[GTALUG] two or three tricks for installing Linux as a second OS on a Windows box

[Evan Leibovitch]

Another option for some is the Windows Subsystem for Linux
<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/> which I demo'd at an
earlier GTALUG meeting.
No boot issues, fewer graphics and PulseAudio problems, and it works fairly
well for the light loads I have given it.

Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
@evanleibovitch / @el56


On Fri, Mar 4, 2022 at 11:27 AM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:

> Most computers come with Microsoft Windows.  If you insist on buying a
> computer without Windows, you have less choice and may have to pay more.
> Besides, once in a blue moon Windows is useful.
>
> To install Linux, you can either blow away Windows (easy!) or your can
> install Linux beside Windows.
>
> If you want to install Linux beside Windows, you usually have to get
> Windows to relinquish some disk space.  (Alternatively you might be able
> to add another disk.)
>
> Windows has a way of reducing the size of a volume but it is unwilling to
> relocate a structure that is in the middle of the volume.  So it is only
> willing to give up slightly less than half of the volume.
>
> I use gparted (ntfresize is underneath) to shrink a Windows NTFS volume,
> because I always want to shrink in to less than 50% of its original size.
> I do this from a live Linux flash drive.
>
> Here are the tricks that are not so obvious:
>
> - if Windows is using bitlocker, you need to turn that off in Windows.
>   Otherwise gparted cannot do anything with the partition.
>
>   Our newest computer came with bitlocker enabled (with no password).
>   That's probably a good idea but not for us.
>
>   After bitlocker is turned off, gparted can operate.
>
>   Perhaps you can turn it on again after resizing.  I don't know.
>
>   (On Windows: Settings: Privacy & Security: Device Encryption)
>
> - By default, Windows assumes that it can leave the filesystem in an
>   inconsistent state when it shuts down.  It assumes that you'll boot
>   Windows again when you power the system up.  Apparently this speeds
>   things up a little bit.
>
>   This is very unhealthy if you are going to boot Linux next,
>   especially if you are going to run gparted to muck with the NTFS
>   filesystem.
>
>   You can fix this by going to Windows' Control Panel (which is something
>   different from Settings), Power Settings, and untick "turn on fast
>   startup (recommended)".  It is slightly tricky because you have to click
>   some option to allow you to change the fast startup option.  Sheesh.
>
> - (old advice; may be obsolete; I don't wish to find out the hard way that
>   it is still needed.)
>   After you have resized the NTFS partition, reboot to Windows.  Don't do
>   anything else with the disk in Linux first.
>   Why: it used to be the case that gparted got something slightly wrong in
>   the NTFS partition, something that a Windows boot fixed silently.
>   After booting Windows, you can reboot to a Linux install medium safely.
> ---
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