I just got a new computer that I want to install a multi boot system on. I’ve dual booted before, but things are different for me this time, and before I start I wanted to get some input.
I plan to use the UEFI instead of Legacy, preferably with safeboot on. This is completely new hardware for me, so any suggestions, clarifications, and warnings will be appreciated.
I want as my primary workhorse OpenSUSE 13.2, and I also have available:
Win 8.1 Pro x86
Win 10 Technical Preview x86 Full Version
QUESTIONS:
Is it possible to triple boot
with both versions of Windows and a Linux? I would like to be able to play around with both Windows versions to learn all I can about them. I don’t even know if it’s possible to have two Windows versions on one drive, or if it’s even advisable. Whether possible or not, I’m open to suggestions and constructive advice. 1. My hard drive is a 500GB Toshiba DT01ACA0 SATA showing 465.8 GB capacity according to kinfocenter. I want the space occupied by windows to be minimal, since I won’t be using it for much, just a few programs. How much space should I reserve to keep it small, but usable?
How to go about setting up the space to be used for Windows to be at the top of the drive (last), since I won’t be using it that often?
I normally set up my partitions like this:
Windows
/boot
SWAP
/
/home
/usr/local
Note that I normally keep Windows on only one lonely partition. On reinstalls of Linux I format only / and /boot. Are there any recommendations on improving this layout, remembering that I want the Windows partition(s) in last place on the drive this time?
How is this handled under UEFI?Will this layout work?
Hi
AFAIK, both the windows versions are mutually exclusive, look at running one in a VM, else depending on your system and the UEFI implementation you could try some tricks…
Can you install two disks, one with windows 8.1 and one with windows 10?
Else you could try moving the windows 8.1 Microsoft directory, however you would still be stuck with the MS /boot/efi/EFI/Boot directory which could cause issue. Then no one is really sure what the MS reserved partition does…
Is the windows 8.1 install an OEM one, or you have the install media?
Windows 10 creates an addition partition now;
sda1 - 300MB type 2700 Windows RE <- New...
sda2 - 260MB type ef00 EFI System
sda3 - 128MB type 0c01 Microsoft reserved
sda4 - 40GB type 8300 /
sda5 - ? type 8300 /home
sda6 - ? depending on ram type 8200 swap
sda7 - ? type 0700 windows
Hi right back at ya!
That’s what I was afraid of. It’s yet another reason I don’t care for M$. It doesn’t like to play nice with any others, not even it’s own siblings!
Running anything in a VM is new territory for me. I have no idea what’s possible, or how to proceed with doing that. What can be done with VM, and what are the pros & cons? I just might do that with Win 10 until the finished version is released. It’s an idea!
I’d have to drive all the way down to Cabanatuan to buy a second SATA, but that’s what I was thinking of doing anyway - if I can talk the wifey into buying it.
If I do that, installing one version on each, then I could spread Linux across the remainder of both drives, and have more space. Once they’re separately installed, and both drives plugged in, Grub should have no problem handling all three I’d assume. Right?
On Win 7 I deleted the reserve partition. It didn’t seem to matter. I think the 2 drives idea has more merit. If nothing else it’ll give me more space, and I always need more space.
I have the install disks for both of the versions. They came with the computer.
Since I’ll install M$ first, I’ll want to limit it’s size, then move the partitions up to the high end of the drive. What’s a good, albeit small size to limit it to? And how can I move entire Win partitions? …or can they be installed up high since they won’t be used often and I’d like to give Linux faster drive accesses. I read that someone else did that, but I didn’t know it was possible.
VM’s are not hard at all but you have to realize some stuff. One is that the video in general does not go direct too the hardware. so VM’s aer really not too good in general as a gaming platform. Ther are two type. As a general rule the type ones run closer to the hardware thus may have a bit better graphics if the drives are compatible but are generally harder to setup. Type 2 are dead easy but live further from the hardware thus grphics tend to slower. Note when I say slower I mean they are fine for mos business apps and low end games high frame rate 3D games will lag.
Hi
So, sounds like the 8.1 disks are the recovery ones (OEM), which will overwrite anything, can you confirm?
What about a small SSD… I have an OCZ VERTEX 460A that was only US$70 from amazon…
I run windows 10 preview on a 40GB partition (sda7)…
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE FSTYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 119.2G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 300M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 260M 0 part vfat /boot/efi
├─sda3 8:3 0 128M 0 part
├─sda4 8:4 0 40G 0 part btrfs /
├─sda5 8:5 0 29.8G 0 part bcache
│ └─bcache0 253:0 0 298.1G 0 disk xfs /data
├─sda6 8:6 0 8G 0 part swap [SWAP]
└─sda7 8:7 0 40.8G 0 part ntfs
sdb 8:16 0 298.1G 0 disk
└─sdb1 8:17 0 298.1G 0 part bcache
└─bcache0 253:0 0 298.1G 0 disk xfs /data
The above setup is windows 10 preview and openSUSE 13.2 but use bcache on the second drive.
