Issues when dual booting Linux Mint alongside Windows 10

[BonBonBourbon]

Hey there, I recently got interested in Linux Mint and wanted to dual boot it alongside Windows 10. But I am confused with which settings to turn on and off in UEFI and a few other things.

1) will it corrupt my Windows boot if it doesn't work?

 

2) is my hardware compatible - I am using an ASUS pre-built called G11CB
    Specs: i5 - 6400, GTX 950, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD

 

3) which BIOS settings to turn off - I turned off Fast Boot (in Windows and the UEFI BIOS setting), Secure Boot from Windows 10 UEFI to Other OS(using this link https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1030858/ ) and turned CSM to Auto

 

4) when I change the boot order in the UEFI BIOS settings I see two options of the bootable USB that I plugged in, with the settings mentioned above: a) UEFI - SANDISK (28934MB), b) SANDISK (28934MB)

    I first time I loaded into Mint (without changing anything in the UEFI BIOS) it was working fine, and then the second time (again nothing changed in the UEFI BIOS) I loaded Mint it showed me this screen (I am not sure why)

 

 

 

I selected continue boot and it was working fine

The third time I loaded up Mint was with the changed settings and I loaded the UEFI part of my bootable USB. It showed me a bunch of errors for a few seconds and then it loaded into Mint after a while (it took longer than the first two tries). I thought that restarting would help and after I clicked on restart it gave me some weird PCIE some error (I don't remember what it was exactly) like a billion times and then it switched to the Mint loading screen and was stuck there for a while. I then hit the power button on my PC and turned it off. And I have a few more questions: 1) Did it corrupt my bootable USB?, 2) Should I have selected the non UEFI bootable USB? since I turned off (or unloaded the PK of Secure Boot), 3) Why was it showing me those errors?, 4) What should I do when I see the Perform MOK management screen(when I had the UEFI BIOS settings off)?, 5) Should I leave the settings (Fast Boot to disabled, Secure Boot to Other OS, CSM to Auto) on even after installing Mint?

 

5) I have a GTX 950 and I downloaded their drivers for Mint, Are there any free software for graphics card? And do I even need it? I mean when I was testing it I didn't notice anything weird and it was displaying in the correct resolution of my monitor. BUT when I switched to my monitor's speakers (my monitor is connected to the graphics card using HDMI) the sound was very distorted. I then changed it to my headphones and switched it back to the monitor's speakers. It was working all right. What could the issue be? The drivers?

 

6) Should I encrypt my home folder when I install Mint? What are it's disadvantages or advantages?

 

7) And I watched this tutorial on YT

He didn't partition the drive in Windows 10 like the other tutorials show. Instead he uses the built-in Linux disk-thing-a-ma-jig. Should I follow him or see some other tutorial? And neither does he mention what to turn off in UEFI BIOS settings.

 

8) I am not sure how to switch to BIOS but it shows here https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1030858/how to do it (I still have tried doing it). Should I switch to BIOS even it I select the UEFI bootable part of the USB? Will it give me those errors again if I use the UEFI part of the bootable USB even when I have turned Secure Boot to Other OS?

 

9) Does turning Secure Boot to Other OS and CSM to Auto launch it in BIOS mode or something. And was I supposed to select this option SANDISK (28934MB) (this was the one which showed up when I changed Secure Boot, I didn't select this)?

 

10) Does the UEFI: SANDISK (SIZE MB) mean that it is meant for UEFI's?

 

11) And even if at any given time after installing Mint the OS just corrupts will it render Windows 10 unusable as well?

 

Please link me to a good guide for before and after installation of Mint

Thank you so much for reading through all this and your generous help

[C2dan88]

2 hours ago, BonBonBourbon said:

1) will it corrupt my Windows boot if it doesn't work?

No mint should not affect Windows. However note that mint will replace the windows bootloader with a bootloader called grub. If grub corrupts you wont be able to boot into windows.

To fix this you either need to boot into a linux mint live usb and choot to reinstall grub.

