• Gerudo@lemmy.zip
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    11 hours ago

    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?

    • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      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.

    • Lfrith@lemmy.ca
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      5 hours ago

      Way to properly do it is to keep them separate drives and use bios to select which to load.

    • HereIAm@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      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.

      • Gerudo@lemmy.zip
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        8 hours ago

        So pretty safe if Windows is a priority install, and Linux is on a 2nd drive. Easy enough, thanks!

        • HereIAm@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          Definitely. If you have a second one it’s very safe to try out a full Linux install.

        • HereIAm@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          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.