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andyp67

Member

Registered: 2022-10-30

Posts: 187  

Howto install dual-boot Windows Linux best method

A "safe, slow and stupid," computing method is genuine computer lingo.
This is done with Windows 10, I bet 11 is the same.

The following method will not touch the Windows Boot Manager on your computer (which sometimes can for sure break it;) this method is super oldschool booting with an external storage device, nowadays not a floppy disk but a USB stick. Using an external bootloader/boot manager, is how I boot my computers.

Put all your movies and stuff on a stick and free up all that space on you hard drive, shutdown, power on.

First, defrag, Menu - Windows Administrative Tools - Defragment and Optimise Drives.
Shutdown (when a LED light on your laptop has gone off, it HAS actually powered down/off.) Power on.

Second, shrink your Windows hard drive to free up some space to create a partition to put Linux on.
Perhaps certainly the best way is to use Windows Disk Management, Menu - Windows Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management.
Right-click the shaded box (probably C:.)
Shrink Volume.
Shrink space, say your 'hard drive' is 64GB, 16GB (16384MB,) is quite plenty indeed, even for a full-fat Linux distro.
Do the safe slow stupid thing and shutdown and power on your computer because Windows will appreciate that, after the changes.

Tasks;
Procure any old USB stick, the smaller the better.
Download rufus and download refind (refind-flashdrive zip file,) and unzip (extract,) the zip file (right click it.)
Run rufus and 'install' refind on the stick.
Subsequently, Windows will show that it does not recognize the stick, power off your computer and remove the stick.

Howto boot your Devuan stick.
The simplest way to not boot Windows but boot the USB stick is to go into bios/firmware.
Power on and at the same time tap tap tap and keep tapping away at the F2 key (some computers it's the ESC or DEL key.)
When you get into bios, TAKE CARE.
First, absolutely essential, disable fastboot and secure boot, save and exit and tap tap tap back in again.
Navigate to Boot Menu, obviously you need to boot the stick.
(Another way is to determine which F (Function key,) is for Boot Menu (often ESC.))
Install a real, not toy, operating system, partitioning manually is super easy, install on that 16GB free space you created, forget swap partition - we're not pre 1970's, IMPORTANT, install ****'Continue without boot loader.'**** When you finish and reboot, as it reboots, you can tap into bios and push the power button and it will power off immediately.
Plugin your refind stick, boot menu refind, there you go, tab to, or click, the big red D. (Laters, I have edited refind.conf textonly textmode 0.)
Very very most gravely sadly, another bootloader, super grub2 disk hybrid, works on my mini desktop, but not on my laptop.
refind will not work on old computers (pre EFI bios,) perhaps super grub 2 will.

Be most most proud of your patience and endurance using your grey matter to do something creative, when I was a newbie certainly it was all gobbledygook to me.
Learn how to add 'noatime,' to /etc/fstab, to protect your SSD.
I suppose the best way to write a Devuan iso to a stick, is to use rufus (that other standalone dd tool is problematic,) in rufus, if you are offered the option, choose dd.
rufus is excellent, always shows the stick, whereas if Windows don't like the stick, it don't show jack nothing.

Last edited by andyp67 (2023-07-16 19:52:47)

danuan

Member

Registered: 2020-08-30

Posts: 16  

Re: Howto install dual-boot Windows Linux best method

My simplified sequence of install

I have installed every which way but always end up with grub find windows and being the main loader at the end.

depending on sequence and bios vs uefi.

if windows is installed last  then you need to chroot in to you linux install from rescue or live disk or your own usb install
and run grub update , grub install sequence.

if linux installed last , some times windows bugs out even if grub only touched the mbr or uefi partition
and needs a repair from a windows install disk, and again if it was mbr install grub needs a update install

Last edited by danuan (2023-07-28 09:29:29)

delgado

Member

Registered: 2022-07-14

Posts: 130  

Re: Howto install dual-boot Windows Linux best method

The title includes "dual-boot" and "best method".

20 bugs for an addional SSD - it's worth it.

One operating system per physical drive is a clear approach.
Installations can be done in a way that each drive can boot its operating system independently.
Since only one drive can boot as default, other drives may be selected through the "BIOS boot menu" ([F12] on my computer).
But grub can detect and start most operating systems anyway.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,299  

Re: Howto install dual-boot Windows Linux best method

Hello:

One operating system per physical drive is a clear approach.

+1
Fully agree with that.
Provided it is not a netbook/laptop with a single HDD but then that also has the possibility of a fast SD card.
Not sure that can be done for a windows system.

Best,

A.

andyp67

Member

Registered: 2022-10-30

Posts: 187  

Re: Howto install dual-boot Windows Linux best method

I do not understand how to display an image on this forum.
Images are 2048x1536.

img src="http://www.andyp67.co.uk/CPX01.PNG" alt="" width="800" height="600"
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If the Windows GUI defrag is broken/missing, defrag in Windows Command Prompt.
In theory, Windows defrag tools will not hurt an SSD.
The above images show Devuan Daedalus RC8 netinstall on a Asus E203N laptop, common Intel N3350, SSD 64GB mmcblk0 surface mount.

Last edited by andyp67 (2023-08-06 10:55:28)