Brief summary of my dual boot installation. Got Framework naked. The target config was Windows10 and Kubuntu (KDE flavored Ubuntu). Windows would not install from a DVD using USB-A. I had to turn off secure boot and use Rufus to create a thumb drive of the Windows installation. Then fine.
I installed Kubuntu 20.04 (via DVD) only to learn that will not support Framework Wifi and Bluetooth. It appears there are actual problems with the Kubuntu 21.04 installer which are not caused by Framework. Eventually I had to use Windows/Rufus to create a thumb drive of the installer and then it worked.
Most of my frustration was due to DVDs not working as well for installation media plus the Kubuntu 21 issues in themselves made it take a lot longer.
I just followed this guide because I like to have LUKS encrypting stuff in ubuntu which is where I spend the majority of my time. So far so good, need to get a winblows activation key and then I’ll be good to go.
Same here. I installed them with separate EFI System Partitions (on the same disk) because this allows me to boot the Kubuntu partition in a VM in Windows. The computer boots to Kubuntu’s ESP because that one has a GRUB entry for Windows, which allows me to use the system like any other dual boot system.
Having separate ESPs also prevents Windows from mounting the GRUB-containing ESP and potentially ruining it during updates (as far as I can tell, this is a rare problem, but still).
I can explain how I got this to work if anybody is interested. There were just a couple hiccups.
Edit: apparently this has enabled me to boot my Windows partition in a VM in Kubuntu as well, just confirmed.
I have successfully installed dual boot on the NVME drive for Win10 Pro + Ubuntu 21.04. Works like a charm. Even had no need to disable secure boot. Really enjoy the GRUB tiny console window in the left top corner when I boot my laptop.
Windows NVMe W/Plug & Play Linux OS's Expansion Cards
Preface:
I plan using Windows 10 Pro installed on the 1TB NVMe SSD as my main OS on my batch 3 Professional specked DIY Edition FW laptop. I do however also spend time in Linux. I don't want to mess around with VM's in windows as I want to be able use all of the machines resources regardless of what OS I am in and don't want to have to go through an additional layer of software to access it. I also do not want to partition the NVMe SSD as I want that to be only for Windows.
Idea:
Boot Windows 10 Pro from the 1TB NVMe SSD and then use storage expansion cards as boot devices for Linux OS's so that I can just swop out the expansion cards depending on what Linux OS I want to use. Almost like booting from a USB but fully installed.
Questions/Concerns:
I am still a amateur to Linux and am often on and off with it as a main OS, so I don't know too much about advanced technical stuff. I do have multiple OS's on Multiple HDD's and SSD's on my custom built PC, but I cant boot into Windows from the boot menu. I have to go into my BIOS and change the boot order any time I want to get into windows which is a pain especially with windows updates. I'm hoping that with this I can just plug in my Linux expansion card(s) and then boot and then pick Windows or Ubuntu/Mint/PopOS and then when I remove the card It will just boot right into windows. Is that easily possible? Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.
I would recommend installing Windows first. It will be easier to install LInux if you have secure boot disabled and you cannot have your Window’s session from hibernation active.
Make sure you have a portion of your drive free (unformated unpartitioned) and then start up your distro’s live session. Viola. Business as usual.
Ubuntu 21.04 and 20.04.3 as well as Fedora 34 all work.
If you install Windows first and then install something like UBuntu next to it, GRUB will give you an option to start Windows before any OS starts to Boot. Using something like Grub Customizer on Linux to change the GRUB default boot option, etc.
One of the weird things I noticed yesterday was that I can’t change boot order from the BIOS. I can disable a device to prevent it from booting, but I can’t change the boot order. There was options for First, Last, Auto. Auto seemed to disable my ability to make any selections. First and Last allowed me to uncheck an item. I didn’t see any way to change the order.
So with all of that being said, I’m not entirely clear which of your devices would end up being the primary choice - the nvme or the usb. Without being able to set a choice…
In my case I noticed it because I have the 250gb modules allocated to Ubuntu and Arch (depending on which one is plugged in) and had Ventoy plugged into USB-A. Sometimes the USB-A was the boot device and sometimes it wasn’t. But I couldn’t find any way to default it to being the boot device.
@malachid - I just rebooted into the bios and checked. You can reorder the entries using the + and - keys to move down or up while an entry is highlighted and auto-ordering is off. In my case, I have Pop!_OS set up on the internal drive, with windows on an expansion card. I installed refind and left only it enabled, so I can choose what to boot into from there.
Hey @Andy_Coder How you doing? I’ve noticed you mentioned you are currently running Ableton and Max with dual boot setup on Framework 13. Great!
What was your experience so far with the setup? Are you still dual booting? What was your experience with performance on Framework 13 and CPU usage, battery life?
My main concern is that rebooting laptop and constantly switching between OS might be very annoying and unproductive to just open my Ableton. That’s why I am considering having 2 laptops (MacBook Pro for Ableton, and Framework for everything else). However, having 2 laptops probably will be a pain. Just wondering is dual booting is annoying for you, and what was your experience so far.
I’m not dual-booting anymore. I didn’t exactly find it annoying, but I was just not using the Linux side much. Mainly because I wasn’t doing the things that I would prefer to do in Linux. If I’m spending 90% of my time in Firefox or Ableton, there isn’t much point in an entire second OS.
When I was younger I tried operating systems as a hobby in it’s own right, and dual or triple booted all my PCs for decades, but now I don’t find the time.
As for Ableton/Max performance and battery life, it’s a bit off topic, but the 11th-gen Intel FW13 was just adequate on that front, but I made a ton of music on it with just a bit of annoyance. I have updated to FW16 and would recommend it if you can. I would not recommend a MBP as performance and reliability is not good, in my experience using the top Apple machines for 6 years in my day job
Unfortunately, both windows and mac os keep adding useless, cloud-centric garbage and eroding user privacy, so alternate operating systems are becoming even more important. Hopefully Ableton can get a Linux version together, as much of their underlying systems are running on Linux on the new Push. Or maybe other commercial audio software will fill the gap?
Thanks for your reply, great I was able to reach you, as not many people are talking about music production on the forum. I also posted my own topic seeking some advice here DaVinci Resolve and Ableton Live: Seeking the Ideal Hardware Setup - have a look when you find a minute.
Unfortunately, both windows and mac os keep adding useless, cloud-centric garbage and eroding user privacy
I totally agree on MacOS/Windows point. Windows is adding utter garbage and spyware, while MacOS baking ChatGPT into the OS, and even tho you can disable it probably - you don’t know what your system is doing anyway, because all those disabled features are running in the background processes anyway.
Hopefully Ableton can get a Linux version together
Community is asking for years, I am not really sure if that will happen anytime soon. There is Bitwig native Linux support developed by ex Ableton devs. It’s good, but I am totally not fan of UI and esthetics. It looks quite painful for my eyes.
I would not recommend a MBP as performance and reliability is not good, in my experience using the top Apple machines for 6 years in my day job
Especially M1 (and other Apple silicon). It has a very good video chip, low latency for OS UI and basic things like web browsing, and does well on synthetic benchmarks. But actually using it for real work is awful next to my Win 11 FW16. Apple’s app store and updates that take 2 hours and… This is not the place for “Everything wrong with my MBP and why I think Apple products are beyond overrated” but you can send me a message if you really want the whole rant
I had a 2015 Intel MBP that I loved, and that was the last good MBP imo