You could install windows 8.1 on your existing 500GB device and shrink to allow linux to have a home/data partition. Then when you have the second drive, move this to sdb (but don’t connect yet), add the new drive and partiton as required for linux and windows 10 (Note in my tests the windows 10 install plays nice with linux).
In your efi BIOS you can select the boot order or add a custom boot entry? Else should be able to use the linux efibootmgr to change things around.
Have a read up on Virtualbox that is probably the easiest to use if your wanting to go that route, it would mean using that for windows 10 as i don’t think your restore dvd’s for 8.1 would work…
So, in summary I would suggest getting a second drive if you can, else one drive and virtualize windows 10.
I plan to use the UEFI instead of Legacy, preferably with safeboot on.
I am currently using Legacy Bios, not by choice but due to hardware limitation. Now, if what you are implying is true, then by all means, use Legacy.
I want as my primary workhorse OpenSUSE 13.2, and I also have available:
Win 8.1 Pro x86
Win 10 Technical Preview x86 Full Version
Is it possible to triple boot with both versions of Windows and a Linux?
Yes, it IS possible. I was previously booting W7 (came preinstalled), w8.1, w10 and Linux. I used W8.1’s bootloader as the default and I had those four options to boot from. I had to remove W10 and will be re-installing it shortly to start fresh. Anyway, under the linux option, I have 3 Linux Distros (LXLE, Kali and Korora Linux) I set Korora’s bootloader as the default. I plan to install OpenSuse later today.
The only reason I selected to use W8.1 as the default bootloader is because it looks cleaner.
My hard drive is a 500GB Toshiba DT01ACA0 SATA showing 465.8 GB capacity according to kinfocenter. I want the space occupied by windows to be minimal, since I won’t be using it for much, just a few programs. How much space should I reserve to keep it small, but usable?
I would advise you to set 50GB for both windows and convert the remaining space to Storage (format as ntfs), all your OS’s will see it and will be able to access the data on it.
How to go about setting up the space to be used for Windows to be at the top of the drive (last), since I won’t be using it that often?
I do not think that matters, but I would advise you to create both windows partitions first, now you can also move the partitions from left to right or right to left using Gparted (live cd).
I normally set up my partitions like this:
Code:
Windows
/boot
SWAP
/
/home
/usr/local
I usually only use a single / partition for linux (no boot no home, just /), makes it easier to manage, especially when you have multiple distros installed. Some people would advise you to have it the way you plan on partitioning and the decision is yours, no right or wrong.
Do you mean Windows 10 specifically? Normally you can install several Windows version on one system as was already shown in another comment, but they all will share the same bootloader configuration, so usual advice is to install newer version last.
On Fri 08 May 2015 11:26:01 AM CDT, rwbehne1 wrote:
malcolmlewis;2708964 Wrote:
> Hi
> So, sounds like the 8.1 disks are the recovery ones (OEM), which will
> overwrite anything, can you confirm?
No, it’s a dealer’s master install DVD. Not a recovery disk.
I think getting a second drive is the best choice. I’ll try to go that
route rather than the virtual route.
Hi
Any ideas on what the new drive will be, SSD, HDD, size?
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.12.39-47-default
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I’m at a complete loss here looking at that table. Maybe you can clarify it for me. The only partition here that looks familiar is /, everything else is Greek to me. I always maintain separate /home and /usr/local partitions, so when I upgrade I don’t have to format the entire drive. It’s much easier than backing up then restoring all those directory trees, a job I prefer to avoid. I never used UEFI before, and it looks like it’s creating a clunky and mysterious (to me) partitioning system. I really don’t like surprises, especially during an install. Can’t I just have the partitioning I’m used to? …with separate /home and /usr/local partitions?
Until now I’ve never seen a /data partition in any previous version of Linux I’ve used in the past, so I have no idea what it is, what it’s intended for, or why I should have one.
Same goes for bcache - what the heck is that?
I see /boot/efi is a separate partition in vfat, but what is with /boot? Does it no longer matter where it is on the drive?
What are the 300M sda1 and 128M sda3 for? No fstype and no mountpoint shown.
