Do you use Linux?

[fdafed]

I love it!

Linux mint on my main computer.

Bazzite for gaming purposes. Smooth and I couch play. Has come along way. Currently playing RE4 remake.

Since my hardware is non-Windows 11 compliant. No need to upgrade or spend what I don't have just to meet windows requirements.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Ironically, now that I’ve upgraded hardware, I might go back to Linux. I had been running Manjaro until I ran into a texture issue on Forbidden West. I think I was just asking too much on old hardware.

 

[Prime2515102]

Windows 10 is about to "expire" and to be honest, my (incompatible with Win11) computer does everything it needs to do for now. Switching to Linux would be wonderful if it weren't for most games (I don't mind the other challenges).

So what do I use Linux for? My dreams of being free from Microsoft forever.

 

[_roman_]

Ironically, now that I’ve upgraded hardware, I might go back to Linux. I had been running Manjaro until I ran into a texture issue on Forbidden West. I think I was just asking too much on old hardware.

It was never such easy to dual boot. Make 250MIB as first partition and 100GB as last partition on your 2TB NVME. Install windows 11 pro on the rest.
Than use the mainboard uefi bootloader to boot the gnu userspace and the linux kernel from the first 250mib first partition. I do not use swap since over 10 years. At that time my box had only 16giB / 20Gib / 64Gib DRAM.

--

I wish people would understand, you do not have to install two gnu userspaces with linux kernel. Just use teh package manager properly.

 

[lexluthermiester]

It was never such easy to dual boot.

That depends. On a single drive, yes. If you install to separate drives and use the system boot menu, then it's easy breezy!

 

[Marcus L]

That depends. On single drive, yes. If you install to separate drives and use the system boot menu, then it's easy breezy!

Which system boot menu? what's the best way to go about doing a dual boot on separate drives? everytime I have dual booted when I wanted to remove linux was always leftover with the linux boot loader/selector even though the install had been deleted/wiped, has put me off trying again though I can use linux for 90% of the time for what I do on my PC and would be nice to try it again as it's been probably 12+ mths.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Which system boot menu?

The BIOS controlled type. It varies from system to system. Most are accessed via the F12 key but some are a different key pressed during POST. You'll have to look up in your system/board manual how it's done.

what's the best way to go about doing a dual boot on separate drives? everytime I have dual booted when I wanted to remove linux was always leftover with the linux boot loader/selector even though the install had been deleted/wiped, has put me off trying again though I can use linux for 90% of the time for what I do on my PC and would be nice to try it again as it's been probably 12+ mths.

You encountered that problem because you had multiple drives connected while installing. Never do that. When installing an OS, connect only the drive being installed to. Unplug all the rest. Then once finished with the install, move on to the next drive. When finished with all of the OS installs, connect them all up and boot to the one you wish in the POST-time boot menu. You can set the primary boot drive in the BIOS has usual.

 

[Marcus L]

The BIOS controlled type. It varies from system to system. Most are accessed via the F12 key but some are a different key pressed during POST. You'll have to look up in your system/board manual how it's done.

You encountered that problem because you had multiple drives connected while installing. Never do that. When installing an OS, connect only the drive being installed to. Unplug all the rest. Then once finished with the install, move on to the next drive. When finished with all of the OS installs, connect them all up and boot to the one you wish in the POST-time boot menu. You can set the primary boot drive in the BIOS has usual.

Much simpler than installing the Linux bootloader and choosing between Windows/Linux then not being able to get rid of it without having to mess around at look for guides with command lines etc why did I never think of this lol

 

[lexluthermiester]

Much simpler than installing the Linux bootloader and choosing between Windows/Linux

Exactly.

then not being able to get rid of it without having to mess around at look for guides with command lines etc why did I never think of this lol

That's simpler than you might think. Any good partition utility will have an option to reset the MBR, which wipes the grub/boot loader from the effected drive. The drive in question should still boot the installed OS, you just won't see the drive selection prompt.

 

[Shihab]

Much simpler than installing the Linux bootloader and choosing between Windows/Linux then not being able to get rid of it without having to mess around at look for guides with command lines etc why did I never think of this lol

Because it's a hardware solution to a software problem.
I can attest that it's very effective (especially when dealing with MS's selfish approach to bootloading), but not very user friendly (depends on your mobo/BIOS OEM).
Misconnecting drives can also be problematic with some linux config (automounting based on /dev/sd* comes to mind).

Messing with EFI loaders isn't that tricky. There is a tool for that.

 

[lexluthermiester]

(especially when dealing with MS's selfish approach to bootloading)

Yeah, it's complete garbage and best avoided.

but not very user friendly (depends on your mobo/BIOS OEM).

