AI Suggestions for dual boot with windows 11

Ask Fedora
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1

Deepseek suggested the installation steps below. There are three apparently paramount things I’m not sure of and are not mentioned in the Fedora Media Writer lines:

  1. Disable (or deactivate) BitLocker
  2. Switch off Windows Fast Startup
  3. Use diskmgmt to resize partitions

Is this needed?

can fedora 42 and windows 11 dual boot?

Of course! Yes, Fedora 42 and Windows 11 can absolutely be set up to dual boot on the same computer.

The process is standard and well-documented, but it requires careful steps to avoid data loss. The key is to install the operating systems in the correct order and configure them properly.

Here is a comprehensive guide on how to do it and what to consider.

The Golden Rule: Install Windows First

This is the most important step for a hassle-free setup.

  1. Why? Windows has a very proprietary bootloader that doesn’t naturally recognize or respect other operating systems. If you install Windows after Linux, it will overwrite the Linux bootloader (GRUB), and you will only be able to boot into Windows.
  2. The Correct Order: Install Windows 11 first, then install Fedora 42. The Fedora installer is designed to be smart and will detect the existing Windows installation. It will then add an entry for Windows to its bootloader (GRUB), giving you a menu at startup to choose between them.

Step-by-Step Guide to Dual Booting

Before You Begin:

  • Backup Your Data! Partitioning drives always carries a small risk of data loss. Ensure all your important files from Windows are backed up to an external drive or cloud service.
  • Create Windows 11 Installation Media: Use the official Microsoft Media Creation Tool to make a bootable USB drive.
  • Create Fedora 42 Installation Media: Download the Fedora Workstation ISO from the official website and use a tool like Fedora Media Writer, Rufus, or Balena Etcher to create a bootable USB drive.
  • Check Your Firmware: Ensure your computer’s firmware (BIOS/UEFI) is up to date.

Part 1: Preparing Your Disk in Windows

  1. Shrink the Windows Partition:

    • Boot into Windows 11.
    • Press Win + R, type diskmgmt.msc, and press Enter to open Disk Management.
    • Right-click your main partition (usually C:), and select Shrink Volume….
    • Decide how much space to allocate to Fedora. A good starting point is at least 50-60 GB. Enter the amount in MB (e.g., 60000 MB for ~60 GB).
    • Click “Shrink”. This will leave a block of “Unallocated” space on your drive, which is where Fedora will be installed.

  2. Disable Windows Fast Startup:

    • Go to Settings > System > Power & battery > Power mode (or Additional power settings in the old Control Panel).
    • Click “Choose what the power buttons do”.
    • Click “Change settings that are currently unavailable”.
    • Uncheck the box for Turn on fast startup (recommended).
    • This is crucial! Fast Startup leaves the disk in a hibernated state, making it read-only for Linux and preventing Fedora from mounting it properly.

  3. Adjust Secure Boot (Optional but Recommended):

    • Fedora works perfectly with Secure Boot enabled. You do not need to disable it. The Fedora kernel and bootloader are signed with Microsoft-approved keys. Leave Secure Boot On for better security.

Part 2: Installing Fedora

  1. Boot from the Fedora USB Drive: Restart your computer and enter the boot menu (often by pressing F12, F10, F2, or Del during startup). Select the USB drive as the boot device.
  2. Start the Installation: Select “Start Fedora-Workstation-Live” from the GRUB menu.
  3. Run the Installer: Once the live environment loads, click “Install to Hard Drive”.
  4. The Critical Step: Installation Destination:
    • When you get to the “Installation Destination” screen, you will see your disk(s).
    • Choose the “Custom” radio button (Manual partitioning). This gives you full control.
    • Select the unallocated space you created earlier in Windows.
    • Click on the “Click here to create them automatically” link. The installer will sensibly create the necessary partitions (e.g., / for root and swap).
    • Alternatively, you can create them manually:
      • /boot/efi: A ~500MB-1GB EFI System Partition. (This should already exist from Windows; do not format it. Fedora will simply add its files there alongside Windows).
      • swap: A swap partition, roughly equal to your RAM size.
      • /: The root partition, which will take the remaining space. Use the ext4 filesystem.
  5. Begin Installation: Complete the rest of the setup (user creation, language, etc.) and start the installation. This will take a few minutes.
  6. Finish and Reboot: When done, the installer will prompt you to reboot. Remove the USB drive when asked.

