Dual booting Ubuntu and WIndows 10

[Donut417]

Currently I run Ubuntu 18.04. Love Linux, but my friend is pressuring me to go back to Windows to get his gaming partner back. The issue is I dont really like Windows 10. So as a middle ground Im thinking about dual booting my PC. But its been a while and many Windows versions have come out since I have used Windows 10. I just need to know what the current process is. 

 

1) Linux will be my primary OS. 

2) What space should I allocate for Windows + Steam (Program only)? 

3) Looking at buying this https://pcpartpicker.com/product/GTCD4D/western-digital-blue-1tb-25-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0a for a game drive. Mainly because I think a Mechnical hard disk would look like crap in my current rig, so the SSD at least looks a bit better. 

 

What I was going to do is partion my Intel 660p that I currently have for Ubutnu and Windows. Then use the 1TB SATA SSD for just my games library. Last time I had used Windows my games libarary was maybe 600 Gigs, So I think 1TB would be fine. 

[kelvinhall05]

4 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Love Linux, but my friend is pressuring me to go back to Windows to get his gaming partner back. The issue is I dont really like Windows 10.

Holy shit me irl lmao. Guessing these games don't run under Proton? My friend wants me to get Windows installed again just so I can play CoD Warzone with him, lol.

 

Anyway...

5 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

2) What space should I allocate for Windows + Steam (Program only)? 

I would do like 50GB for OS and then however much storage you need for the game(s).

5 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

3) Looking at buying this https://pcpartpicker.com/product/GTCD4D/western-digital-blue-1tb-25-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0a for a game drive. Mainly because I think a Mechnical hard disk would look like crap in my current rig, so the SSD at least looks a bit better. 

Pretty decent SSD. If you have the budget for it, might as well get it instead of a hard drive lol

6 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

What I was going to do is partion my Intel 660p that I currently have for Ubutnu and Windows. Then use the 1TB SATA SSD for just my games library. Last time I had used Windows my games libarary was maybe 600 Gigs, So I think 1TB would be fine. 

You might run into some problems with this. Gotta make sure the drive is formatted as something Windows can read and Linux won't mess with.

 

 

Last time I tried installing Windows (again, to play Warzone with my friend) the installer bluescreened, but what I was planning on doing was giving myself about 200GB on my HDD for Windows and the game. You can then install Windows to a single partition and not have to worry about any drive incompatabilites when they are shared between two OSes, if that makes any sense. Only hiccup with this is that you will have to install Windows (like normal), and then rebuild Grub from an external USB (not hard, there are guides and programs to do it; I've done it before, just a minor annoyance).

[Nayr438]

11 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Currently I run Ubuntu 18.04. Love Linux, but my friend is pressuring me to go back to Windows to get his gaming partner back. The issue is I dont really like Windows 10. So as a middle ground Im thinking about dual booting my PC. But its been a while and many Windows versions have come out since I have used Windows 10. I just need to know what the current process is. 

 

1) Linux will be my primary OS. 

2) What space should I allocate for Windows + Steam (Program only)? 

3) Looking at buying this https://pcpartpicker.com/product/GTCD4D/western-digital-blue-1tb-25-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0a for a game drive. Mainly because I think a Mechnical hard disk would look like crap in my current rig, so the SSD at least looks a bit better. 

 

What I was going to do is partion my Intel 660p that I currently have for Ubutnu and Windows. Then use the 1TB SATA SSD for just my games library. Last time I had used Windows my games libarary was maybe 600 Gigs, So I think 1TB would be fine. 

If you install Windows after Linux is already Installed, you may need to boot a live install media and reinstall grub.

 

Windows needs at least 32GB of space, but would recommend around 60GB for updates and what not.

 

Don't share your game library between both OS's.

Linux will mount windows partitions. Wine does not always play nice with them. Windows may also refuse to use it after awhile, asking you to format it.

Latest windows update will mount EXT4 partitions I believe, but have no information on that. Could be unreliable.

Just keep 2 separate partitions.

