I’m looking to finally use Linux properly and I’m planning to dual boot my laptop. There’s enough storage to go around, and while I’m comfortable messing around I’d rather not have to run and buy a new device before school while fixing my current one.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VaIgbTOvAd0
This was the general guide I was planning to follow, just with KDE Plasma (or another KDE). I was going to keep windows the default, and boot into Linux as needed when I had time to learn and practice.
I assume it should be the near similar process for KDE Plasma?
I’m ok with things going wrong with the Linux install, but I’d like to keep the Windows install as safe as possible.
Turn off secure boot and just check if anyone has ever run your device with linux before. And kde plasma is a de not a distro.
You can leave on secure boot nowadays if you install and configure the sbctl package. It can use the Windows secure boot method, and you’ll have a successful dual boot deployment.
Do I need to turn it off initially and re-enable it after?
I’m a little unsure of when secure boot becomes a problem
For a distribution like Fedora, it’s usually not required to turn off secure boot. You’ll know if it’s needed when booting the install USB, as it’ll give a “security policy” (or similar) warning.
Other things of note when dual booting are Windows “Fast Boot” and “Hibernation” features, which can put hardware in a state where it is unusable from Linux. Turning those off in Windows can fix things like your network interface not working. Windows also stores the time in a different way than Linux, if you are in a non-utc timezone, setting up NTP (automatically syncing date and time) on both Windows and Linux can help.
Just incase you’re unaware, if you’re looking to learn Linux but keep the windows until you’re familiar enough with Linux, there is a way to install Linux in windows as a container, it’s called WSL 2.0
Might be easier for you to learn with, and if you brick it then you can just wipe the container and start again, takes minutes to do
This is probably better than dual booting. You’re learning the command line, which is the happiness foundation needed to enjoy linux.*
Whatever you do, don’t cross the streams!
If your laptop has room for a second drive, it’s easiest to put Linux on its own drive.
Unfortunately there’s just the one slot. I’m going to keep that in mind for future purchases
So then if the drive is big enough, use the shitty windows partition manager and shrink the windows partition, leaving as much space as you want for Linux.
Also you can try Linux on a Live ISO or even install it on a USB stick, but with UEFI thats a pain.
Ventoy on a fast usb stick or better a nvme case (cheap one + 256Gb is easily sub $100 and who can’t use screaming fast external storage) via a usb3+ port is pretty godlike and really convenient.
I would now say never on the same disk. A shame because many laptops only have one slot. But Windows 11 may do anything and you never know what happens after a “Windows update”
I’ve seen people talk about Windows messing up the Linux install. Have there been cases where the windows install itself was messed up after an update (or is it straight up “you never know” and anything can happen)
I only have one slot, and I’d prefer to not have to carry around a USB or external drive if I can avoid it. I’m ok with having to redo the Linux install/setup, and it might be nice practice anyway. But I definitely need to have windows running and stable for schoolwork.
So for me USB sticks dont even work on Secureboot, so you need to disable that.
Then you can shrink your windows partition and install Fedora or something in the rest. Only use the unallocated space.
I actually removed the windows Bootloader manually, the IT simply removed the Linux bootloader instead, lol.
Twice after a windows update I lost my bootloader menu and my laptop would boot straight into Windows. After the second time I just removed Windows. Some investigation revealed that “Windows does not support dual booting” which I believe translates to “we will ocationally cause issues that a beginner would struggle to fix in the hopes of them staying on Windows.” Just a theory. Separate drives for sure if you can. No idea if they still do this as it’s been years since I dual booted
Yes its horrible. This may happen during their weird updates.
Interestingly you can swap drives Windows 11 and Fedora, it does “repair” bullshit at the beginning but works.
If you never update windows (which is so horrible that you actually need to consider that) you can first install it, shrink it and install Linux.
