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Dual Boot Pop!_OS and Windows 10
Do you want to have both Windows and a Linux based OS on your PC? This article will explain how to install a Linux based OS (Pop!_OS) onto a PC with Windows 10.
Prerequisites
It is assumed that you have already installed Windows 10 on the system.
It is also assumed, that you have some space reserved on your hard drive for the Pop!_OS installation. If not, please shrink your Windows partition now!
Installation
Start by downloading Pop!_OS from pop.system76.com. Once downloaded install it on a USB stick using a tool like Rufus (rufus.ie). Now boot your PC from the USB stick (in case you have issues make sure that your BIOS settings are correct, i.e. secure boot and UEFI settings).
Once Pop!_OS is booted cancel the installer and test if everything works, i.e. internet, Bluetooth, etc. Once satisfied start the installer and follow the installation steps.
Once you arrive at the Install stage, select Custom (Advanced). The installation will now show your available drives, one of these drives should have free space available. Click on Modify partitions to setup the partitions for Pop!_OS, make sure to add the following partitions in the following order:
- boot partition: Give it 1GB and format it as fat32
- root partition: Give it the remaining GB and format it as ext4
- swap partition: Should be at the end with enough GB compared to your RAM* and format it as ext4
*Your swap partition should be double or equal to your RAM if you have <8GB RAM. When you have more than 8GB of RAM you can divide your RAM by 2 and use that as swap.
Once satisfied mark the partitions in the installation and follow the rest of the installation steps.
Once Pop!_OS is installed reboot your system. In case your system boots into Windows, you have to change the boot partition in your BIOS settings.
Add Windows to the Boot Menu
In case Pop!_OS boots, you will see that it skips a boot menu. We have to add this manually, start by adding timeout 10 to /boot/efi/loader/loader.conf.
Now install os-prober using sudo apt-get install os-prober and run it using os-prober. This will show you something like the example below.
/dev/sdb1@/efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi:Windows Boot Manager:Windows:efiMount that partition to your system using sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt and copy the files to the boot files using sudo cp -ax /mnt/EFI/Microsoft /boot/efi/EFI.
Finally, reboot your system and you will have an option to choose between Pop!_OS and Windows.
2 Responses
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