 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

19 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Currently I run Ubuntu 18.04. Love Linux, but my friend is pressuring me to go back to Windows to get his gaming partner back. The issue is I dont really like Windows 10. So as a middle ground Im thinking about dual booting my PC.

I would say run a VM instead, but GPU passthrough can be quite a challenge.

 

19 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

 

1) Linux will be my primary OS. 

2) What space should I allocate for Windows + Steam (Program only)? 

3) Looking at buying this https://pcpartpicker.com/product/GTCD4D/western-digital-blue-1tb-25-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0a for a game drive. Mainly because I think a Mechnical hard disk would look like crap in my current rig, so the SSD at least looks a bit better. 

 

What I was going to do is partion my Intel 660p that I currently have for Ubutnu and Windows. Then use the 1TB SATA SSD for just my games library. Last time I had used Windows my games libarary was maybe 600 Gigs, So I think 1TB would be fine. 

Doing Windows after Linux instead of the other way around is generally more troublesome, although at some point Windows was getting better at it (but the last one you install always takes over boot management). To minimize problems, I suggest you consider just having Windows on the 1TB SSD. Instead of making a partition based on what it may need on the 660p, you just have it take exactly what it needs from the new SSD, and it won't make much of a difference in terms of room left for games. That way you can always physically remove an OS if things go South and you need to repair the boot partition.

[Donut417]

50 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Holy shit me irl lmao. Guessing these games don't run under Proton? My friend wants me to get Windows installed again just so I can play CoD Warzone with him, lol.

More game devs keep using crappy DRM that doesnt work on Linux. I just want to make sure I dont have issues down the road or get an account ban because of the bull shit. Also the last game I tried didnt run pretty in Linux and that was No Mans Skys. I know its not a hardware problem as I pretty sure a Ryzen 2600x, 16 gigs of ram and a RX5700 should be able to run that game at 1080p. 

 

34 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Doing Windows after Linux instead of the other way around is generally more troublesome, although at some point Windows was getting better

I have no issues reinstalling Linux. Currently Im looking to also do a bit of upgrading on my NAS. So Ill just transfer what I care about to the NAS. Also Ubuntu 20.04 has been released so I could always do a OS upgrade any way. Ill probalby give Windows 120 Gigs to give it a bit of breathing room. But....

 

34 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I would say run a VM instead, but GPU passthrough can be quite a challenge.

How much of a challenge? My only concern would be that I only have 16 gigs of ram. So you take Ubutnu which I generally have at least 5 gigs in useage and then add Windows and a game on top of that..... Not sure if it would be pretty. 

 

 

One other thing. Im going to image the drive so that WHEN Windows screws up I at least dont have to install it. How would like work in a dual boot senerio? Keep in mind that my steam games are on a seperate drive, but I do intend to backup the steam library to my NAS. 

[Nayr438]

31 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Also the last game I tried didnt run pretty in Linux and that was No Mans Skys. I know its not a hardware problem as I pretty sure a Ryzen 2600x, 16 gigs of ram and a RX5700 should be able to run that game at 1080p.

I personally play no mans sky at 1440p max and average 75-85 FPS (seems to fluctuate a lot with some areas seeing 100+, probably be better capping it). on a 5700XT using the aco compiler. RADV_PERFTEST=aco %command% in launch options.

 

You are running a Navi Card, I would recommend upgrading to something with more recent packages such as Arch or Manjaro, It takes quite awhile for anything to reach Ubuntu. The closer you get to upstream drivers the better your experience will be with Navi. I personally run chaotic-aur/proton-tkg-git, chaotic-aur/linux-tkg-pds-zen, chaotic-aur/mesa-git, chaotic-aur/lib32-mesa-git on both of my systems. This combination has one of the highest compatibility rates I have seen, though mesa-git does occasionally break. Standard mesa or chaotic-aur/mesa-aco-git would probably be fine. Of course if your planning to do all your gaming with windows, then it may not matter.

[Donut417]

15 minutes ago, Nayr438 said:

such as Arch or Manjaro,

Arch Linux seems kinda advanced for what I need or am willing to put time in to. I have heard of Manjaro but I was always under the impression that Steam works best in Ubutnu, SteamOS and POPOS. If thats not the case, thats good to know. 

