this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So, excusing my ignorance as a fairly recent Linux convert, what does this mean for my dual boot system?

I haven’t booted windows for weeks and am pretty sure there have been no updates since it was freshly reinstalled (maybe 6 months ago) as a dual boot with Debian.

Is this only a problem if I allow Windows to update?

Are Microsoft likely to fix the issue in a subsequent release?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

FWIW, I'm dual-booting windows and mint atm. Separate drives, but just one EFI partition, and this update hasn't borked things for me.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yes, you don't have to worry as long as you don't boot up windows and let it install the update.

This is not the first time they break dual boots by touching the partitions, but this is the first time they deliberately break it (that I know of). I always had windows on its own drive because of that. If you don't use windows a lot then I would suggest to do the same. You have to change to windows through bios but it isn't that much more work.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Thanks for the reply, and good to know!

I think I’ll blow away the windows install on this machine completely.

I still have another pc for some audio tools that don’t run under Linux, but this machine is my daily driver now and I couldn’t be happier.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

And just in case when installing windows on its own drive, only have the windows drive mounted so it doesn't write to the linux drive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Is there any issue with having windows on one drive and Linux on the other and toggling in the bios at boot? Do I introduce any problems by keeping my rarely used windows installation on a separate disk like this?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'm not sure, but clearly something happens on the background, as my Debian drive broke after I changed it back and forth for the Windows drive. Grub fell back to rescue mode. After following some instructions and trying to boot from grub command line, Debian wouldn't boot after it recognized the mouse. That's what I know. Even in different drives, something happens on the PC when you go back and forth with Windows and Linux.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I should have been more clear,

Assuming dev/sda is Linux and dev/sdb is Windows, I have grub on sda and Windows bootloader on sdb. I use a hotkey at boot to tell the bios which drive to boot from.

Theoretically windows thinks it's the only OS unless it's scoping out that second hard disk.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It updates Secure Boot in the BIOS, so you could completely remove Windows but the Secure Boot update would still be in the BIOS and affect the boot loader.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I put windows in the shame box (VM).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I recently discovered that Rufus has an option to set up a Windows ISO as "Windows on the go" so I dug out an old 500Gb SSD that had a USB adapter with it and installed Windows on that. So now instead of dual booting I can just hit F12 and boot from USB on the rare occasions when I need to run something in Windows.

It's also quite satisfying to be able to physically remove Windows and shove it into a drawer when it goes full Windows too lol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

God, I'd have a back up in case I went full office space.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I pretty much did just go full office space on it lol. Here's a fun thing I just learned:

Windows 11 apparently defaults to a tiny fraction of space for system restore points, and if it runs out of space it just deletes the old ones without asking or telling you. Because it defaults to a tiny amount of space, it apparently only ever keeps one system restore point on hand.

This means I made a manual one on a clean install when I'd got my settings sorted, so I can hop back to that when Windows inevitably fucks up. But because it's Windows, what it did was apply a big update, fuck it up, then save that fuck up as the only restore point.

I restored it anyway just to see what would happen, and that broke even more stuff. Back in the drawer!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

This has been my solution for a long time.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

I had the intention of reinstalling my windows because it was like from back when win10 was new and the winsxs folder was so big that a 100GB partition was not enough for just windows with all the 3rd party programs installed on another partition... but I noticed that all my games run on Linux so I ended up wiping the 100GB nvme windows partition and moving my dual boot Linux there. I've been without windows for a couple of months now and I haven't really missed it.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 months ago (3 children)

If you need to dual boot, be sure to use separate EFI partitions for windows and Linux, separate drives if possible. Windows has done this far too many times.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

Just remove Windows. One problem less on the list.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

and unplug your linux drive when booting windows, just in case

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

+1. I do this

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

Yess, let the hate flow through you! ⚡

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