2:48 p.m.
Brand New Dell XPS 15 coming tomorrow, to replace my venerable Lenovo
T530. (Looking forward to something a little lighter to lug around.)
It's been 10 years since I set the T530 up to dual-boot Fedora and Windows.
I'm sure I can figure out how to reduce the size of the Windows
partition to make space for Fedora, but am unsure of the process for
current PC BIOS and grub setup for dual boot. Or is the Fedora installer
smart enough to handle it for me?
Are there docs for this? Thanks.
2:56 p.m.
Brand New Dell XPS 15 coming tomorrow, to replace my venerable Lenovo
T530. (Looking forward to something a little lighter to lug around.)
It's been 10 years since I set the T530 up to dual-boot Fedora and Windows.
I'm sure I can figure out how to reduce the size of the Windows
partition to make space for Fedora, but am unsure of the process for
current PC BIOS and grub setup for dual boot. Or is the Fedora installer
smart enough to handle it for me?
Are there docs for this? Thanks.
In my opinion, first thing to do
fdisk
and/or gparted
from a live distribution (like fedora-live or gparted-live)
3:02 p.m.
Once upon a time, Tim Evans <tkevans(a)tkevans.com> said:
Brand New Dell XPS 15 coming tomorrow, to replace my venerable
Lenovo T530. (Looking forward to something a little lighter to lug
around.)
It's been 10 years since I set the T530 up to dual-boot Fedora and Windows.
I'm sure I can figure out how to reduce the size of the Windows
partition to make space for Fedora, but am unsure of the process for
current PC BIOS and grub setup for dual boot. Or is the Fedora
installer smart enough to handle it for me?
I just got a new Thinkpad and went through this. The only extra step I
had for installing Fedora was that the UEFI settings had the "Microsoft
3rd-party OS" certificate for Secure Boot disabled by default - went
into the settings and enabled that, and then the Fedora installer would
run.
Also, after installing Fedora (which made GRUB the default UEFI boot
option), booting Windows from GRUB gave an error because of the
Bitlocker disk encryption and measured boot. I had to enter the key
(logged in to my mandatory MS account to get it, I think you can also
copy it to a USB drive from within Windows first) to get it to boot, and
then it adjusted the security to handle booting from GRUB (with no error
or key entry) after that.
--
Chris Adams <linux(a)cmadams.net>
3:06 p.m.
On 12/2/23 13:02, Chris Adams wrote:
Also, after installing Fedora (which made GRUB the default UEFI boot
option), booting Windows from GRUB gave an error because of the
Bitlocker disk encryption and measured boot. I had to enter the key
(logged in to my mandatory MS account to get it, I think you can also
copy it to a USB drive from within Windows first) to get it to boot, and
then it adjusted the security to handle booting from GRUB (with no error
or key entry) after that.
I thought Windows was no longer added to the grub menu because of this.
You're expected to use the UEFI boot menu instead.
3:11 p.m.
Once upon a time, Samuel Sieb <samuel(a)sieb.net> said:
On 12/2/23 13:02, Chris Adams wrote:
>Also, after installing Fedora (which made GRUB the default UEFI boot
>option), booting Windows from GRUB gave an error because of the
>Bitlocker disk encryption and measured boot. I had to enter the key
>(logged in to my mandatory MS account to get it, I think you can also
>copy it to a USB drive from within Windows first) to get it to boot, and
>then it adjusted the security to handle booting from GRUB (with no error
>or key entry) after that.
I thought Windows was no longer added to the grub menu because of
this. You're expected to use the UEFI boot menu instead.
Like I said, this is what I saw (with Fedora 39).
--
Chris Adams <linux(a)cmadams.net>
3:04 p.m.
On 12/2/23 12:48, Tim Evans wrote:
Brand New Dell XPS 15 coming tomorrow, to replace my venerable Lenovo
T530. (Looking forward to something a little lighter to lug around.)
It's been 10 years since I set the T530 up to dual-boot Fedora and Windows.
I'm sure I can figure out how to reduce the size of the Windows
partition to make space for Fedora, but am unsure of the process for
current PC BIOS and grub setup for dual boot. Or is the Fedora installer
smart enough to handle it for me?
I suggest using the windows disk tool to shrink the windows partition.
From there the Fedora installer can handle the rest.
If you can't get into the BIOS setup or boot selection, you might have
to go through windows to get there and enable it. Disabling fast boot
might be necessary as well.
4:52 p.m.
Samuel Sieb composed on 2023-12-02 13:04 (UTC-0800):
Tim Evans wrote:
> Brand New Dell XPS 15 coming tomorrow, to replace my venerable
Lenovo
> T530. (Looking forward to something a little lighter to lug around.)
> It's been 10 years since I set the T530 up to dual-boot
Fedora and Windows.
> I'm sure I can figure out how to reduce the size of the
Windows
> partition to make space for Fedora, but am unsure of the process for
> current PC BIOS and grub setup for dual boot. Or is the Fedora installer
> smart enough to handle it for me?
I suggest using the windows disk tool to shrink the windows
partition.