 

What about the Desktop environment? What does Manjaro use? 

[Nayr438]

25 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Arch Linux seems kinda advanced for what I need or am willing to put time in to. I have heard of Manjaro but I was always under the impression that Steam works best in Ubutnu, SteamOS and POPOS. If thats not the case, thats good to know. 

 

What about the Desktop environment? What does Manjaro use? 

Well luckily Manjaro is built on Arch so you get most of the advantages Arch has to offer including the AUR.

 

Steam will work fine under most distros. Steam Primarily targets Ubuntu LTS, however due to some recent changes in Ubuntu, steam has been looking at moving to a different target distro.

 

As far as Desktop Environments, You can choose between Gnome, KDE Plasma, or XFCE. Personally I am a KDE Plasma User.

https://manjaro.org/download/

 

They do offer community editions, however they are setup by the community and not manjaro. They should however pull maintained packages from Manjaro Repositories.

[Donut417]

13 minutes ago, Nayr438 said:

Well luckily Manjaro is built on Arch so you get most of the advantages Arch has to offer including the AUR.

 

Steam will work fine under most distros. Steam Primarily targets Ubuntu LTS, however due to some recent changes in Ubuntu, steam has been looking at moving to a different target distro.

 

As far as Desktop Environments, You can choose between Gnome, KDE Plasma, or XFCE. Personally I am a KDE Plasma User.

https://manjaro.org/download/

 

They do offer community editions, however they are setup by the community and not manjaro. They should however pull maintained packages from Manjaro Repositories.

Thanks. I might swtich. OH how does Linux act when games are on a secondary disk? Because Id still might get a dedicated steam SSD. This would also make it easier when trying to back up the data to my NAS. 

[Nayr438]

19 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Thanks. I might swtich. OH how does Linux act when games are on a secondary disk? Because Id still might get a dedicated steam SSD. This would also make it easier when trying to back up the data to my NAS. 

Second disk will work fine.

You will probably want to add it to fstab for automount.

[Donut417]

19 hours ago, Nayr438 said:

Second disk will work fine.

You will probably want to add it to fstab for automount.

Doing some research. Manjaro is a rolling release. That kinda makes me concerned. Becasue the minunet Windows became a rolling release OS it went to hell. While I understand that Ubuntu takes a while to catch up, the reason I choose it is due to its stability. Im just concerned that I might end up dealing with simular issues I was dealing with Windows before I swtiched. 

[Nayr438]

1 hour ago, Donut417 said:

Doing some research. Manjaro is a rolling release. That kinda makes me concerned. Becasue the minunet Windows became a rolling release OS it went to hell. While I understand that Ubuntu takes a while to catch up, the reason I choose it is due to its stability. Im just concerned that I might end up dealing with simular issues I was dealing with Windows before I swtiched. 

Manjaro is a rolling release. It puts Arch Stable into Manjaro testing for 2 weeks before pushing it out to stable for the user.

I personally run Arch as my Primary desktop and have rarely ever had a update cause an issue, in those rare instances, its usually something minor.

You can view the Arch Page for some instances and what I mean by minor. https://www.archlinux.org/

My Manjaro Desktop has not been affected by any of the minor issues mentioned on that page and I personally only experienced one of them recently on my Arch System.

 

Manjaro should be able to catch it while its in its own testing repository and either hold it back or provide a automated workaround.

The only exception would be anything you get from the AUR or a 3rd party repository, in which case that has the same risk factor as any 3rd party ppa.

 

Now Manjaro's package manager is not always reliable, pamac. It wont cause any harm to the system it just may occasionally fail. It is good for browsing and installing applications, just doesn't always like the amount of packages in some updates.

 

Pacman is the preferred way to install packages or update your system on Arch and would probably still recommend it for Manjaro.

• System update "sudo pacman -Syu" 
• Package Search "sudo pacman -Ss keywords"
• Package Install "sudo pacman -S packagename".

