Thinking About Multi-Booting Windows and Linux

[Server_42]

Hi,

 

I am thinking about multi booting Windows 10 Pro, Ubuntu, Fedora, and Kali Linux. I am planning on having all the Linux distros on their own drive together. I am also only thinking about Ubuntu to learn Linux and then transition to using Fedora and Kali. My question is what would be the dangers and/or draw backs of multi booting and having the Linux distros on their own drive? What concerns should I consider if I want to continue with the multi boot? Everything else who want to say about it? I am also thinking about running MacOs on a Linux VM, however, I am on the fence about it,  I just need to get my photos and videos off my phone quickly and effectively (iPhone).

 

Thanks in advance, for the replies and answers.

[Letgomyleghoe]

4 minutes ago, Server_42 said:

My question is what would be the dangers and/or draw backs of multi booting and having the Linux distros on their own drive? What concerns should I consider if I want to continue with the multi boot?

there's little danger, you just make a partition for each distro you want, and install them on the different partitions, make sure to make a list of which partition is for which distro, or else you can overwrite a partition which deletes all your files.

[Server_42]

10 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

there's little danger, you just make a partition for each distro you want, and install them on the different partitions, make sure to make a list of which partition is for which distro, or else you can overwrite a partition which deletes all your files.

Okay, could I run into any issues? Like, if I update one of the OSes. I also have all my personal files and data on separate drives to prevent data loss from a corrupted OS.

[GoodBytes]

If you want a easier approach, check out WSL2 under Windows 10. You run Linux (A few distros are there, like Ubuntu, Kali and more) natively-ish (I won't go in details but it's not a full on VM) under Windows.

 

I won't claim that it is perfect, but it is pretty powerful, and fits the needs of a large number of developers that needs Linux, and great, in my opinion, in learning Linux, with having an easy way to run a or multiple distros at the same time, without eating your system resources.

 

I recommend to use the open source Microsoft Windows Terminal over the old Command Prompt. You can get it in the store (same as the linux Distros for WSL).

[Server_42]

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

If you want a easier approach, check out WSL2 under Windows 10. You run Linux (A few distros are there, like Ubuntu, Kali and more) natively-ish (I won't go in details but it's not a full on VM) under Windows.

 

I won't claim that it is perfect, but it is pretty powerful, and fits the needs of a large number of developers that needs Linux, and great, in my opinion, in learning Linux, with having an easy way to run a or multiple distros at the same time, without eating your system resources.

 

I recommend to use Microsoft Windows Terminal (like the linux Distros, you can find under the Store app). 

I am aware that you can add Linux Distros to the Windows Terminal. However, I want to download them to a separate drive.

[gardotd426]

5 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

If you want a easier approach, check out WSL2 under Windows 10. You run Linux (A few distros are there, like Ubuntu, Kali and more) natively-ish (I won't go in details but it's not a full on VM) under Windows.

 

I won't claim that it is perfect, but it is pretty powerful, and fits the needs of a large number of developers that needs Linux, and great, in my opinion, in learning Linux, with having an easy way to run a or multiple distros at the same time, without eating your system resources.

 

I recommend to use Microsoft Windows Terminal (like the linux Distros, you can find under the Store app). 

Dude, don't help Microsoft dissuade people from using real Linux. 

 

OP, you'll be fine. You don't have to worry about updates to one OS affecting another (unless they share system files which is pretty much unheard of). 

 

I have run 3-4 distros at a time on my main gaming rig for well over a year at this point, and I also have a Windows 10 Pro VM I use with single-GPU passthrough in a VM to play the one game I play that doesn't work on Linux (right now), Apex Legends. 

 

I have all my Linux installs sharing the same /home partition and game partitions, but having them separate from the root partition means that I don't have to worry about updates messing with anything. And if I need to reinstall, I don't lose any of my customization or personalization. 

[GoodBytes]

48 minutes ago, gardotd426 said:

Dude, don't help Microsoft dissuade people from using real Linux. 

It is real Linux. The only disuation that Microsoft is doing is people using Mac's. 

 

I believe that WSL is a great way for someone who wants to stay in Windows environment for quick access to programs/games that they enjoy, and giving them a chance to discover Linux in their own time, without frustration or resting their system, making reinstall from human error a pain, making them, in my opinion, give up on Linux.

 

Also, WSL is not widely known, so I think my recommendation is well suited. 

 

Another setup recommendation I would say, but I didn't because I assume he considered it, and that is running these distro under a VM. (and a good chance that whatever system the OP will touch running Linux  in the work field, is under a VM in a server)

 

48 minutes ago, gardotd426 said:

 

OP, you'll be fine. You don't have to worry about updates to one OS affecting another (unless they share system files which is pretty much unheard of). 

 

I have run 3-4 distros at a time on my main gaming rig for well over a year at this point, and I also have a Windows 10 Pro VM I use with single-GPU passthrough in a VM to play the one game I play that doesn't work on Linux (right now), Apex Legends. 

 

I have all my Linux installs sharing the same /home partition and game partitions, but having them separate from the root partition means that I don't have to worry about updates messing with anything. And if I need to reinstall, I don't lose any of my customization or personalization. 

