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.
Man, I want to dual boot, but I’m scared shitless. I don’t want windows to fuck my 1.5 years work on my current set up. VM for now until I find a solid and “complete moron” proof tutorial to go forward.
keep doing what you’re doing; if you need to get whatever runs in windows out of a vm and on ‘bare metal’–get a separate system for that and network the two to share files, if needed.
I actually do have a laptop that runs windows. It has that shit hybrid Intel/Nvidia graphics that never worked out on linux so I had to put windows back on it. But I don’t/can’t play games on the laptop, it’s very weak and nothing works on it. My PC is pretty decent and I was thinking I can get a separate drive for windows in case I needed it for a game or something. I don’t know. It’s just an idea for now, nothing really major. I hate changing set ups/distro-hopping. Been working on this same endeavour OS install for over a year and it fits my needs perfectly except for the occasional games that just don’t run on Linux. Or a program like yesterday when I bought a new mechanical keyboard (red dragon) and there is no software for it on Linux. It didn’t even work through wine and other means. Ya know, shit like that.
Is there a specific benefit that you’re expecting from dual booting? That tidbit might help us talk you out of it 😁
Seriously, I think a VM is almost always the better solution.
Nothing really major. Mostly curiosity and some times I’d run into a game that I like, but it doesn’t run on Linux. Eventually, I’d either figure out how to make it work, or just say fuck it and let it go.
I have no great solution to games that don’t work. Thankfully it’s increasingly rare. And I get wanting to do something just for curiosity’s sake.
There’s PCI-E pass through to hand direct control of your GPU to the VM if you aren’t already familiar, but my two cents is dual boot is less of a pain.
Thank you. It’s going to be a process. I want to dual but I want Windows to be on its own drive so it doesn’t touch anything else. I honestly don’t even want it near grub. I’m ok with going to it from the boot menu every time, instead of using OS prober and grub. I’ve heard some horror stories of windows just nuking grub and that would hurt badly.