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.
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
This is good advice, I recently first tried a Linux install on a partition of a large HDD just to tinker, then pretty much immediately bought a secondary SSD and re-did all the setup there.
I’m already a convert btw! My windows partition hasn’t been fired up in weeks now.
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
WSL 2.0
I appreciate this, I’ve had WSL for a little while now. It did take some getting used to and I think I’m ready to give it a try for real now
This is probably better than dual booting. You’re learning the command line, which is the happiness foundation needed to enjoy linux.*
Always install Windows first then Linux in dualboot, otherwise microsoft messes with your boot area. Have a separate boot partition for Linux and some distros have foreign OS probe and will auto setup your grub menu to chainload to windows. This stops Windiws messing with your Linux boot partition since it has no clue it exists
Boot with a live USB image first. Check and see if everything is working. Don’t be married to the first Linux distro you try.
This is really the best advice. Dual boot via USB. Once something clicks, then look at dual booting.
USB boot is the second most fun way to learn Linux. Esp with high speed 40Gbs flash, there isn’t a ton of reason not to.
However backing up then trashing your windows environment will really teach one — it is a commitment!! But the learning will defn happen, there is no turning back after the windows partition gets scratched and GRUB enters the scene.
“Monitor scan line cfg don’t fail me now!”
“Interesting, mobo WiFi is MIA. Where did that 20’ Ethernet cable go?”
“Audio device not found. Okkkkkl”
That’s fair, I’ll take some time to explore them :)
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.
Good to know
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
kde plasma is a de not a distro
Whoops, I think what I meant was Kubuntu. I’ve been watching videos on what each thing is like and after many “GNOME vs. KDE Plasma”, that’s all I remember
edit: either that or Manjaro. Was going to try one while keeping the other in mind for when I eventually decide to start all over again
Please avoid Manjaro. I’ve had my Manjaro install break more than any other distro. If you want something arch based, you’re better off installing Arch from scratch, using the arch install script, or using EndeavorOS. All three of these options use the normal arch repositories which are far more stable than the Manjaro ones, and also offer much better compatibility with the AUR
Oh intersting, ok good to know!
Yeah, definitely would avoid. I’ve had to reinstall twice on desktop, twice on mobile due to update breakage. Mint is a great starting point. Kubuntu if you don’t mind snaps and like KDE.
No manjaro never do it
First, if you have only one HD, you’ll have to shrink your windows partition. You’ll have maybe 4 partitions already on your disk, a 100MB fat one for EFI, a 16MB one unformatted, a few GB recovery one, and a big one with windows on it, you may have more. Booting on a linux USB stick or with the gparted ISO, you’ll need to shrink your windows partition and let whatever the size you want, say 100GB, for your future linux, free.
You need to disable secure boot in your bios.
When installing linux, it will ask you for custom partitioning (it’s your first install, play with it, if you don’t like your partitions, want or not a swap, etc, you’ll redo it later!). Create a 20GB partition for / the root, create the remaining (e.g. 80GB) for your /home, these are the mount point that the installer ask in the custom partitioning screen. You will need to select the 100MB EFI partition as EFI/ESP mount point and keep it like this, no formatting for this one, just select it. Continue install, it will ask if you want to install GRUB, say yes, on ESP/EFI.
You may need to go in your BIOS and have to change the boot option to properly boot in EFI/GRUB. On my PC the BIOS boot option can bypass EFI and directly boot windows partition so I never had GRUB appearing.
Keep your Linux partition backed up! Windows update deleted my EXT4 partition and all Linux data on my laptop. (No, it wasn’t a Grub problem, the partition was gone.) There are reports this Microsoft BS going back years.
When was this?
About 7 months ago. A Google search will turn up other reports of the issue.
Install windows 1st, Linux 2nd. Generally speaking Linux installers won’t mess up a windows install, however most of the time the windows installer WILL mess up a Linux install.
Don’t think of Linux the same way as windows, think of it as desktop android. Do not download applications from the browser, unless they’re not available literally anywhere else, use the app center instead. Use a popular distro (Ubuntu/Ubuntu variant, fedora, etc…).
Use Wayland.
use the app center
That’s a weird thing to call a package manager.
I call package manager the CLI program…
Keep the boot sectors for Linux and Windows separate. Windows loves to fubar the Linux boot instructions during update. They somehow still manage to break the Linux boot section even when it’s on its own isolated sector, but it happens a lot less frequently.
AFAIK you can’t use drive encryption when dual-booting on the same HDD.
Install windows as usual. And then install your Linux distro. Quite alot of them give you the option to easily install alongside windows
If you use two drives, I’d highly recommend getting two different models of SSD because after around kernel version 5.18, the kernel will reject one of the “duplicates”. Was a huge source of frustration when I started, and I had to use Mint for a while before finding out the problem (I’m on Arch now btw)
Backup all your personal data on windows prior to attempting anything. On a separate disk and cloud if possible. For cloud backups, just pick the important stuff. No need to backup steam libraries since steam servers are the backup in this case.
Like others have said, if you can use a separate disk, do that. If you can’t do that and you just want to try out Linux, use a USB live disk to test hardware compatibility and the user experience, or if you have an old laptop or desktop that isn’t being used, load Linux on that first.
Pick a popular distro for better community support. If you have a recently released laptop (less than a year old) might want to pick a distro with newer kernel for better hardware support. My personal recommendations are Pop!_OS, Fedora (both gnome and KDE versions). Both work well on newer hardware. Others you might want to try are Linux Mint and Ubuntu.
After getting Linux installed, try and keep your home partition backed up, especially if Windows is on the same disk.
Try and use Flatpak for all your apps, flathub is the web “store” for Flatpak apps.
Be open to trying the Linux alternative to apps since the windows version might not be available.
This is a new OS so expecting things to work a certain way isn’t realistic.
Most of the time a GUI is available for what you need to do, but learning the terminal is super helpful and a lot of people prefer it once they make the switch.
When searching online, try to include your distro and its version. It will help narrow down results.
If you’re gaming, check ProtonDB for game compatibility, and be willing to tinker a bit.
If you do have Nvidia graphics, Pop!_OS and other distros that bake the drivers into the disk image or install process are better for beginners.
Opinion portion: Firefox is a better holistic choice over chromium based browsers (see Google’s web environment integrity aka DRM for the web). KDE is a great desktop for people who like the Windows workflow, but I prefer Gnome. Nvidia graphics are much less problematic these days, but I still prefer amd and Intel hardware.
Life is hard; everyone is doing their best; be hard on problems and soft on people.
Good luck ;)
