Unusual Dual-booting Dilema

[BeepBoop.PC]

Let's say I built a PC and don't like running Win10 as the only base OS and have Linux permanently running in a fullscreen VM on another user's account when they sign in. It's glitchy, it's slow. Some of my family like Win10 and others like Linux. Is there a way that I can dual-boot into both OS' without restarting the PC every time someone signs into their account? Can there be a seamless transition between operating systems based on who you're signed in as?

 

The system is an i5 quad-core with a GTX 1050, and a single 500 GB sata III SSD. Without using VM's (or using them, but efficiently), can it be done?

[Electronics Wizardy]

With x86 you can only have one os, so to change os you need a reboot. 

 

You can probably do this better with vms if you want with gpu passthough and the like if you want to tinker.

[bellabichon]

1 hour ago, BeepBoop.PC said:

Let's say I built a PC and don't like running Win10 as the only base OS and have Linux permanently running in a fullscreen VM on another user's account when they sign in. It's glitchy, it's slow. Some of my family like Win10 and others like Linux. Is there a way that I can dual-boot into both OS' without restarting the PC every time someone signs into their account? Can there be a seamless transition between operating systems based on who you're signed in as?

 

The system is an i5 quad-core with a GTX 1050, and a single 500 GB sata III SSD. Without using VM's (or using them, but efficiently), can it be done?

Because running two OSs requires you to physically separate your storage drive into two seperate partitions, and then boot from a single partition, I don't think there's a way to switch between them without shutting down one OS, then booting up the other. The only option here that I could see would be getting two PCs, and linking them through a program like Synergy.

[BeepBoop.PC]

1 minute ago, bellabichon said:

Because running two OSs requires you to physically separate your storage drive into two seperate partitions, and then boot from a single partition, I don't think there's a way to switch between them without shutting down one OS, then booting up the other. The only option here that I could see would be getting two PCs, and linking them through a program like Synergy.

I figured, but if there was a way to run a VM smoothly, that would be a perfect solution... I think Linux would run fine on top of Windows for full load usage, but *cough*, "Linux", does not. Even at idle it's crazy slow, the mouse can't even get across the screen smoothly.

[BeepBoop.PC]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

With x86 you can only have one os, so to change os you need a reboot. 

 

You can probably do this better with vms if you want with gpu passthough and the like if you want to tinker.

Yeah, VM is the best solution, but it has to run smoothly.

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, BeepBoop.PC said:

Yeah, VM is the best solution, but it has to run smoothly.

What is your current vm solution? Vms run smooth for me.

 

Normally this is virtual gpu related. Try using the remotefx in hyper-v and a distro like fedora 28.

[BeepBoop.PC]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What is your current vm solution? Vms run smooth for me.

 

Normally this is virtual gpu related. Try using the remotefx in hyper-v and a distro like fedora 28.

VMWare Workstation 14, thanks! I'll see what I can do with that.

[Fleetscut]

9 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What is your current vm solution? Vms run smooth for me.

 

Normally this is virtual gpu related. Try using the remotefx in hyper-v and a distro like fedora 28.

Yeah usually the virtual gpu is pretty poor. You might be able to get some better performance by instead using an RDP or a VNC server on the VM. This way the screen is not actually rendered by the VM but is done by the machine connecting into the VM.

[BeepBoop.PC]

55 minutes ago, Fleetscut said:

Yeah usually the virtual gpu is pretty poor. You might be able to get some better performance by instead using an RDP or a VNC server on the VM. This way the screen is not actually rendered by the VM but is done by the machine connecting into the VM.

Thanks! RDP and VNC server. I'll check it out!