I want to use this last year of win 10 updates to slowly get onto Bazzite but I have heard horror stories of dualbooting Linux and Windows. Windows tends to overwrite the boot preferences and caps the system.i have only booted into Linux from an external drive in the past, so what is the tried and true dual boot method?
I installed endeavouros on my windows laptop.
The installer guided me through the partitioning, setting up systemd-boot, and it was all great.
I had to disable bitlocker in windows (not that bothered about) and secure boot in bios (also not that bothered about).
Ran smoothly dual booting both for about 4 months.
Then a windows update hit, and fucked the boot.
Thankfully, this is a common enough thing that there are plenty of tutorials out there.
A liveUSB of endeavouros, some tinkering, and I was back up and running.
The cause seems to be FastBoot, where windows keeps the boot partition mounted. What I think happens is that bios tries to read the boot partition, which is configured/loaded for windows (because it never cleaned up after itself due to FastBoot being on) and boots into windows.
Since turning off FastBoot, I haven’t had any issues in the past 8 months.
I followed this tutorial on YT after a failed Win11/Linux dual boot that crashed Win11 completely and only booted into Linux, and it worked perfectly.
Essentially, this guy’s strategy is to create a second EFI partition for the new Linux install, remove the boot flag from the original Windows EFI long enough to go through the Linux install, then put the boot flag back where it was and update GRUB accordingly, allowing GRUB to find and note any other operating systems on the disk. After that both Windows and Linux stay in their own walled spaces and Windows never gets to overwrite the Linux EFI, which is the source of all the misery.
There’s more to the detail, of course, but that’s the gist of it. I have dual-booted Linux with this method solely on single partitioned disks, and never on different disks, so I couldn’t tell you whether a separate disk is a guarantee of anything or not, but after I started deliberately creating separate EFI partitions for dual-boot situations I’ve never had a problem.
This video is specifically for Zorin but I’ve used the same strategy successfully on other distros. He has also done specific dual-boot walkthrough videos for a number of other dual-boot installs and troubleshooting as well, so check the channel if you want to find other distros. I did not see Bazzite specifically, but I saw plenty of Fedora. (No affiliation with this channel, I’ve just used a number of his videos and appreciate the specific care and accuracy he gives his tutorials.) Hope this helps.
You’re generally safe if you 1) install them on two different disks and 2) if you’re installing windows later, unplug any drives you don’t want to use with windows. Microsoft likes to poke all drives it can see during installation even if you don’t touch them.
I’d be amazed if you were the first person testing if those things work.
However, I would not be surprised if your specific peripherals do not work as they are supposed to.
If you know someone with a Linux pc it could be easy to test it out.
I’ll probably throw in a spare HD and dual boot the box to test one of these days. Each successive MS attempt to force crap down our throats just further incentivizes me.
The only reason I have a windows box is for gaming, specifically sims (racing and flying)
Ever more reason to test and see if the wheel and flight stick work under Proton.
Bazzite my dude. Check it out, super easy and setup for easy dual boot so you can give it a shot without clearing windows (if shits partitioned right)
I want to use this last year of win 10 updates to slowly get onto Bazzite but I have heard horror stories of dualbooting Linux and Windows. Windows tends to overwrite the boot preferences and caps the system.i have only booted into Linux from an external drive in the past, so what is the tried and true dual boot method?
I installed endeavouros on my windows laptop.
The installer guided me through the partitioning, setting up systemd-boot, and it was all great.
I had to disable bitlocker in windows (not that bothered about) and secure boot in bios (also not that bothered about).
Ran smoothly dual booting both for about 4 months.
Then a windows update hit, and fucked the boot.
Thankfully, this is a common enough thing that there are plenty of tutorials out there.
A liveUSB of endeavouros, some tinkering, and I was back up and running.
The cause seems to be FastBoot, where windows keeps the boot partition mounted. What I think happens is that bios tries to read the boot partition, which is configured/loaded for windows (because it never cleaned up after itself due to FastBoot being on) and boots into windows.
Since turning off FastBoot, I haven’t had any issues in the past 8 months.
I followed this tutorial on YT after a failed Win11/Linux dual boot that crashed Win11 completely and only booted into Linux, and it worked perfectly.
Essentially, this guy’s strategy is to create a second EFI partition for the new Linux install, remove the boot flag from the original Windows EFI long enough to go through the Linux install, then put the boot flag back where it was and update GRUB accordingly, allowing GRUB to find and note any other operating systems on the disk. After that both Windows and Linux stay in their own walled spaces and Windows never gets to overwrite the Linux EFI, which is the source of all the misery.
There’s more to the detail, of course, but that’s the gist of it. I have dual-booted Linux with this method solely on single partitioned disks, and never on different disks, so I couldn’t tell you whether a separate disk is a guarantee of anything or not, but after I started deliberately creating separate EFI partitions for dual-boot situations I’ve never had a problem.
This video is specifically for Zorin but I’ve used the same strategy successfully on other distros. He has also done specific dual-boot walkthrough videos for a number of other dual-boot installs and troubleshooting as well, so check the channel if you want to find other distros. I did not see Bazzite specifically, but I saw plenty of Fedora. (No affiliation with this channel, I’ve just used a number of his videos and appreciate the specific care and accuracy he gives his tutorials.) Hope this helps.
Way to properly do it is to keep them separate drives and use bios to select which to load.
You’re generally safe if you 1) install them on two different disks and 2) if you’re installing windows later, unplug any drives you don’t want to use with windows. Microsoft likes to poke all drives it can see during installation even if you don’t touch them.
So pretty safe if Windows is a priority install, and Linux is on a 2nd drive. Easy enough, thanks!
Definitely. If you have a second one it’s very safe to try out a full Linux install.
Disks or partitions?
Two separate disks. The issue is that windows likes to overwrite or otherwise mess with the boot loader if it’s not the default windows one.
I’d be amazed if you were the first person testing if those things work. However, I would not be surprised if your specific peripherals do not work as they are supposed to.
If you know someone with a Linux pc it could be easy to test it out.
I’ll probably throw in a spare HD and dual boot the box to test one of these days. Each successive MS attempt to force crap down our throats just further incentivizes me.