So, I had to reinstall windows as a dualboot, because I need some CAD tools for work. It was painful but it’s not thebaubject
I’m running nixos with systemd-boot and I installed windows on another drive. I started to research how to add the entry on the boot list so I don’t need to go in bios to switch the boot order each time I want to change OS.
Most of the information I find is about grub on nixos but I finally find information on how to add a manual entry. On the Arch wiki I find some information but now I have to blend all that to make it work on my laptop.
It’s late and I’m scared to mess up my boot partition so I go to sleep to work instructions on it the next day.
The next day I’m ready to do all that only to realized that there is already the entry for windows is already in the boot menu, it has been added automatically.
So I spent all this time to think about how I while have to adjust my system manually only to realize that nixos already did it automatically for me.
When I dual boot Linux and Windows, I like to have two separate drives and not ever mix up the bootloaders. I then use my motherboards boot selector to choose which one, and I leave the main OS as the first priority one.
Works perfectly, avoids Windows overwriting Linux and avoids GRUB breaking for the 11th time this month because it’s a terrible piece of software. The only downside is it takes 10 seconds longer, because whenever I want to change I need to wait for my motherboard to recognize the boot selection key.
Out of curiosity, do you VM the Windows or the Linux? I know Windows really doesn’t play well with bootloaders.
Whatever is needed.
My preference is Linux as the base system, then several VM’s with both Linuxes and Windoses inside. Proxmox on the base system makes it easy.
I tried via a VM but CAD applications need a GPU and doing a GPU pass through with a nvidia card on my laptop was too much for me.
I totally get it but KVM/qumu is really awesome. Well worth the setup time IMHO.
I have never had grub break on OpenSUSE in 6+ years. But also i install OpenSUSE after Windows and with its own boot partition. it finds windows and adds a chainloader grub entry. Set OpenSUSE as default in bios. Windows never knows it is chainloaded and leaves your linux boot alone