To Dual Boot or Not to

[sorcererstone]

First, I am familiar with Windows OS only. I do casual programming (use mainly open-source projects which are mostly Linux base).
My OS is Win11 pro, 32GB RAM, 1.5TB SSD storage (on 2 .M2 sticks).
I use docker (via Docker Desktop), so VM is what I am playing with.
Getting into very unfamiliar territories (of using VM) and now seriously thinking about Dual Boot.
Case for Dual Boot:
In the main (open source) project I am working on, there are a couple of lines of commands in the docker-compose.yml files:

volumes:
  - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
  - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro

 

My host is Windows. There is no such thing as "etc" directory in Windows that has the time, timezone, date, … libraries/info. This is exclusively for Linux (or maybe Mac OS, which I don’t give a damn).

As a result, while the docker containers can run, but because it fails to get the time and timezone info from the above commands, the app defaults into GMT. That is a major eye-sore/problem.

And I am sure I will run into more Linux exclusive problems. AKA, Docker Desktop, WSL2, etc probably not going to solve my problems.

So, unless there is a way to extract the time/timezone info from Win OS, (Does anyone know how?), the only way to move forward is to program in default native Linux environment – aka Dual Boot.

Also, from Googling, when setting up Dual Boot, it seems the most “safer” way to move forward setting up the dual boot is to use 2 completely separated storage media - one for Win OS and another one for Linux OS (which in my case use 2 .M2 storage sticks, one for each OS) instead of partitioning a single media.
 
Any comments advise from the forum?

[PDifolco]

6 minutes ago, sorcererstone said:

First, I am familiar with Windows OS only. I do casual programming (use mainly open-source projects which are mostly Linux base).
My OS is Win11 pro, 32GB RAM, 1.5TB SSD storage (on 2 .M2 sticks).
I use docker (via Docker Desktop), so VM is what I am playing with.
Getting into very unfamiliar territories (of using VM) and now seriously thinking about Dual Boot.
Case for Dual Boot:
In the main (open source) project I am working on, there are a couple of lines of commands in the docker-compose.yml files:

volumes:
  - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
  - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro

 

My host is Windows. There is no such thing as "etc" directory in Windows that has the time, timezone, date, … libraries/info. This is exclusively for Linux (or maybe Mac OS, which I don’t give a damn).

As a result, while the docker containers can run, but because it fails to get the time and timezone info from the above commands, the app defaults into GMT. That is a major eye-sore/problem.

And I am sure I will run into more Linux exclusive problems. AKA, Docker Desktop, WSL2, etc probably not going to solve my problems.

So, unless there is a way to extract the time/timezone info from Win OS, (Does anyone know how?), the only way to move forward is to program in default native Linux environment – aka Dual Boot.

Also, from Googling, when setting up Dual Boot, it seems the most “safer” way to move forward setting up the dual boot is to use 2 completely separated storage media - one for Win OS and another one for Linux OS (which in my case use 2 .M2 storage sticks, one for each OS) instead of partitioning a single media.
 
Any comments advise from the forum?

Can confirm I did that -dual boot on 2 separate physical drives- and no probleam at all with either Windows or Linux

 

[me888]

If installing on 2 separate storage medias is a viable option I'd do that 100% of the time.

 

Dual-booting with separate partitions on the same drive is always more finicky in my experience. Not impossible, but nowhere near as simple or straightforward as booting each OS from a separate drive.  And you have a little bonus some redundancy in the event that one drive fails or is damaged.

 

In my opinion a VM like you currently have is also less of a headache than setting up dual-booting with partitions.

[manikyath]

keep the drives completely separated, ideally keep the bootloaders entirely separate as well. windows 10 loved to brick itself when windows updates had to reboot trough grub2, i dont expect win11 to be any better.

 

if you dont want to go trough the bios to switch boot device, the most 'sensible' method i've found is to put your linux bootloader on a usb drive, and configure your bios to boot from usb before booting from windows.

- usb drive not plugged in: windows boots

- usb drive plugged in: linux boots

 

although i assume (and hope?) that someone else has found a less 'analog' way of doing this.

 

EDIT: two details:

- windows and linux (by default) use different ways to store time in the bios, you need to configure some override on the linux side to not F up your timezone each time you switch.

- disable fast boot on windows, otherwise windows might get confused trough reboots.

[Takumidesh]

I am always pro VM, dual booting is a hassle IMO, due to windows liking to eat bootloaders.

 

If you have the hardware to spare, you can even do GPU passthrough to get a near native VM experience. (i use iGPU for host and dedicated gpu for guest)

 

You can go pretty far with wsl, but of course a native linux environment will make your life easier.

 

 

[rcmaehl]

If you're planning on gaming: Windows w/ WSL2 (or Windows with a Linux VM)

For literally anything other than gaming: Linux with a Windows VM

 

Windows does too much bootloader f-ery to dual boot imo. Especially with Win 11 requiring Secure Boot

[sorcererstone]

My main interest is programming - not for gaming.

I have a new Windows based laptop (described above) for this purpose. Hence Linux with Windows VM is not an option.

manikyath's suggestion on "usb drive plugged in: Linux boots" is another alternative way I frequently came across when I google.

But seems like everyone here is talking about bootloader problems in Windows. Sounds like a major problem that I need to google for more info. What is it?

 

[OhioYJ]

1 hour ago, sorcererstone said:

But seems like everyone here is talking about bootloader problems in Windows. Sounds like a major problem that I need to google for more info. What is it?

I don't ever remember having a problem dual booting? Most of my machines run just Linux. However, a couple in the house do need to play games so those dual boot. My gaming machine runs Linux Mint and Windows 11 currently, no issues. Secure boot enabled. (through out the years, I've run various distros and versions of Windows)

 

I'm sure there are situations were things happen, but I'm not sure I would say it's common enough to stop you from dual booting.

[twocows]

On 10/3/2022 at 3:17 PM, sorcererstone said:

My main interest is programming - not for gaming.

I have a new Windows based laptop (described above) for this purpose. Hence Linux with Windows VM is not an option.

manikyath's suggestion on "usb drive plugged in: Linux boots" is another alternative way I frequently came across when I google.

But seems like everyone here is talking about bootloader problems in Windows. Sounds like a major problem that I need to google for more info. What is it?

 

I don't understand why a Windows VM would not be an option. If anything, I'd say a Windows VM would be the optimal solution for your use case.

 

With that said, there's nothing wrong with setting up dual boot either. You might want to set Linux up second though, I believe most Linux installers are better about respecting dual boot setups whereas I don't think Windows does any detection for this scenario.