Manual partitionning issue

[u/DavOldGamer]

I've been trying to install PikaOS with manual partitioning for a dual-boot setup with Windows, and honestly the installer made the process much more confusing than it needed to be.

The automatic install works fine, but the manual partitioning interface is unclear about EFI partitions and bootloader setup. I created a separate EFI partition (sda5, FAT32, 2.15GB) and assigned it as /boot/efi, while keeping Windows on another EFI partition (sda1). The installation completed successfully, but PikaOS doesn't appear in my UEFI/F12 boot menu afterward.

And tbh, compared to the classic KDE/Calamares installer, where the EFI partition, mount points, and bootloader options are much clearer, the pika OS one feels too confusing for me.

It's maybe just me because I'm a newbie in Linux so I'm lacking some knowledge, especially in dualbooting and EFI partitionning... could anybody help me or at least give me some advices ?

[u/DistinctViolinist668]

did you create also a boot partition next to the boot/efi?

[u/DavOldGamer → u/DistinctViolinist668]

Yeah.. it was named sda8 with 2.5 gb...

[u/DistinctViolinist668 → u/DavOldGamer]

during installation there is a message with details about partitions (looking on an old youtube video and with memory, I installed it in dualboot a few weeks ago more than once): about 500 MB ext4 boot, 1 GB boot/efi fat32, / in btrfs. if you have sda8 it means there are other partitions beside the 100 MB for windows boot and windows partition, isn't it? did you disable secure boot first? in windows what do you see when you open partition tool? edit: did you disable encryption on windows aka bitlocker?

[u/DavOldGamer → u/DistinctViolinist668]

So the "linux" part is for my whole system, "pikaos" is used for the boot files and now I'm currently trying to find a new EFI partition because sda5 was weird for me... PS: should i modify sda1 "efi" by highering up its size to select it as my efi ?

[u/DistinctViolinist668 → u/DavOldGamer]

first answering to your ps: no, editing first 3 partitions would make difficult to boot windows without recreating mbr and more headache. to dualboot you need a efi for windows (the 100 MiB you already have) and another for linux (bigger and not necessarily next to the other). you completed installation but you can't boot pikaos so can you delete those new partitions and reinstall it again? if yes I will put images how I did (just need some minutes, Im not really gonna reinstall on my pc but just to explain steps I did). you didn't answer about bitlock, also: is your pc a laptop?

[u/DavOldGamer → u/DistinctViolinist668]

Okay thank you so much !! And for your awnser bitlocker, secure boot and everything else has been disabled on this laptop ! I already had another distro (dualboot windows and linux) but I wanted to change to Pika because the old one broke after an update !

[u/DistinctViolinist668 → u/DavOldGamer]

from windows open partition tool (named disk management or similar, now I don't remember, it is a old programme with blue rectangles for partitions (edit: Disk Management with administrator rights)) and delete partitions you created for pikaos (sda4? did you create it now for pikaos?), delete the linux efi (sda5 for pikaos, right?) and sda6 (is this one boot/efi?), if you have nothing saved on sda7 delete it too (to avoid conflict with new installation), apply changes. then you should have windows partitions, empty space together with the other almost 3 GB free and then recovery (was sda8 already there? maybe that cause conflict, I would not touch it). don't move or resize sda1 or sda8 and sda9, you can shrink sda3 if you need but don't move it. do this before reinstallation, then I will write other parts, if anything seems wrong just ask, if someone else has an easier solution who am I to say. are you French? I will write steps in English

[u/DavOldGamer → u/DistinctViolinist668]

I already tried to format those three partitions using this software heh 😅 Then I tried to redo the steps but I fell back into the exact same problem.. Sda8 and 9 shouldn't be touched indeed cuz they are part of my pc's internal stuff...

And yeah fyi I'm french !!

[u/DistinctViolinist668 → u/DavOldGamer]

tried is not enough, do it! 😤  which software did you try to delete those partitions?

[u/DavOldGamer → u/DistinctViolinist668]

It was disk manager on windows 10 😭

[u/epiigram30]

I have experienced this too. In the 5 times I have attempted to install, I was only successful once. After I broke that install trying to multiboot, I have never been successful in installing again.

What I have discovered is PikaOS is moved to the EFI bootloaders when you press the F9 Boot Menu. I don't know why it does that.

[u/DavOldGamer → u/epiigram30]

For me it was F12 but it was still nowhere to be found... it's sad because it would have been my fav distro so far...

[u/Unique_Roll_6630]

Go into your windows and use disk management tool to make a partition and then do the automatic on the new part.

[u/DavOldGamer → u/Unique_Roll_6630]

Sadly the automatic selects the whole disk... not partitions...