Install Fedora 34 side by side with preinstalled Windows 10

Ask Fedora
1

I want to install Fedora 34 side by side with preinstalled Windows 10 (EFI boot).

I shrink the Windows partition (Windows disk management) and got 168 GB free space.
And boot Fedora-live.

(parted) print free
says:

Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ01ABF0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
        17.4kB  1049kB  1031kB  Free Space
 1      1049kB  274MB   273MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot, esp
 2      274MB   290MB   16.8MB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 3      290MB   317GB   316GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
        317GB   485GB   168GB   Free Space
 4      485GB   486GB   1028MB  ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 5      486GB   500GB   14.5GB  ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, msftdata
        500GB   500GB   5251kB  Free Space

I’m not sure next steps after run “Install to HardDrive”.

I think so:

  1. Select Custom Storage Configuration (or Advansed Custom Bivet-GUI)
  2. For “273MB fat32 EFI system partition” set mount point /boot/efi
  3. At “168GB Free Space” create 3 partitions for /, /home and swap.
  4. Start installation process.

Am I right?
Everithing will be OK with “EFI system partition”? And I get dual-boot system?

2

Before start, backup the existing EFI partition just in case restore is needed.

Check if you have BitLocker Encryption enabled. Note down the Recovery Key before install to Harddisk.

For the freed space, create a 1GB /boot, format as ext4. Then remaining for a btrfs partition.
Within the btrfs, create / and /home subvol.

Then it will be good to go.

1 Like
3

How about swap?

4

Configuring dual booting with any other OS is easy if you have two drives or initially two distinctif partitions … depending on Fedora for magical powers doesn’t get you anywhere about knowledge of operating systems, whatever there are … use Windows tools in Windows to achieve this using diskpart cli commands in terminal or PowerShell cli commands starting with get-disk … exchanging data partitions between OS using different file systems can be troublesome except FAT, EXT and NTFS.

5

Fedora uses zram for a virtual swap. It seems faster than HDD swap and AFAIK the only drawback is the system will be unable to hibernate, which involves writing memory to the physical swap partition. Since most do not hibernate that usually is not an issue.

This is still valid and works well