MS Anniversary upgrade warning - not LO issue

users
#1

This is not about LO but about MS crashing both the Windows file system and GRUB.

If you have not run the Windows 10 Anniversary upgrade, you might want to consider it as a new OS install that crashes GRUB and messes with the Windows partition where it need major repair.

Yesterday, I upgraded my older DELL laptop that runs both Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04.

Win10 gave me a icon for the Anniversary Upgrade Assistant. IT took hours for the download and verify it. During the install, at about 30% complete, the install required a reboot. GRUB errors was all I got. I had to use a boot repair disk twice to get the laptop to be able to boot at all. When I was able to boot to Windows, it took about 20 minutes for Windows to auto-fix the file system. Then it took 6 more hours to finish the install. It took less time to install the Win7 to Win10 upgrade, than it took the Anniversary upgrade.

Yes, MS messes with the GRUB system when it gets install alongside of Ubuntu, but it never caused so much trouble as it did yesterday afternoon to late evening. 6+ hours to install the upgrade and fix the laptop so it would boot again, was not expected.

#2

try:
http://windowsreport.com/anniversary-update-destroys-boot-loader-dual-boot-config/
http://www.legendiary.at/2016/01/04/windows-10-update-changes-partition-table-and-breaks-grub/

I am a linux ubuntu user since 12 years and noticed that since win 8.1 it is hard to install and maintain dual boot systems.

Paolo

#3

Thanks for the heads up. I'm running Win10 and Ubuntu 14.04. I don't
believe I've yet been offered the Anniversary Upgrade, but when I am, I
will proceed very cautiously (or not at all).

Virgil

#4

It came out in August, IIRC. I didn't have any problem with it here.

#5

When I had Win7 and Ubuntu 14.xx?, upgrading to Win10 just messed with GRUB to the point that I did not get a boot option. It just booted to Windows. Simple to fix with a boot loader repair disk. BUT, not this "upgrade". IT has to break the "system" so it cannot boot to any OS, even Windows.

What the Anniversary upgrade did to that laptop [not my main one] was messing up everything so bad that GRUB could not find any OSs in the laptop. Then when I deleted and reinstalled GRUB, via the repair disk, Windows tried to boot up so it could finish the install. The problem was Windows caused a file system error where the partition needed to be repaired before it continued. I never say such a bad install attempt.

I have worked with Linux on-and-off since the later 90's, for work and classes. I switched to Ubuntu as my default OS in 2009. Before that I had a Windows laptop and a Linux desktop.

This laptop - I am typing from - goes to Windows several times a month to keep it up-to-date. I Windows decides to go crazy like the other one, I will be very unhappy.

#6

This laptop, has had "normal" upgrades. I never seen the upgrade icon that was "hidden" in the app stack on the right side of the task bar. I was looking to halt/exit an app that keeps trying to run and slow down the booting. So far, I have not seen it on this laptop. So, maybe the Win10 "professional" laptop shows up first, or not. This laptop is a Win10 "home" version - Win7 professional upgraded to Win10's version, and Win7 Home went to Win10's version of that type of system.

#7

I stopped dual booting like 10 years ago; got real tired of the hassle. I
totally understand that you might be forced on some laptops (Another reason
I will only get laptops with the capability to add an additional hard
drive). I do have one really cheap laptop, but I just run Linux off of a
flash drive. My desktop has 4 hard drives. Windows goes on one of the
drives and I never touch it. I use the other drives for various flavors of
Linux that I keep on changing, some with only one Distro, others with dual
or even triple booting. It makes things much easier for so many things
(disk imaging, re-installs, new installs, updates, replacing bad hard
drives, what your are going through, etc.).

#8

Can't imagine why anyone would mess with dual boot these days with
something like Virtualbox available.

#9

Can you point to an easily understandable 'howto' on installing and
using Windows in VirtualBox ?
Thanks.

#10

just did this myself using Oracle:
<http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/virtualbox/downloads/index.html>

I'm on a debian-based system so 'sudo dkpg -i ....deb' got me going. I have a license for Windows 7 so I pointed VB to the Windows 7 iso. it is almost self-explanatory but have a look at:

<https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E26217_01/E26796/html/qs-create-vm.html>

worked wonderfully until the computer failed (unrelated).

f.

#11

A windows licence might be tied to hardware, for example. So if I need occasional windows use (eg to update my satnav - grrrr!) but otherwise use linux, dual-boot is a necessity. Such a licence probably wouldn't work in a virtual machine.

#12

I don't know about that but you can buy a license relatively cheaply for Windows 7 Pro.

haven't shopped for Windows 10. (at best I'd only purchase Windows 10 Pro because of the forced updates.)

Windows 7 Pro in a VM seemed to work fine with instant access to wifi, etc.

f.

