with GRUB, and set up Haiku for UEFI properly, but could not wrap my head around it… Either
way, I’ve now got myself a live USB containing both a Windows 10 ISO aswell as one with Haiku.
What is best to do? What is recommended? Can I just install Windows, split the partition, install Haiku
and get it to work with EasyBCD? Do I still have to mess with UEFI stuff if I take this approach? Maybe
do I have my initial install be Haiku, and install a boot manager from within Haiku? What can I expect,
and what do you think is the best approach, as I’m not really sure myself how I’d do this…
And also in case it’s relevant, I’m using a laptop with Nvidia Optimus and SSD (and of course UEFI).
UEFI dual or multi boot setups are really easy if your BIOS does not have any bugs (older ones have plenty)
Since you have a laptop with only one SSD, I would recommend creating an EFI partition of at least 250 MB (Windows will create a smaller one, so maybe you need to do that by hand). Then create the partitions for your OS. Start with Windows, then Haiku. Since Haiku does not install its UEFI loader, you need to copy that from the install image to your EFI partition. Then you can use Easy BCD to create the boot entry for Haiku (Windows should have done it automatically) and use your BIOS boot menu to switch between Windows and Haiku.
Or you could install rEFInd, an UEFI boot manager (The rEFInd Boot Manager). This will allow you to select the OS on each boot without using the BIOS.
I use rEFInd on my Lenovo x220 to boot Windows, Haiku and FreeBSD without issues, so I would recommend that.
It seems very promising, but I still had a couple questions…
How would I create the partition for Haiku? Do I install Windows first, and then split the
main partition? Or can I do that from within Haiku? Or is there something I should do
before the installation?
I also tried installing Haiku for my UEFI system before when I tried dual-booting with
Linux Fedora, but could not find the BOOTX64.EFI file, and the installation guide is
also a little unclear as of where I take the file from, and where I should put the file…
It would be fantastic if you could clear this up a bit! Thanks for all the help
Use a Live Linux CD/USB and create the EFI and Windows partitions with gparted (or similar). Then start to install Windows. The Windows installer will normally write the necessary loader files to /EFI/BOOT and /EFI/Microsoft and also most likely will create an additional Recovery partition.
Then install Haiku, get the Bootx64.efi from the Haiku boot media and put it into /EFI/Haiku.
Then install rEFInd or use BCD (for creating BIOS entries).
