I currently have a Framework 13 (AMD Ryzen 7 7840U) with Windows and Ubuntu dual-booting on my primary SSD. I’m planning to install Omarchy on a new secondary SSD.
System Information (as requested by forum)
Linux distro currently using: Ubuntu noble 24.04
Release version: 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat)
Kernel version: 6.8.0-83-generic
BIOS version: 03.03 (released 2023-10-17)
Framework Laptop 13 model: AMD Ryzen 7040 Series (specifically Ryzen 7 7840U with Radeon 780M Graphics)
My Specific Question
If I install Omarchy (v3.0+) on a dedicated SSD (keeping my Windows/Ubuntu drive separate), can I physically swap the drives when I need to use Windows?
I understand Omarchy is “designed for a dedicated drive, so dual-booting should only happen if you have two disks in your machine.” I just want confirmation that:
I can remove the Omarchy SSD
Install my Windows/Ubuntu SSD in the primary M.2 slot
Boot into Windows normally without any additional configuration
This would allow me to use Omarchy as my primary OS while keeping Windows accessible as a fallback option through simple physical drive swapping.
Has anyone successfully done this specific drive-swapping approach with Omarchy on their Framework 13? I’ve read that “Omarchy runs perfectly on a Framework 13 out of the box.”
Technically it seems like it would work. You might not be able to use Secure Boot.
Physically, how often will you be opening up your laptop and swapping the SSD? These parts aren’t made for lots of insertion cycles, and that sounds like it could get tedious pretty quickly.
Have you looked into booting from a storage expansion card?
Ah, if you’re not going back and forth, then sure. Swapping SSDs should be easy. The only wrinkle that I can think of that might get in your way is secure boot. Fixing that would just require re-enrolling some keys.
OP, you’re aware that if you have 2 M.2 SSDs with two different OS plugged into the same machine, you can change which one to boot into by default, right? No need to physically swap anything in this simple case. You just need to change some BIOS settings to select which SSD to boot into by default, or alternatively get the BIOS to ask you each time which OS/drive you want to boot into at startup.
I’m saying this because the physical swapping of things each time you want to switch OS seems very very cumbersome, especially since there is a straightforward native option here.
Again, you might have a special case here that requires this physical swapping, but just in case, I wanted to say this.
I use an arch-based distro with grub as the bootloader. After installing windows you can boot into Linux, install os-prober enable it in the grub setting file(sorry I forgot which one) and regenerate the grub configuration file. I think the procedure is called chain loading. In this way you can keep both SSD installed and boot either Linux or Windows.
However I have no experience in Omarchy and I don’t know which part of the boot folder or partition is also encrypted. It may or may not work
Hi there! Just wanted to chime in with a bit more info as I think the meat of what you are asking has kind of been answered but the why has not.
The answer to your question is 100% yes. The important thing with Omarchy is that you need to disable secure boot. So if you were to swap your Windows SSD back in, you would want to enable it again. That is pretty much it.
If you have any problems with Omarchy you can ask here as well. The Framework community forum predominately handles Linux questions and problems. Although in my experience Omarchy just works, especially on Framework computers.