#13

​There's always this possibility:
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/

#14

also this which I am about to try:
<http://lifehacker.com/how-to-dual-boot-and-virtualize-the-same-partition-on-y-493223329>

"Once you're finished, you'll be able to reboot into your secondary OS and run it natively, or run it in your favorite virtualization program without having to reboot. You'll get the best of both worlds and you'll never have to decide between the two again."

f.

#15

Thanks Felmon, Cley and Mike - I'll look into the links.

I have Windows 10 (was Windows7) on a separate hard disk and I've hung
on to it because I occasionally want to use a couple of applications
that don't run under linux (or even very well using Wine, judging from
comments on the web). My linux is on its own hard disk and is my
default boot - if I need Windows, I just have to hold F12 on bootup and
select the Wind drive from a menu supplied by the motherboard.

Would virtualbox (or other) be able to get Windows running on its own
hard disk ? It doesn't have an iso file - just a working version
(licensed) of Windows10.

#16

Hi :slight_smile:
VirtualBox gives an option to either create a virtual-drive or use an
iso. The virtual-drive would then be a large file sitting on your real
hard-drive.

You can then use the menus at the top of VirtualBox to set-up the Windows
installer Cd to be read by the Virtual Machine either directly as an iso
(as a virtual cd/dvd-drive) or by reading the real world cd/dvd-drive
attached to the physical machine.

It might be that it prefers .img rather than isos but both are pretty much
the same, just different formats for the same thing. I think VirtualBox
can handle both but may make it easier to use one rather than the other.
Also VirtualBox can use various types of virtual hard-drive. There is an
internationally agreed one that works on many different vms but, of course,
Oracle prefer that you use their own format. I tend to use their own one.

In terms of hardware in times gone by people have been able to use one
Windows licence as part of their dual-boot, and then re-use it on a virtual
machine. The standard argument was that "it is the same hardware". Now
that virtualisation is more mainstream the licensing people at Microsquish
might not be quite so bamboozled but it really is the same hardware and you
are only using the licence once. Another successful argument used to be
that it was just a reinstall to the same hardware and just not even mention
virtual-machines at all because it's a technicality that they don't really
need to know about.

If using Virtual Machines is still new then it might be a good idea to
set-up a virtual machine and install Fedora, or Ubuntu, or Mint to it - or
try running a "LiveCd/Dvd" session in the virtual machine. Then you can
build and destroy quite a few virtual machines without having to deal with
licensing issues. A few "distro hoppers" use virtual machine to test-drive
distros that they have never used before or to experiment and play
around. It's a good way to learn and then installing Windows should be a
fair bit easier. It's what i do each time i try using virtual machines
because i never use them often enough to be really comfortable with them.
Good luck and regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#17

I made an error - a link I sent yesterday I thought addressed this but it
wasn't about hosting the Windows stuff under Linux. I will be researching
this too.

did though install again via licensed (but unactivated) Windows iso and
smooth as ice (note: removed repository VB and downloaded Oracle's VB).

f.

#18

If you find Virualbox works well for you, then fine. Others may have good reasons to not use it. Same with people using the various Linux distros and different desktop environments.

I do not run a Virtualbox type of system on any system since the early 2000's. I do not want to have any speed reductions for my systems. With Windows, I have put so much security software on my Windows systems and Windows partitions on the dual boot systems. That take a lot of processor power to keep my Windows systems free of any "nasties" that are out there to infect and/or destroy my systems.

I am the guy people come to when they do not keep their systems safe from infections and need to have them cleaned up so they can us them again. Many times I need to remove their drive[s] and run them on my systems as an external drives, since their systems are too infected to reinstall and run the cleaning security packages.

#19

Tom and Felmon,

I don't have a Windows10 installation disk nor an iso file. My Windows
was originally Windows7 (legit and I must have the Win7 installation
lurking around somewhere) and I took the free upgrade from MS sometime
last year.

So, if I understand correctly, if I install VB I will then need to
install Windows7 in that virtual machine using the original CD/DVD
disk(s) ? That's where the question of new installation and licensing
comes in, I suppose.

It would be nice if I could just create a VB machine and tell it to load
the hard disk which already has the workable installation of Windows 10,
together with the couple of applications I use from time to time.

By the way, Felmon, why did you reject the distro version of VB and make
a direct download from Oracle ?

#20

[...]

It would be nice if I could just create a VB machine and tell it to load
the hard disk which already has the workable installation of Windows 10,
together with the couple of applications I use from time to time.

I know, I know.

I suspect it's not possible. when I get some more time maybe tonight I'll dig around more earnestly.

By the way, Felmon, why did you reject the distro version of VB and make
a direct download from Oracle ?

I kept getting errors having to do with missing modules (vboxdrv) and looking around I saw others having the same problem. landed on some posts about using Oracle's so purged the repository stuff and Oracle installed pretty much without a problem (except some errors of misunderstanding on my part).

not being used to it everytime I see it, it's a shock - Windows 7 in a tiny little window on a Debian desktop!

f.