Caleb Learns Linux

u/Yuki August 31, 2016, 04:24:13 AM

The three of them are going in the same computer? Well, that would work. Just install GRUB on the first drive and it will do the job. Swap can go besides the Linux partition, or on the SSD, the partition layout is up to you, you can put the different partitions on the different drives however you want, the only important thing is Windows being installed first (else it's a pain) and Linux's bootloader (usually GRUB) in the MBR of the first drive (or EFI partition if it uses that thing). Also, your 1TB data drive should be formatted in something Windows recognizes (usually NTFS, great support nowadays in Linux) if you want to use it in both OSes, but I guess you already know that

u/Travis September 02, 2016, 08:20:48 PM

Most of the Linux installers have partitioning functionality built in, so you'll be able to set things up from there.

If you want to be really safe about the Windows disk and your BIOS has a convenient way to select which disk is booted from, you could install the bootloader for Linux on its own disk and leave the Windows's default bootloader in place, just in case something goes wrong. Ideally, you might be able to have the Linux disk's bootloader still give the option to boot either to the Windows disk or to Linux but still have the Windows disk original bootloader there for you to switch to if GRUB somehow breaks.

I don't personally have much experience with dual-booting Windows. I tried it on an old Vista laptop, and could never get the bootloader to work reliably at all, for reasons I never could figure out. Windows would just straight up refuse to fully boot, just rebooting in the middle of loading. Only after a lot of futzing around (sometimes without actually even changing anything) would it sometimes work once or twice, so I gave up on that. (The version of Linux Mint I tried had too many bugs on this machine, anyway.)

u/Lionel Debroux September 04, 2016, 09:24:54 AM

FWIW, I never had problems dual-booting Windows on my or work computers, since the summer of 2005.
I recently destroyed the Windows copy on this computer to gain some breathing space on the HDD, and I seldom boot Windows on the other computers, the latest one of which was preinstalled with Win 10, but still

u/Caleb Hansberry September 08, 2016, 01:18:45 PM

Alright, I think I've got it. I tried setting it up correctly through Linux, but I messed something up, maybe I needed to disable secure boot in the BIOS I dunno. But once Linux was installed it just booted up Windows, so I ran EasyBCD and added a BCD entry for Linux and that seems to work I think.

I'm having an issue with Linux on the first time running it. When I try to run apps, they load for a bit then stop and nothing happens, and when I try to change settings or otherwise authenticate, when I type my password and click Authenticate, it sits there doing nothing until I finally press the Cancel button. So I can't change settings, update, or run apps right now. Some apps run like the system settings but others like the music player on the desktop don't. Also I don't think I set up a swap partition (16GB RAM).

u/p2 September 08, 2016, 02:20:33 PM

the "secure boot" option in bios just blocks booting from external devices like USBs, that's all it does

It's ment to prevent attackers from using konBoot and other stuff (only effective if you also use a bios pasword of cause - and they dont know how to remove a battery ^^)

u/Lionel Debroux September 08, 2016, 05:57:16 PM

The number of Linux distros supporting secure boot is growing.

u/Travis September 09, 2016, 02:50:33 AM

If you know the command names of any of those programs that won't start, open a terminal within your desktop environment and try running some of them from there and see what they say.

Figuring out the name of the launch command can take some guessing/research, but many are obvious (i.e. "firefox" for Firefox, "libreoffice" for LibreOffice, etc.).

u/Yuki September 09, 2016, 03:44:50 AM

Oh, you can always look at the launcher's properties, in the menu's configuration or check the files owned by a package. If you know your way around, it is possible to easily figure out the command.

u/Caleb Hansberry September 09, 2016, 05:16:10 AM

Alright, I looked into that. If I'm not mistaken, there are dependency issues causing these programs to not start. My solution was to just install Dolphin, it automatically installed all the dependencies and now it runs as the file manager :s I guess I can fix the other apps that way too, just by installing new ones that work. Not sure if I need to uninstall anything. It doesn't help the issue with being unable to login though. I can still login with the terminal, just never with Gnome...