From there the Fedora installer can handle the rest.
What I would do first is make sure Windows boots and works as expected.
#2: Remove the disk and put it in a safe place for reinstallation if a warranty
issue appears.
#3: Put in a different disk and install Fedora.
#4: install Windows in a VM.
If you can't get into the BIOS setup or boot selection, you might
have
to go through windows to get there and enable it. Disabling fast boot
might be necessary as well.
--
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.
Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
Felix Miata
6 a.m.
On Sat, Dec 2, 2023 at 4:48 PM Tim Evans <tkevans(a)tkevans.com> wrote:
Brand New Dell XPS 15 coming tomorrow, to replace my venerable
Lenovo
T530. (Looking forward to something a little lighter to lug around.)
It's been 10 years since I set the T530 up to dual-boot Fedora and Windows.
I'm sure I can figure out how to reduce the size of the Windows
partition to make space for Fedora, but am unsure of the process for
current PC BIOS and grub setup for dual boot. Or is the Fedora installer
smart enough to handle it for me?
Are there docs for this? Thanks.
You should check the LHWDB <https://linux-hardware.org> for issues
encountered by
linux users (sometimes there are comments suggesting workarounds.
You should use Windows tools to 1) update device firmware and 2) create
"free space"
for linux. Dell has the "SupportAssist" app you should run immediately to
update
firmware and verify that everything works properly. On my Dell I need to
use F2 to
get to the "BIOS" configuration, and "F12" to get a list of boot
options.
The problem is
that the system starts faster than my monitor (using DP to HDMI adapter
cable) wakes
up so on cold boot I have to guess about the timing to hit a function key.
I usually end
up in Windows a couple times before I get into the BIOS screen I want.
The Windows tools have changed with recent updates to Windows 11
as I discovered when installing F39 on a Dell desktop. I just converted
an existing linux partition to free space so didn't need to shrink the
Windows
partition. A common mistake is allowing Windows assign a drive letter to
the free space -- the Fedora installer looks for "free space".
--
George N. White III
6:34 a.m.
On Sun, Dec 3, 2023 at 7:00 AM George N. White III <gnwiii(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, Dec 2, 2023 at 4:48 PM Tim Evans <tkevans(a)tkevans.com>
wrote:
> Brand New Dell XPS 15 coming tomorrow, to replace my venerable Lenovo
> T530. (Looking forward to something a little lighter to lug around.)
>
> It's been 10 years since I set the T530 up to dual-boot Fedora and
> Windows.
>
> I'm sure I can figure out how to reduce the size of the Windows
> partition to make space for Fedora, but am unsure of the process for
> current PC BIOS and grub setup for dual boot. Or is the Fedora installer
> smart enough to handle it for me?
>
> Are there docs for this? Thanks.
>
You should check the LHWDB <https://linux-hardware.org> for issues
encountered by
linux users (sometimes there are comments suggesting workarounds.
You should use Windows tools to 1) update device firmware and 2) create
"free space"
for linux. Dell has the "SupportAssist" app you should run immediately to
update
firmware and verify that everything works properly. On my Dell I need to
use F2 to
get to the "BIOS" configuration, and "F12" to get a list of boot
options.
The problem is
that the system starts faster than my monitor (using DP to HDMI adapter
cable) wakes
up so on cold boot I have to guess about the timing to hit a function
key. I usually end
up in Windows a couple times before I get into the BIOS screen I want.
The Windows tools have changed with recent updates to Windows 11
as I discovered when installing F39 on a Dell desktop. I just converted
an existing linux partition to free space so didn't need to shrink the
Windows
partition. A common mistake is allowing Windows assign a drive letter to
the free space -- the Fedora installer looks for "free space".
About 1 yr back I installed fedora onto my wife's dell laptop with windows
10
for dual boot. Despite significant and lengthy efforts to follow online
guides to get windows to free up space I never got that to work - windows
never gave up the space. In the end installed into a spare 2G partition
instead.
8:41 a.m.
On Sun, Dec 3, 2023 at 8:35 AM Neal Becker <ndbecker2(a)gmail.com> wrote:
At work we had a "mission critical" application that was developed on
IRIX64 and
ported to linux and macOS, but not Windows. Since Windows was the
"enterprise
standard" I've configured many systems for dual boot. That sometimes
required moving files out of the primary Windows partition to a network
server or
removable drive to allow shrinking the Windows filesystem. These days,
enterprise
Windows used encrypted drives managed by IT. The "mission critical"
application
runs in WSL (and users realized that many other applications run faster in
WSL
than they do in Windows).
--
George N. White III
About 1 yr back I installed fedora onto my wife's dell laptop with windows
10 for
dual boot. Despite significant and lengthy efforts to follow online guides
to get
windows to free up space I never got that to work - windows never gave up
the
space. In the end installed into a spare 2G partition instead.
3:39 p.m.
On 12/2/23 15:48, Tim Evans wrote:
Brand New Dell XPS 15 coming tomorrow, to replace my venerable Lenovo
T530. (Looking forward to something a little lighter to lug around.)