2 hours ago, BonBonBourbon said:

3) which BIOS settings to turn off - I turned off Fast Boot (in Windows and the UEFI BIOS setting), Secure Boot from Windows 10 UEFI to Other OS(using this link https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1030858/ ) and turned CSM to Auto

Yep thats fine.

 

4. What you are seeing is the output from the kernal attempting to load kernal modules (drivers)/configure the system during boot process. If the system boots to login screen/desktop without anything hanging/crashing there is nothing to worry about.

 

2 hours ago, BonBonBourbon said:

5) I have a GTX 950 and I downloaded their drivers for Mint, Are there any free software for graphics card? And do I even need it? I mean when I was testing it I didn't notice anything weird and it was displaying in the correct resolution of my monitor. BUT when I switched to my monitor's speakers (my monitor is connected to the graphics card using HDMI) the sound was very distorted. I then changed it to my headphones and switched it back to the monitor's speakers. It was working all right. What could the issue be? The drivers?

To install drivers open driver manager. It should give you the option to install the nvidia proprietary driver or the open source driver nouveau. Driver manager may suggest other drivers for other devices it finds.

 

3 hours ago, BonBonBourbon said:

7) And I watched this tutorial on YT

Better to use linux partition manager as windows cannot read/create linux partitions.

But for me personally easiest way to install linux is to its own drive, just disconnect windows drive during install.

 

3 hours ago, BonBonBourbon said:

9) Does turning Secure Boot to Other OS and CSM to Auto launch it in BIOS mode or something. And was I supposed to select this option SANDISK (28934MB) (this was the one which showed up when I changed Secure Boot, I didn't select this)?

 

10) Does the UEFI: SANDISK (SIZE MB) mean that it is meant for UEFI's?

Selecting UEFI: SANDISK will boot the device in EFI mode. The other option will boot in legacy bios mode (non EFI mode).

 

 

[BonBonBourbon]

@C2dan88Thank you for helping me. But how often does GRUB even corrupt? And how often has GRUB got corrupted when you used it? Was it after you updated Windows 10 or some Mint update broke it? How stable is GRUB? Which linux distro do you use? Do you dual boot it?

[MadmanRB]

Its not that often but on a personal note do brush up on learning how to partition your drive so you can have a separate partition for Windows boot and Linux boot.

If you are afraid of messing up your system, you can always use a virtual machine to practice using the linux partition tool.

In this case Linux mint it will use a tool called gparted, gparted is actually not that hard to use on itself but like anything there is a learning curve on reading how linux reads hard drives and such.

For example, instead of using the A, B or C naming system Linux uses its own system on drive partitions.

SDA1, 2, 3 for example.

Knowing this will be a good step in the right direction as remember this is a OS not a .exe so it must be handled with care, again its actually not that hard once you know what you are doing but still I would at least try to learn the ropes of linux in a virtual environment like virtualbox

[BonBonBourbon]

Okay thanks @MadmanRB I'll look into that.

Quote

separate partition for Windows boot and Linux boot

If I use the built-in partitioning software when installing does it not create two different partitions? Should I not follow this step of the tutorial? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzVnTSklWa0&t=530s

[MadmanRB]

Yes as what I am suggesting is to manually partition the drive as opposed to using mints automatic partitioning.

All mint really does is divide the drive in half between it and windows, and it uses the same boot partition windows does.

I fully realize  manually partitioning sounds scary, but again it's far easier than it sounds as gparted is super easy once you get used to it, then you can use Mints "something else" option to ensure you install mint on the partitions you installed it to.

This is why before doing anything to your main machine try to install the system in virtualbox, it will help you learn things like gparted without it harming your system.

If you are concerned about windows overwriting grub this is the best path, but again its not as hard as it sounds.

The method in that video is just the easiest way to install Mint in a dual boot scenario, you can do it if you don't feel comfortable, and it will work, just a few caveats to consider.

[Mark Kaine]

Oof, this is precisely why im planning to install linux on its own drive and remove my win 10 os drive beforehand, so if i mess up the drive while "partitioning" or otherwise installing linux, ill just mess up an empty drive instead of my precious, self-hacked optimized win10 install…