Part 3: The Grand Finale - GRUB

Upon rebooting, you should see the GRUB menu. It will list:

  • Fedora Linux
  • Fedora Linux (rescue mode)
  • Windows Boot Manager

You can now choose which operating system to boot into. Fedora will be the default, but you can change the order and timeout in Fedora’s GRUB configuration later.

Potential Pitfalls and Troubleshooting

  • No GRUB Menu / Boots directly to Windows: This means the Fedora bootloader was overwritten or not set as the primary. You can fix this by booting from the Fedora USB drive again, opening a terminal, and re-installing GRUB. This process can be technical, so you might want to search for a guide specific to “restoring GRUB after Windows”.

  • Time is Wrong in One OS: Windows and Linux treat hardware clock time differently. Windows assumes the clock is set to “Local time,” while Linux assumes it’s “UTC.” To fix this, you can either tell Linux to use local time or (better) tell Windows to use UTC. The easiest fix is to run this command in a Windows Command Prompt (Admin):

    reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_DWORD /f

  • Accessing Files Between Systems: Windows cannot natively read Linux filesystems (ext4). From Fedora, however, you can easily read and write to your Windows NTFS partitions. They will auto-mount in the file manager. Be careful not to modify Windows system files from Linux.

Conclusion

Dual-booting Fedora 42 and Windows 11 is a perfectly viable and stable setup. By following the order (Windows first, then Linux) and carefully managing your disk partitions, you can enjoy the best of both worlds on a single machine. Enjoy

2

Hello @theking2

The dual boot of Windows 11 and Fedora 42 works great. The general advice is good, but I would like to add a few suggestions of my own:
Don’t disable BitLocker; instead, suspend its protection.
Disabling fast boot is absolutely the right thing to do.
Use Windows Disk Management for partitioning. It’s a simple and effective GUI.
Of the other suggested options, I prefer to install Fedora 42 WS using netinstall, which gives you the easiest access (in my opinion) to blivet-gui. The web UI on the Fedora Workstation live ISO was incomprehensible to me. In blivet-gui, you will need to specify the mount point for the EFI partition (be careful not to format the partition) at /boot/efi. Blivet-gui is very simple and comprehensive. The rest will be intuitive.

3

I was dual booting Windows 10 on one system and Windows 11 on another. After updates, Windows would enable hibernation (aka fastboot) so the systems booted directly into Windows, so I would have to disable hibernation in Windows. Then Windows updates started causing more serious problems: modifing UEFI boot entries for Fedora and even overwrote the Linux partition on an external USB drive with a Windows partition. Since I was only using Windows to report problems with PDF documents to the authors, the time spent repairing damage to Fedora wasn’t worthwhile.

1 Like
4

Hi @gnwiii
Major updates tend to restore fast boot. I have two dual boot systems: Windows 10 Pro/Fedora 42WS and Windows 11 Pro/Fedora 42WS. With the Pro versions, I was able to disable this feature by also completely disabling hibernation in the Windows registry.

5

Yes, there must be free space on the drive to install fedora and both bitlocker and fast startup can interfere with linux installations. The only thing that normally needs resized is the windows filesystem and it must be reduced by an amount to be used for the fedora installation.

Step 4 of what you posted has some errors. The fact those instructions say to use ext4 for the root filesystem and that it would create an swap partition show they are WAY OUT OF DATE.

The simplest and easiest is to use the automatic partitioning, which would use the existing efi partition and mount it at /boot/efi. It would create a partition as ext4 for /boot and a btrfs volume which would contain the subvolumes root (mounted at /) and home (mounted at /home)

1 Like
6

No, but likely varies depending on how you’d want it set-up:

  • I never touched Bitlocker on Windows with dual-booting, but never had it enable on Enterprise editions :stuck_out_tongue:
  • I disable Fast Start for general Windows-side handling; Linux I have reboot=pci that forces device resets (usually wifi card firmware is related to this but I haven’t seen an issue)
  • Never had to resize partitions OS-side while using separate drives (each drive has an OS that uses the whole drive by itself)

Hassle-free is separate drives also having their own separate bootloaders. If Windows is installed first, Fedora GRUB can see it later and present both itself and Windows in GRUB.

I wipe both disks, install Windows first, disconnect the drive, then Linux, re-connect the Windows drive, and later do a GRUB config (custom kernel parameters) on Linux that does a re-probe that automatically picks up the Windows boot loader.

Most oddities with multi-boot come from a shared boot environment (like Windows and Linux using the same /boot/efi partition).