I've never had any issues. It's usually just a simple button press during POST boot-time.

Messing with EFI loaders isn't that tricky. There is a tool for that.

Seen that. To me, that's not very user friendly.

 

[Shihab]

I've never had any issues. It's usually just a simple button press during POST boot-time.

A button you have to be quick to press (and more importantly: remember to press). And more often than not you'll find that you have to restart because you missed the window and the BIOS called the default loader.

Seen that. To me, that's not very user friendly
Indeed it isn't. But you only do it once (every OS change). Not at every boot switch.

 

[lexluthermiester]

A button you have to be quick to press (and more importantly: remember to press). And more often than not you'll find that you have to restart because you missed the window and the BIOS called the default loader.

Um, seriously? It's not that big a deal if you get into the habit. It's not even a minor annoyance.

Indeed it isn't. But you only do it once (every OS change). Not at every boot switch.

Yeah, I prefer the system boot menu way. It's easier, more flexible and grants the most control to the user.

 

[Aquinus]

Misconnecting drives can also be problematic with some linux config (automounting based on /dev/sd* comes to mind).

If you're (not you, but the royal "you're", like the public at large,) manually configuring fstab, I would highly recommend not using drive letter/number assignments directly for this very reason. It's far better practice to use the block device UUID instead or a label. Just something that is going to persist regardless of the boot order or order devices are connected to the system. Just my 2¢ as I've been burned by doing this in the past.

 

[Shihab]

Um, seriously? It not that big a deal if you get into the habit. It's not even a minor annoyance.

It was to me.

Just my 2¢ as I've been burned by doing this in the past.

Same.
I've long moved to UUIDs as well. Good thing Gnome Disks makes the process easier nowadays. I think it's the default selection when enabling automount.

 

[Marcus L]

Indeed it isn't. But you only do it once (every OS change). Not at every boot switch.

Appreciate the input as well, though am gonna have to agree with @lexluthermiester on this one though, being a somewhat experienced home/enthusiast user, have been building PC's for 25 years and installed everything from 95 through to 98, ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8 , 10 and now 11 many many times over as well as numerous Linux builds over the years when I get an itch to try something new like now.... I am comfortable with trying and learning new things though have broken many a Windows installation at the boot sector beyond repair due to my own stupidity mostly and after hours of reading guides and using cmd lines to try and rebuild, fix to no avail lol, not something I have done in a long time now as I have hopefully learned my lesson being quite a bit older and maybe a tad wiser (or not ) lol

I have just cleared out my 2nd NVME and formatted it, only within Windows Disk Manager so is NTFS but will change the file table when I am installing a distro, was thinking about POP OS as it is meant to be pretty geared towards gaming and general desktop use, did have a quick look at Steam OS, though seen it described as a console like experience which is not what I'm looking for, most of my time is spent web browsing, watching YT and gaming, happy to hear suggestions.

Thank you guys for the replies btw, TPU never fails to disappoint

 

[lexluthermiester]

Thank you guys for the replies btw, TPU never fails to disappoint

You're welcome. While many of us naturally have differing opinions and methodologies, those differences often inspire thought in the minds of those seeking help.

If you're (not you, but the royal "you're", like the public at large,) manually configuring fstab, I would highly recommend not using drive letter/number assignments directly for this very reason. It's far better practice to use the block device UUID instead or a label. Just something that is going to persist regardless of the boot order or order devices are connected to the system. Just my 2¢ as I've been burned by doing this in the past.

That sounds like a solid reason to avoid it.

 

[Aquinus]

I have just cleared out my 2nd NVME and formatted it, only within Windows Disk Manager so is NTFS but will change the file table when I am installing a distro, was thinking about POP OS as it is meant to be pretty geared towards gaming and general desktop use, did have a quick look at Steam OS, though seen it described as a console like experience which is not what I'm looking for, most of my time is spent web browsing, watching YT and gaming, happy to hear suggestions.

This is a solid approach although I have no experience with PopOS. Just that System76 is legit, but I don't know if I'd use it outside of a system that they would build. I do the same with my tower that's admittedly quite old at this point, but I have a 2TB NVMe for Linux and another for Windows. Seems to work pretty well. I've always had good luck with Ubuntu, so I've been a pretty loyal user of it.

 

[AusWolf]

I love it!

Linux mint on my main computer.

Bazzite for gaming purposes. Smooth and I couch play. Has come along way. Currently playing RE4 remake.

Since my hardware is non-Windows 11 compliant. No need to upgrade or spend what I don't have just to meet windows requirements.

Bazzite is awesome, I concur!

