Creating a Windows 10 Dual Boot from Manjaro

Framework Laptop 13 Linux
1

Quick tutorial of a process to set up a Windows 10 dual boot from an initial Manjaro Linux system. Though this could be done using fewer USB sticks and a few tricks, I find it very convenient to have a couple USBs lying around when working with disk partitioning, booting, and backups, especially at least one with a live Linux install.

Materials Required

  • x1 Framework Laptop running Manjaro
  • x1 Manjaro live USB (can be same one used for initial install)
  • x1 (preferably 2) USB stick, minimum 8gbs

Steps

  1. If you haven’t installed the BIOS update yet, I recommend following this page using one of the USBs. The update considerably improves startup time and some fixes issues related to accessing boot/bios options throughout the setup.

  2. Set up your windows 10 install USB.
    a. Download the windows 10 ISO from the microsoft website.
    b. Install to the USB using woeusb. This program is available on the AUR, which is not accessible by default in the Manjaro package manager. Enable it in the “third party” section of the software manager preferences menu. Use either the GUI or terminal version, both are straightforward. Here is a tutorial for the GUI version. Make sure to labee this drive somehow as to not get it mixed up.
    c. You now have a live windows 10 installer USB!

  3. If you have the extra USB, use this link again to download the driver package .exe to it for future use. I found that copying the .exe to my USB seemed to have hanging problems in Manjaro, but with a bit of patience it successfully copied over.

  4. Boot into your live Manjaro USB. This likely involves holding F12 to reach the boot menu depending on your boot preferences. Booting from an inactive memory source is necessary to change main disk partition sizes in Manjaro.

  5. In the Manjaro live USB, use Gparted to re-partition your Manjaro disk to the desired size, and format the windows target partition as NTFS. Save your changes and turn off the computer.

  6. Boot up again, this time into the live Windows 10 ISO for installation. Follow as guided.

  7. After Windows is finished installing, you should be able to go directly into it upon reboot. If you have the extra USB with the drivers on it, now you can install them by running the executable.

  8. You may have noticed that the Windows 10 install got rid of your grub boot menu. To re-enable this (and regain access to your Manjaro partition), you need to plug in your Manjaro USB and hold F12 again on bootup. Select the USB but this time use the resulting grub menu to navigate to your local SSD install of Manjaro and boot it. This gets you back into your local Manjaro. From here, open a terminal and mount the windows partition (which should be available). Run sudo update-grub. If this doesn’t work, the os-probe may need to be re-enabled.
    a. If you didn’t have the extra USB in step 3, during this step you can download the framework driver bundle to one of your remaining drives and use it to install the drivers when you’re back in Windows.

  9. After running the grub update, you should be able to reboot your computer into Windows or Manjaro from grub at your liking.

  10. You now have a dual-booted Framework Laptop, congratulations!

Any improvements or comments on this process are welcome!

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