It's been 10 years since I set the T530 up to dual-boot Fedora and Windows.
I'm sure I can figure out how to reduce the size of the Windows
partition to make space for Fedora, but am unsure of the process for
current PC BIOS and grub setup for dual boot. Or is the Fedora installer
smart enough to handle it for me?
Are there docs for this? Thanks.
Closing the loop on this. Thanks to everyone who replied. This turned
out to be fairly simple, and everyone who replied had something good to add.
Process is pretty straightforward:
On Windows:
o Disable Fast Boot (Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Power
Options->System Settings). This makes it easier for you to get into the
PC's BIOS, although I had no trouble on the Dell XPS.
o Shrink the size of the PC's C: drive (assuming you have just one
drive). Use the Window Disk Management app.
o Download the Fedora ISO and burn it to a thumb drive using MediaWriter
or another similar tool like 'Rufus.' Be sure the set the "Target
System" to "BIOS or UEFI" and the partion scheme to "MBR."
o Go into the PC BIOS and disable "Secure Boot." (Apparently, there is a
workaround that allows you to skip this, but I didn't explore it.)
o While in the BIOS, change the boot device order to put your thumb
drive first (I had the thumb drive inserted when I went into the BIOS
and it offered it as a boot choice--again, this was Dell's BIOS, so YMMV.
Once this is done, reboot the PC with the bootable thumb drive in place
and install Fedora. (I walked through the manaul partition screens to
make sure the Windows install wouldn't be touched, but could have just
accepted all the defaults, as it Just Worked.
As noted, all of these items were mentioned by one or another of you in
your replies; thanks, again.
I did find a number of online doc's for dual booting, as well as several
You-Tube video tutorials. The one I followd most closely was at:
https://www.techhut.tv/how-to-dual-boot-fedora-and-windows-11/
4:20 p.m.
Am 07.12.2023 um 22:39 schrieb Tim Evans
<tkevans(a)tkevans.com>:
Closing the loop on this. Thanks to everyone who replied. This turned out to be fairly
simple, and everyone who replied had something good to add.
Hi Tim and all participants here,
This thread is a permanent and recurring topic. Wouldn't it be useful and beneficial
to transfer this discussion and your summary into a "Quick Docs" document
(https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/)? Then it would be easier for Fedora
users to find and easier to upgrade to the next Fedora version.
Could you imagine doing this or working on it together with me?
(It’s easy using the pagure web based editor)
--
Peter Boy
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Pboy
PBoy(a)fedoraproject.org
Timezone: CET (UTC+1) / CEST (UTC+2)
Fedora Server Edition Working Group member
Fedora Docs team contributor and board member
Java developer and enthusiast
4:21 p.m.
On 12/7/23 13:39, Tim Evans wrote:
o Go into the PC BIOS and disable "Secure Boot."
(Apparently, there
is a workaround that allows you to skip this, but I didn't explore it.)
Did you try without doing this? It should just work.
o While in the BIOS, change the boot device order to put your
thumb
drive first (I had the thumb drive inserted when I went into the BIOS
and it offered it as a boot choice--again, this was Dell's BIOS, so YMMV.
Usually there's a key you can press to get a boot selection menu so you
can one-time boot from the USB without having to change the boot order.
5:38 p.m.
On Thu, Dec 7, 2023 at 6:22 PM Samuel Sieb <samuel(a)sieb.net> wrote:
Usually there's a key you can press to get a boot selection menu so you
can one-time boot from the USB without having to change the boot order.
F12 on my Dell systems. On my desktop the monitor is slow to start (using
a
cheap USBC to HDMI adapter) so I often miss the window when F12 is active.
5:52 p.m.
George N. White III composed on 2023-12-07 19:38 (UTC-0400):
Samuel Sieb wrote:
> Usually there's a key you can press to get a boot selection
menu so you
> can one-time boot from the USB without having to change the boot order.
F12 on my Dell systems. On my desktop the monitor is slow to start
(using a
cheap USBC to HDMI adapter) so I often miss the window when F12 is active.
I have at least one Dell with same issue. Dell is not my only source of such
trouble. I just don't bother waiting before hitting F12 (or F2). I repeat hitting
it each second or so until I see ack that menu or setup have been triggered. If I
miss, C-A-D usually beats init starting to trigger a reset.
--
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.
Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
Felix Miata
11:19 p.m.
On Thu, 7 Dec 2023, Samuel Sieb wrote:
Usually there's a key you can press to get a boot selection menu
so you can
one-time boot from the USB without having to change the boot order.
In my experiencem, external drives come before internal drives anyway.
I've been bitten by this.
--
Michael hennebry(a)mail.cs.ndsu.NoDak.edu
"SCSI is NOT magic. There are *fundamental technical
reasons* why it is necessary to sacrifice a young
goat to your SCSI chain now and then." -- John Woods
164
days inactive
170
days old
15 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
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Chris Adams -
Felix Miata -
George N. White III -
Michael Hennebry -
Neal Becker -
Patrick Dupre -
Peter Boy -
Samuel Sieb -
Tim Evans