Installing Win 11 as a dual boot option with Fedora

[glb (Gregory Lee Bartholomew)]

@cvchain

Everything needs to go smoothly

Unfortunately, many users have reported problems with dual-booting MS Windows and Fedora Linux due to:

a) MS Windows makes the ESP too small to accommodate other operating systems.

b) MS Windows demands drive encryption^[1] and “secure boot” settings that prevent any boot loader from starting MS Windows. (It demands to be directly launched from the firmware/bios.^[2])

Installing Fedora Linux on a secondary HD is a viable workaround for problem a. (A secondary drive can have a separate ESP. The Boot Loader Specification does not allow multiple ESPs on one drive.)

Running MS Windows in a Virtual Machine is a workaround for problem b, but creating a VM that properly supports the newest version of TPM can be quite tricky.

Currently, I run MS Windows 10 in a VM which does not require the TPM/secure-boot configuration. But I’m not sure how much longer that workaround will be viable.

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1. Windows 11 boot broken after installing Fedora 40

   Hey all! A linux noob here. I just installed Fedora 40 Workstation next to my Windows 11 install (wanted to dual boot). I choose a to install Fedora 40 on another drive as i wanted them on separate drives. After installing Fedora it works perfect, but my Windows 11 install refuses to boot. With an error (Secure boot signature not found). Also it shows up as “UEFI OS”. But i can still see and transfer files from my Windows 11 installation. What i tried already; Booting with secure boot off a…

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2. Windows with encrypted disks (Bitlocker) can't be booted from the GRUB boot menu

   Problem If you dual-boot Fedora and Windows 10/11, and you chose to encrypt your Windows drives with Bitlocker, on a system which has a TPM security chip, you won’t be able boot Windows from Fedora’s GRUB boot loader (which appears when you start the computer). Selecting the Windows boot item will force Windows into a recovery boot and will ask you for the Bitlocker encryption passcode (which is impractical to provide for each boot). Cause The TPM chip is used to prevent tampering with the d…

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