> Until now I’ve never seen a /data partition in any previous version of
> Linux I’ve used in the past, so I have no idea what it is, what it’s
> intended for, or why I should have one.
Anything. Extra storage.
For instance, you may use no separate home, and instead symlink
“~/Documents” to a directory on /data. When having multiple linuxes,
neither having a separate home partition, all of them can share the same
documents folder. So the /home directory is small, only contains
configs, and the real data is in a shared partition.
Me, I use /data as a common tree for several mount points of several
extra disks.
> Same goes for bcache - what the heck is that?
It is a method that uses a fast SSD disk as cache for a slow rotating
disk. There is an equivalent (more or less) technology for Windows (from
Intel, I think). There are also hard disks that do this internally and
transparently (for more money).
Hi
LOL, I use a data partition (rather than /home) in this case since it’s a rotating drive I use part of the SSD (sda5) as a cache device, almost native SSD speeds on the rotating drive (sdb).
sda1 is required for Windows 10, it’s new to windows 10. For sda3 that’s a windows thing, some folks say it’s not needed, I always add it…
So in your case, lets assume you want windows 8 and some space for /home and /usr/local on the current 500GB drive and the new drive has windows 10 and linux on it.
Either burn the iso image or use imagewriter to pop on a USB device and then on you system boot in efi mode (not sure on your DELL, maybe F12 to get to the boot menu?) and select the USB device (efi boot) or browse to the efi file if thats possible?
I would then partition the device with gdisk like;
sda1 - 260MB type ef00 [/boot/efi]
sda2 - 128MB type 0c01 [MS reserved]
sda3 - ?GB type 8300 [/home]
sda5 - ?GB type 8300 [/usr/local]
sda6 - ?GB type 0700 [windows 8]
Format sda1 as vfat;
mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
Then install windows 8 and select custom install and point the install at sda6 [or the relevant volume name in windows speak].
The current sda would move to sdb once you have the second drive.
I would remove the current sda from the system (or disconnect) for the moment and add your new drive as sda and boot from the rescue system and use gdisk to setup partitions as follows;
sda1 - 300MB type 2700 [Windows RE]
sda2 - 260MB type ef00 [/boot/efi for windows 10 and openSUSE]
sda3 - 128MB type 0c01 [MS reserved]
sda4 - ?GB type 8300 /]
sda5 - ?GB type 8200 [swap]
sda6 - ?GB type 0700 [Windows 10]
Now before proceeding to install windows 10, I would clean out the efi boot variables (we add windows 8 back in manually after the openSUSE Install)
efibootmgr -v
And delete as required, it probably says Windows Boot Manager (0001?)
efibootmgr -b 0001 -B 0001
You would then proceed to install windows 10 and again select the custom install option and point it at sda6, complete the install as required.
At this point you would need to add back the old sda as sdb and proceed to install openSUSE.
At the partitioning part select expert mode AND rescan the disk first so you can go through and select;
So, when the openSUSE install has completed, you should be able to boot both windows 10 and openSUSE possibly via the DELL boot menu [F12?] in the BIOS can you change the order or select a custom boot option?
If all goes well at this point we can then manually add the windows 8 boot back into the efi nvram with efibootmgr from openSUSE;
What I have now is a 500GB Toshiba DT01ACA0 SATA. I figure on getting the same thing, albeit perhaps one with more capacity if I could find it.
2TB would be nice, but in the Philippine economy it’s awfully expensive, so I doubt I could even find one that big, let alone talking the wifey into taking that much cash out of the budget to pay for it. We’ll see in time. For now I think I’ll have to settle on just Win 8.1 and OpenSUSE on the one drive until I can get a second drive.
On Linux just EXT4.
On Win I guess NTFS if that’s still what it’s using for 8.1 & 10.
(And obviously vfat on the /boot/efi since that’s mandatory there.)
Hi
OK, no problems then, so like I indicated, I would prep the drive first with gdisk, but still future proof for windows 10;
sda1 - 300MB type 2700 [Windows RE, future use by windows 10]
sda2 - 260MB type ef00 [/boot/efi for windows 8.1 and openSUSE]
sda3 - 128MB type 0c01 [MS reserved]
sda4 - ?GB type 8300 /]
sda5 - ?GB type 8200 [swap] (< 8GB RAM 1.5 to 2x installed RAM, >=8GB RAM == to installed RAM)
sda6 - ?GB type 8300 [/home]
sda7 - ?GB type 8300 [/usr/local]
sda8 - ?GB type 0700 [Windows 8.1]
Install windows 8.1, then openSUSE 13.2 and you should be good to go