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[CaptainSugars]

On 11/19/2020 at 1:42 PM, Server_42 said:

Hi,

 

I am thinking about multi booting Windows 10 Pro, Ubuntu, Fedora, and Kali Linux. I am planning on having all the Linux distros on their own drive together. I am also only thinking about Ubuntu to learn Linux and then transition to using Fedora and Kali. My question is what would be the dangers and/or draw backs of multi booting and having the Linux distros on their own drive? What concerns should I consider if I want to continue with the multi boot? Everything else who want to say about it? I am also thinking about running MacOs on a Linux VM, however, I am on the fence about it,  I just need to get my photos and videos off my phone quickly and effectively (iPhone).

 

Thanks in advance, for the replies and answers.

Something I would recommend is Windows Subsytem for Linux. It's on the Microsoft Store and its awesome. It's a bash environment that can access all of your windows file system while also creating its own linux filesystem. 

 

Only problem is that it's command line only... but if you wanna learn things this is the way to go

[gardotd426]

On 11/21/2020 at 1:06 AM, CaptainSugars said:

Something I would recommend is Windows Subsytem for Linux. It's on the Microsoft Store and its awesome. It's a bash environment that can access all of your windows file system while also creating its own linux filesystem. 

 

Only problem is that it's command line only... but if you wanna learn things this is the way to go

What? WSL is in no way command line only. They have a whole X11 server. 

[CaptainSugars]

On 12/19/2020 at 1:03 AM, gardotd426 said:

What? WSL is in no way command line only. They have a whole X11 server. 

You'd have to install some type of X server on the machine and enable it in the bash terminal on WSL. So, I guess WSL doesn't outright support GUI but it can be done.

[GoodBytes]

24 minutes ago, CaptainSugars said:

You'd have to install some type of X server on the machine and enable it in the bash terminal on WSL. So, I guess WSL doesn't outright support GUI but it can be done.

GUI support is coming. Microsoft plans to release it sometime next year if all goes well.

[Wild Penquin]

One thing with dual booting several OSes (the number of distributions is not a factor here, really) is that one OS should manage (traditionally) the boot manager, and one OS only (i.e. only one Linux distribution chosen by you!). Previous Windows versions used to overwrite BIOS/MBR bootloaders at upgrade time, and on UEFI computers, at least OS X has the bad habit to remove another boot manager, such as rEFInd, forcing the user to re-install the boot manager.

 

Now I'm not sure about current Windowses (10), but previous Windowses even in the UEFI era might just remove non-Windows OS bootloaders or at least their EFI entries, but AFAIK this is no longer an issue(????). Then there's the Secure Boot thing. But maybe someone else might want to chime in here to confirm if this is an issue (or not) these days (I haven't used any kind of Windows on my home computers for almost two decades now).

 

In any case, you might want to study a bit how UEFI booting works, and how to boot into your 1) Windows (some rescue media) and 2) Linux installation in case booting gets broken for one reason or another, and how to fix things. One very common problem novice dual-booting Linux users face, is that they go ahead and just remove the Linux partition when attempting "uninstallation" and faced with a non-booting computer with no idea how to fix it.

 

In any case, not considering the boot management, there is no danger multibooting, as long as you (as the user) don't mix up the drives (or partitions). There's even no additional danger in partitioning drives and using the same drive for many OSes (practically zero in case you make backups before resizing filesystems). But - format (or make a new filesystem) the wrong partition thinking it  another - you will use all data on that partition, and if you have, say, three different Linux Distributions, there will be more partitions and more opportunities for the user to make errors. But no OS will do nothing harmful or magically turn the computer more dangerous, just by itself if multibooting.

 

I would make one single partition for one distribution only. You might want to make one single /home partition and share it with all these distributions, but keep in mind that because of software version differences, funky things might happen especially with desktop-oriented software. It is equally just as fine to not make a /home partition at all and use, say, rsync to keep only the relevant parts of the user home directories in sync with each other.

 

Another thing I would consider, is that do you really need three different distributions installed at any single one point in time? Would not one installation and distro-hopping suffice, or perhaps just two suffice (i.e. use the other as the "main"  and Kali for whatever it is you are doing with it)? Of coures, YMMV, this depends purely on your goals.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Wild Penquin
TYPOs. emphasis.

[gardotd426]

Quote

Another thing I would consider, is that do you really need three different distributions installed at any single one point in time? Would not one installation and distro-hopping suffice, or perhaps just two suffice (i.e. use the other as the "main"  and Kali for whatever it is you are doing with it)? Of coures, YMMV, this depends purely on your goals.

I mean, having 5 Linux distros installed on one machine is no more complicated than having one. As long as you have one be the "main" OS, and have it handle GRUB/rEFInd/whatever boot manager, you're fine. I always keep 3-4 installed on my main rig. Obviously I have one daily driver, but I like to have a few others installed just to mess around with, or for testing. It's especially nice having /home on a separate partition, so my customizations always come with me. 

[cretsiah]

probably a bit late to this thread, but the only issue i really had was windows time server being severely messed up on every reboot.