Have similar problems. I had Windows 7 SP1 originally installed and after installing Lubuntu 21.04, there are no possibility to boot Windows. Not even Windows own tools are capable to fix the mess. After reinstalling Windows, it's not possible to boot Lubuntu (obviously). Even though I would like to ditch Windows completely, I still use software that don't have any serious match in the Linux world, like raw photo and sound editing, so I'm stuck with those I have ... I also do some work related stuff in Windows, that can't be done in Linux. Have been looking at Wine and Virtual Box, but have neither time nor desire to mess with those. Virtual Box seems to be the easiest one, but discovered that it don't use correct full screen size and at best, I end up with 1024x768 on a 1920x1080 screen - correct proportions with wide black border, so no ...
At first, I used some HDD's in RAID mode 0 in Windows, but Lubuntu don't recognise the setup of those drives. Easy fix though, but time consuming, as the HDD's of concern are two 75% full 4TB disks (photos & sound files). In the BIOS settings, there are three HDD controller modes available for both controllers - IDE, AHCI and RAID. I'm now using only the AHCI.
The first attempt of installing Lubuntu, it chose to install GRUB on the only HDD available on the secondary controller (!), which is a removable HDD (hot plug) - a backup disk, despite the Lubuntu disk was (is) located on the primary controller ... Without it, the system refuse to boot. The solution was to remove the HDD, reinstall Lubuntu and then reconnect the HDD. No HDD boot order settings in BIOS - only type order and which HDD controller to use for boot (primary, secondary or both - only used primary, but Lubuntu ignored the settings ...).
Did several attempts to make it work, but GRUB[2] don't install properly - what so ever. It doesn't show up at boot, unless a 'Live' USB is used. The 'Live' version don't allow fixing the GRUB settings ... When trying to figure out what happen and after checking out advices on the Internet, I found out that GRUB do recognise the Windows installation, but apparently don't bother much about it. Not even after reinstalled both Windows and Lubuntu in that specific order. Have tried the GRUB repair utility, but no change.
The motherboard is a Xeon E5 workstation type (X10DAi). Have also a computer with the server version (X10DRi), but that is only running Lubuntu, so no issues. At boot, the BIOS recognise that the shift key is pressed and reports that the related BIOS function is not supported (Only visible for couple of seconds. Seems to be a Supermicro thing, as I've not seen it with other brands ...)
At the moment, a workaround is to switch between two hot swap disks. One with Windows and one with Lubuntu, but in the end, that doesn't make any sense ... (Mechanical wear and booting takes long time - over a minute, as it seems the POST process is done in a [slow] secure mode - no fast boot available.)
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Originally Posted by digitronics
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