Hello,
I'm quite new to the idea of dual-booting, and I have a new Lenovo Legion Slim 7 which I would like to dual-boot on.
I definitely know that Thinkpads have better Linux compatibility, but Thinkpads would not meet my main use case for this laptop (hence my choice). It's also got an Nvidia GTX 4060 in it, which will probably not be optimal from what I hear (so any tips on that are much appreciated as well!). At least it has an AMD Ryzen.
That being said, I would love to use Fedora Silverblue / Kinoite alongside Windows. I know the docs say it will come with some difficulties, but I am willing to give it a crack given some of the latest comments on the issue tracker (https://github.com/fedora-silverblue/issue-tracker/issues/284#issuecomment-1869828571).
How would I go about actually shrinking Windows 11 down to make space for Fedora? Is "partitioning" the right word to use here?
It seems there are a million tools out there for this, but I would like to try to avoid extra tools for it unless there is a really reputable and easy-to-use one (just to avoid bloat).
After I shrink the partition, is it then just a matter of running the installer and using automatic partitioning with the unused space left over after shrinking Windows?
I'm a developer, but honestly the simpler you can explain this process, the better (I'm a web developer with very little experience dual-booting anything at all and have no clue how this process should go down).
Thank you!
Edit: I'd also love to know what kind of issues the docs are actually warning about as far as dual-booting. Will Windows wipe the bootloader on update or will Silverblue / Kinoite wipe Windows out somehow? If it's Silverblue wiping Windows out, that may cause me to go with a different distro - but if Windows wipes Silverblue, it'll be annoying but not a deal breaker (I plan to use Silverblue / Kinoite for development exclusively, so everything will be on GitHub).
(Perhaps) unrelated background information
xD , I started writing a reply yesterday and it got unwieldy real quick. So, I got discouraged and not long after I fell asleep. In the morning, I was surprised to see that a lot of your questions still weren't answered, so I mustered some motivation and here it is. Don't expect a very thorough response, but you should find enough pointers to make this work.Preface:
Yup, the gist of it would be that Nvidia's proprietary drivers are not found in the native repos of most distros. This also applies to Fedora. However, you should be able to acquire the proprietary drivers by following the instructions found on RPM Fusion. But, Nvidia's proprietary drivers are known to not play nice and might require you to get into the nitty gritty later down the line to save your system. Don't get me wrong; some people never have issues, but unfortunately this doesn't apply to everybody. Therefore, it's very good to approach this cautiously. If, instead, you'd prefer a managed solution; so one in which your input is left to a bare minimum but somehow Nvidia's proprietary drivers are installed and (at times) fixed by some black magic shenanigans (or just good engineering) going on in the background, then look no further than uBlue's Nvidia images. Delving further into what uBlue is and why IMO you should consume Fedora Silverblue through it would be out of scope for this comment.
So, unfortunately I don't quite remember what I did exactly. But I can't imagine I would do anything beyond the following two scenarios:
If memory serves me right, automatic partitioning by Fedora's Anaconda installer was for some reason undesirable. I don't remember the specifics, but it's likely either one of the following:
Therefore, I did something slightly different. If I recall correctly, one should adhere to the following instructions:
After you've shrunk the Windows partition, make a new partition (preferably using GParted) with the following specifics:
Reboot into Fedora Silverblue/Kinoite's installer and when you get to the screen found below:
First select the disk you'd like to perform the installation on and then select Custom (optional: you're free to choose the "Encrypt my data" option as well). After you've done this, press "Done" in the upper-left corner.
Click here to reveal image of the screen
A new screen should appear, in here I selected "Click here to create them automatically.". This should apply the default partitioning on the empty disk space. However there are a couple of things to keep track off:
/boot/efi
After you're done with the previous screen, select "Done" in the upper-left corner. This should prompt a popup screen that summarizes the changes. Ensure that this doesn't do something strange to your Windows partitions and make sure that it looks otherwise as you'd expect. If you're done, then select "Accept Changes".
The rest of the installation should progress like how you'd expect from there.
(Post-install) Depending on how you'd like to have GRUB (read: default bootloader on Fedora) configured, you might have to do a thing or two to ensure you can access both Fedora Silverblue/Kinoite and Windows however suits you best.
As long as the EFI partitions are separated, there's nothing to worry about. And if anything, it's Windows that might wipe out whatever Linux distro you're dualbooting.
Perhaps it's worth mentioning one of uBlue's most ambitious projects; Project Bluefin, or to be more precise; the Bluefin developer experience.
General tips:
Please feel free to inquire if you so desire!