Will windows break when installing fedora next to it?

Ask Fedora
1

I need to install fedora next to windows 11, during installation it was written that the installer will format /boot/efi. If I’m not mistaken, this is how you can ensure that windows won’t be able to start, right? Or will it just run through grub 2?

2

OS-prober should run during the installation process, see that there’s a Windows installation there, and add an entry into grub for it. This is why it can be a bit of a nightmare for people who play it entirely safe, remove the windows drive for installation and then find their newly installed grub has no idea there’s a Windows installation at all, as there wasn’t one there at installation time.

As you can see, there’s an entry for Windows added automatically, which I have sitting on it’s own drive… HD(2), with Fedora on HD(1). Must clean up that old Garuda entry too now that I notice it.

└─➜ efibootmgr                                                                                                                                                                                       ⏱️ 20s 20:52 Mon 27-Oct
BootCurrent: 0006
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0006,0000,0005,0001,0002,0003
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager  HD(2,GPT,39b73b8e-7047-4898-b0aa-7528406acd13,0x109000,0x32000)/\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI57494e444f5753000100000088000000780000004200430044004f0042004a004500430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d0061006300630031002d006600330032006200330034003400640034003700390035007d0000002c000100000010000000040000007fff0400
Boot0001* Garuda        VenHw(99e275e7-75a0-4b37-a2e6-c5385e6c00cb)
Boot0002* Linux Boot Manager    VenHw(99e275e7-75a0-4b37-a2e6-c5385e6c00cb)
Boot0003* Linux Boot Manager    VenHw(99e275e7-75a0-4b37-a2e6-c5385e6c00cb)
Boot0005  Fedora        HD(1,GPT,4d601403-3d7f-4e5d-96b3-e8a3d5f4526a,0x800,0x12c000)/\EFI\FEDORA\SHIMX64.EFI
Boot0006* Fedora        HD(1,GPT,4d601403-3d7f-4e5d-96b3-e8a3d5f4526a,0x800,0x12c000)/\EFI\FEDORA\SHIM.EFI0000424f
1 Like
3

Thanks! So you just need to install fedora next to windows and that’s it.

4

Aye - have a read of the docs if you’re a bit nervous about it - quite understandable.

There’s a nice guide here but I should bring it to your attention that Fedora 43 is released tomorrow, so you may want to wait for it to hit the shelves officially rather than installing 42 and then having to perform an update a few hours later!

2 Likes
5

In any case, there will be an update after installation.

6

Thank you very much!

7

That guide linked is for manual partitioning and is very detailed.

A much simpler method would be to follow the tried and true method that has worked for many years. This is for using a single drive with both OSes.

  1. boot windows and shrink its file system by the amount you wish to leave for the fedora install and leave that space unallocated.
  2. boot the fedora installer and install. The default automatic partitioning will handle all the drive needs in most cases.

Step 1 may not be required if installing on a second hard drive that does not already have a windows file system.