 

Yay is a 3rd party package manager that also acts as a AUR Helper. You would just replace "sudo pacman" with "yay" if you decide to install and use it. I personally use yay for everything, but I also leverage the AUR. The AUR will more than likely have whatever you want that isn't available in the standard repos.

Most items in the AUR itself have to be compiled from source unless no source exists then it grabs a package from another distro or wherever, yay handles all of this for you.

 

I do recommend yay, linux-tkg-pds-zen ,linux-tkg-pds-zen-headers, proton-tkg-git, and wine-tkg-staging-fsync-vkd3d-git from the chaotic-aur repo https://lonewolf.pedrohlc.com/chaotic-aur/

 

By no means switch if you think it presents to big of a risk. I don't keep up with Ubuntu anymore personally and a upgrade to the latest version may provide what you need for all I know.

[Donut417]

23 hours ago, Nayr438 said:

Manjaro is a rolling release. It puts Arch Stable into Manjaro testing for 2 weeks before pushing it out to stable for the user.

I personally run Arch as my Primary desktop and have rarely ever had a update cause an issue, in those rare instances, its usually something minor.

You can view the Arch Page for some instances and what I mean by minor. https://www.archlinux.org/

My Manjaro Desktop has not been affected by any of the minor issues mentioned on that page and I personally only experienced one of them recently on my Arch System.

 

Manjaro should be able to catch it while its in its own testing repository and either hold it back or provide a automated workaround.

The only exception would be anything you get from the AUR or a 3rd party repository, in which case that has the same risk factor as any 3rd party ppa.

 

Now Manjaro's package manager is not always reliable, pamac. It wont cause any harm to the system it just may occasionally fail. It is good for browsing and installing applications, just doesn't always like the amount of packages in some updates.

 

Pacman is the preferred way to install packages or update your system on Arch and would probably still recommend it for Manjaro.

• System update "sudo pacman -Syu" 
• Package Search "sudo pacman -Ss keywords"
• Package Install "sudo pacman -S packagename".

 

Yay is a 3rd party package manager that also acts as a AUR Helper. You would just replace "sudo pacman" with "yay" if you decide to install and use it. I personally use yay for everything, but I also leverage the AUR. The AUR will more than likely have whatever you want that isn't available in the standard repos.

Most items in the AUR itself have to be compiled from source unless no source exists then it grabs a package from another distro or wherever, yay handles all of this for you.

 

I do recommend yay, linux-tkg-pds-zen ,linux-tkg-pds-zen-headers, proton-tkg-git, and wine-tkg-staging-fsync-vkd3d-git from the chaotic-aur repo https://lonewolf.pedrohlc.com/chaotic-aur/

 

By no means switch if you think it presents to big of a risk. I don't keep up with Ubuntu anymore personally and a upgrade to the latest version may provide what you need for all I know.

Ended up switching, just because Id like to try something new. Any way the one thing I currently cant get working is my bluetooh headset. Well the headset side works, but trying to switch to a2dp always fails for some reason. 

[Nayr438]

14 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Ended up switching, just because Id like to try something new. Any way the one thing I currently cant get working is my bluetooh headset. Well the headset side works, but trying to switch to a2dp always fails for some reason. 

This may be of some help https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bluetooth_headset#Switch_between_HSP/HFP_and_A2DP_setting

 

I don't personally have a BT headset to test anything.

[Donut417]

30 minutes ago, Nayr438 said:

This may be of some help https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bluetooth_headset#Switch_between_HSP/HFP_and_A2DP_setting

 

I don't personally have a BT headset to test anything.

Ive looked at that. I cant get any thing to work. The profile is just unavailable. I might have to go back to Ubuntu as a result because Bluetooth worked fine on it. This is my only headset I have, I prefer the Wireless ones because I keep breaking the cords. Or I may just go back to Windows, but im kinda still hesitant about that. 

[shadow_ray]

Previously i had windows and linux installed on the same drive with grub as a boot loader. I mostly use windows and the added few second startup time (cuz OS selection) was quite annoying so I ended up using a second drive with a separate boot loader. Whenever i want to use linux, instead of the power button i press the other one that takes me to the boot menu.