Many individuals assume that straightforward dual-booting is reserved for working techniques like Linux Mint or Ubuntu, the place the whole lot is taken care of within the installer device. The fact is that this setup is well achievable on almost any Linux distribution in the marketplace, utilizing a easy device. You possibly can twin boot Linux and Windows 10 no matter which Linux distribution you’re operating.
SPOILER ALERT: Scroll down and watch the video tutorial on the finish of this text.
The device that enables customers to simply arrange a dual-boot on Linux is called OS Prober. It scans all arduous drives and partitions on a PC and appears for working techniques. When it finds them, it should robotically generate a Grub boot entry that then is used to dual-boot.
To get began with this information, you’ll have to accurately partition your arduous drives, so there’s room for each working techniques. Partitioning two totally different working techniques generally is a actual ache, and isn’t really helpful. As a substitute, for those who plan to twin boot Linux and Windows 10, think about using separate arduous drives.
By putting in Windows 10 and Linux on two totally different arduous drives, you bypass the necessity for partitioning. Moreover, the working techniques by no means contact one another, and there’s no have to learn to “uninstall Linux” if you find yourself hating it.
Observe: when putting in Windows on a devoted drive, guarantee that the Linux arduous drive you intend to make use of is disconnected from the PC. Microsoft Windows has difficulties putting in when a number of drives are current. Moreover, you might by accident delete your Linux set up.
Set Up Dual Boot
After putting in Windows and your Linux distribution on their very own devoted arduous drives, reconnect and cargo up the Linux one. From right here, open up a terminal window and acquire root entry. To give the OS Prober device one of the best probability of success, use the fsck device to repair any arduous drive errors that could be current on the Windows drive.
Mount the Windows drive by opening the file supervisor, then click on on the drive mount it. Go to the terminal and run the lsblk command to view the block machine names for all related drives. Discover out what the Windows arduous drive is, after which run:
sudo fsck -y /dev/sdX
When Fsck is completed, observe the command under to put in OS Prober.
Observe: UEFI customers should additionally use EFI boot supervisor to detect UEFI enabled OSes
Ubuntu
sudo apt set up os-prober efibootmgr
Debian
sudo apt-get set up os-prober efibootmgr
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S os-prober efibootmgr
Fedora
sudo dnf set up os-prober efibootmgr
OpenSUSE
sudo zypper set up os-prober efibootmgr
Different Linuxes
OS Prober and EFI boot supervisor are required for dual-booting. As most Linux distributions attempt to provide this characteristic to new Linux customers, this software program ought to be straightforward to seek out. To set up it open up the package deal supervisor, seek for “os-prober”, “efibootmgr” and set up it the way in which packages are usually put in.
Detect Working Techniques
OS Prober does a number of work, however there’s no precise cause to name it. As a substitute, it really works with the Grub bootloader itself, when the person generates a brand new configuration file. To generate a brand new config, open up a terminal and run the next instructions.
Observe: your working system might have an official “update-grub” command. Make sure you verify the official Wiki to your working system earlier than persevering with. Most Grub installations on Linux are situated at /boot/grub/, so the next command ought to work accurately to replace Grub.
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
If the Grub boot-loader fails to replace, your configuration could also be in one other location (that is normally solely true for Fedora/SUSE customers). Do this one as an alternative.
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Take away Dual Boot
Eradicating an working system from the dual-boot is extremely straightforward with this methodology as a result of there are not any partitions to delete. Should you’ve determined that you just not wish to use Windows 10 along with your Linux PC (for no matter cause), right here’s how one can take away it from the Grub bootloader.
Energy down your PC and open up it up. Discover the Windows 10 arduous drive and unplug it from the facility provide and motherboard. This can be certain that Grub and OS Prober can’t see it. When the whole lot is unplugged, flip the PC again on and log into Linux.
Open up terminal and re-run the Grub replace device:
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
or
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Os Prober and Grub will re-scan your PC and search for working techniques like earlier than. Nonetheless, as a result of the Windows 10 arduous drive isn’t related, OS Prober thinks that it not exists. Because of this, Grub will take away the entry from the bootloader.
Linux dual-booting
On this tutorial, a heavy focus was placed on Windows as a result of the vast majority of Linux customers, when speaking about dual-booting, want Windows. That being mentioned, OS-Prober can detect any working system on any partition or arduous drive. Should you’re seeking to arrange different Linux distributions, and even stuff like BSD and Haiku, this methodology ought to work simply high-quality.