 

[Marcus L]

This is a solid approach although I have no experience with PopOS. Just that System76 is legit, but I don't know if I'd use it outside of a system that they would build. I do the same with my tower that's admittedly quite old at this point, but I have a 2TB NVMe for Linux and another for Windows. Seems to work pretty well. I've always had good luck with Ubuntu, so I've been a pretty loyal user of it.

Already have it installed and am typing on it as we speak lol, very impressed with the "out of the box" feel of it, installation was a breeze, it's snappy, already installed Opera, have YT playing in browser tab, currently installing Steam. No need to mess about with GRUB or partitions, just selected the 2nd NVME drive and it booted into a live version then I installed it in about 5 minutes, now have this NVME set to boot as default so no need to keep entering boot options when I start PC up as I would like to use Linux as my main OS and only Windows when needed, will see how I get on but initial impressions are very good, it's been a while since I ran a Linux OS and it just feels so much better than then, hopefully don't jinx myself lol

Installed Steam from the POP! Shop lol enabled "Steam play for all titles" is there anything else I need to do when it comes to Steam games on Linux, is WINE still a thing or not since proton? would be 95% happy if I can play most of my Steam library as it does most other things that I want/need from my PC.

 

[AusWolf]

Already have it installed and am typing on it as we speak lol, very impressed with the "out of the box" feel of it, installation was a breeze, it's snappy, already installed Opera, have YT playing in browser tab, currently installing Steam. No need to mess about with GRUB or partitions, just selected the 2nd NVME drive and it booted into a live version then I installed it in about 5 minutes, now have this NVME set to boot as default so no need to keep entering boot options when I start PC up as I would like to use Linux as my main OS and only Windows when needed, will see how I get on but initial impressions are very good, it's been a while since I ran a Linux OS and it just feels so much better than then, hopefully don't jinx myself lol

Installed Steam from the POP! Shop lol enabled "Steam play for all titles" is there anything else I need to do when it comes to Steam games on Linux, is WINE still a thing or not since proton? would be 95% happy if I can play most of my Steam library as it does most other things that I want/need from my PC.

Steam is basically plug-and-play. It does everything automatically for you.

Heroic is a bit more of a hit-and-miss. I find it having little to no issues with GOG games, but Epic, or any other title that needs an external launcher can be difficult to run.

Some people like Lutris in such cases, but I'm too much of a novice to set it up, so I can't really comment on that.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Steam is basically plug-and-play. It does everything automatically for you.

Heroic is a bit more of a hit-and-miss. I find it having little to no issues with GOG games, but Epic, or any other title that needs an external launcher can be difficult to run.

Some people like Lutris in such cases, but I'm too much of a novice to set it up, so I can't really comment on that.

Bazzite is by far the easiest to use for Steam and GOG Linux titles. Not so sure about Epic.

 

[tpa-pr]

Already have it installed and am typing on it as we speak lol, very impressed with the "out of the box" feel of it, installation was a breeze, it's snappy, already installed Opera, have YT playing in browser tab, currently installing Steam. No need to mess about with GRUB or partitions, just selected the 2nd NVME drive and it booted into a live version then I installed it in about 5 minutes, now have this NVME set to boot as default so no need to keep entering boot options when I start PC up as I would like to use Linux as my main OS and only Windows when needed, will see how I get on but initial impressions are very good, it's been a while since I ran a Linux OS and it just feels so much better than then, hopefully don't jinx myself lol

Installed Steam from the POP! Shop lol enabled "Steam play for all titles" is there anything else I need to do when it comes to Steam games on Linux, is WINE still a thing or not since proton? would be 95% happy if I can play most of my Steam library as it does most other things that I want/need from my PC.

I highly recommend Lutris as a front-end for all of your games! It's similar to Playnite on Windows if you've used that? It can auto-import games from various stores, you can set up emulators through it and it handles the downloading/updating of GE-Proton in the background for any non-Steam games. It even has a series of online scripts to auto-install some games/stores for you.

It is a LITTLE janky at times but once you have it set up right it just works.

 

[AusWolf]

I highly recommend Lutris as a front-end for all of your games! It's similar to Playnite on Windows if you've used that? It can auto-import games from various stores, you can set up emulators through it and it handles the downloading/updating of GE-Proton in the background for any non-Steam games. It even has a series of online scripts to auto-install some games/stores for you.

It is a LITTLE janky at times but once you have it set up right it just works.
View attachment 390298

I'm sure it's a cool thing, I just have to learn using it / setting it up. Any tutorials for noobs maybe?

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'm sure it's a cool thing, I just have to learn using it / setting it up. Any tutorials for noobs maybe?

YouTube

Good place to start. There are written technical guides if you do choose to jump in.