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[SOLVED] Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

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user2635
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[SOLVED] Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#1 Post by user2635 »

Lenovo ideapad 700 64bit windows 10

I want to install debian to dual boot with windows 10 but already stuck at partitioning part.

I'm trying to shrink C:/ but there is no shrinkable space:
https://framapic.org/8sOIn0oO0dSV/XoNyYymd0FcB.PNG

Here are my partitions:
https://framapic.org/JNewjaXCIFwp/afk2n9uslZEt.PNG

Where do I go from here?
Last edited by user2635 on 2017-08-13 18:29, edited 3 times in total.
phil the linux newbie
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Re: Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#2 Post by sunrat »

Did you defragment your "C" drive first? If that doesn't help, you may be able to shrink the drive Windows calls "D" and install Debian there.
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Re: Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#3 Post by user2635 »

Thanks sunrat, I've checked and it seems to be OK and doesn't need to be defraged (don't know if it's to do with being an SSD).

Shall I try with D? Are there cons of installing it there rather than disk 0?
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Re: Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#4 Post by sunrat »

It is not called D from Linux, but should be OK as long as you install in UEFI mode and make sure Grub goes in the EFI system partition. Both disks may need to be GPT, but I'm not 100% sure of that.
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Re: Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#5 Post by Caitlin »

Windows has a habit of grabbing all the space it can then calling it the C: drive.

If that's not bad enough, it creates a special file and places it at the END of the C: drive, then calls it unmovable. That means the partition cannot be shrunk.

The best way around this is to create a partition for C: in advance that's no bigger than you really need it to be. But you're obviously past this point, so:

There are non-Microsoft utilities to move this "unmovable" file and shrink the partition. I don't remember the details, so I'll leave it up to you to do some additional research.

If it's an SSD that shouldn't make any difference.

When fooling around with partitions, BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL! Back up everything first in case you run into a problem.

Caitlin

Siernan
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Re: Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#6 Post by Siernan »

I have not had that experience with Windows (Win10 in this case) regarding C: being unshrinkable. In fact in the last 3 days I'm 3 OSs deep setting up multiboot on a laptop that was originally only Windows 10 Enterprise build 1703, with one 240GB SSD and 4 partitions to start (the Windows 500MB "System Reserved", C:, 100MB EFI, and ~900MB Windows Recovery partition). It's now pretty Frankenstein on this disk, with System Reserved, EFI, Windows Recovery, C:, Linux Swap, 3 more for each Linux OS, and 20GB unallocated that will become the next Linux OS partition.

I began by working on making the EFI partition larger, which involved me shrinking C: twice, then I have shrunk it 3 more times by ~25GB each time to install Kali, Parrot, and Debian (Stretch) respectively onto each new unallocated block.

That said, it sounds like Caitlin has some experience with this, so it could be edition or version dependent knowing MS. The only thing that required true effort to alter the size of was the EFI partition, no MS tools will allow you to. But to shrink C: I just used Disk Manager running as admin.

And I'll second the notion to back up everything prior to mucking around with re-partitioning your disk :).

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Re: Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#7 Post by luvr »

sunrat wrote:make sure Grub goes in the EFI system partition.
My dad has recently gotten an ASUS N752V notebook, which came with Windows 10 on its first disk (SSD) and has a traditional spinning disk built in for its second storage device. This second disk was partitioned as one big "D:" drive, but it wasn't actually getting used by Windows.

My dad asked me if I could add an Ubuntu system to this setup, so I deleted the existing (empty) "D:" partition, created a smaller one, and added a Linux partition on the newly freed space.

Installing Linux was significantly easier than I had expected, since I could enter a setup mode (the equivalent of the venerable old BIOS setup) while the computer was starting up, and it allowed me to select the boot device (i.e., the USB stick onto which I had copied the Ubuntu disc image). I found this pretty surprising, because I was under the impression that the so-called "Secure Boot" feature was supposed to prevent the user from doing this?

Anyway, as I continued, it became clear that, for good graphics support, the computer needed the proprietary NVIDIA driver, so I opted to install that. The installer then informed me that it would have to disable Secure Boot because of the proprietary driver and wanted me to set up a password to allow me to control this function. I have no idea what this password is meant for, since I haven't ever been prompted for it again.

Then, given that this is the very first time that I got to work on a UEFI system, I didn't really know what to do with the GRUB bootloader. I was pretty sure that it shouldn't go onto the "Master Boot Record", so, not knowing any better, I installed it onto the Ubuntu system partition instead (I figured that, even if this might be wrong, it would be the least risky option, and it would be instructive anyhow).

The resulting system will boot Windows 10 by default, without showing a menu from which to select the Operating System that you want to start. However, while the system is starting up, you can hit the <ESC> key, and you will get a UEFI menu from which you can select Windows 10, Ubuntu, or System Setup mode. My dad is happy with this setup, so, as far as I'm concerned, it is working fine.

We have since encountered a glitch just once: After a new Linux kernel got installed, the computer suddenly booted Ubuntu, instead of Windows, by default. I have no idea how that happened, but, since it is so easy to enter System Setup anyway, the boot priorities were easily switched again.

I still don't feel entirely confident about this UEFI stuff, but on this particular laptop at least, it apparently doesn't present any particularly complex challenges.

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Re: Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#8 Post by sunrat »

luvr wrote:The resulting system will boot Windows 10 by default, without showing a menu from which to select the Operating System that you want to start.
That happened to me and you can fix it to boot from Debian Grub:
https://wiki.debian.org/GrubEFIReinstal ... hard_drive
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Re: Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#9 Post by luvr »

sunrat wrote:That happened to me and you can fix it to boot from Debian Grub:
https://wiki.debian.org/GrubEFIReinstal ... hard_drive
Thanks for the link! It will certainly prove useful in the future.
As for my dad's laptop, I'll leave it as it is now, since he's perfectly happy this way.

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Re: Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#10 Post by user2635 »

I guess I could try luvr's way and do it on D:.

I'll let you all know how it goes!
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Re: Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#11 Post by user2635 »

I give up, it says that it can't even load some firmware and I did some reading around it. It's too complicated, I'll just use my old laptop which does have debian on it.
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Re: [ABANDONED] Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#12 Post by stevepusser »

The default Debian ISO images don't have any non-free firmware because of Debian's commitment to free software. But a minute's search of the web will show you where to download Debian ISO images that do have the firmware.
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Re: [ABANDONED] Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#13 Post by user2635 »

stevepusser wrote:The default Debian ISO images don't have any non-free firmware because of Debian's commitment to free software. But a minute's search of the web will show you where to download Debian ISO images that do have the firmware.
Found it, now I'm back on track.
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Re: [SOLVED] Debian Install to dual boot with Windows 10

#14 Post by user2635 »

Just want to say a quick thank you to all who replied on this post, I've successfully done the install now!
phil the linux newbie
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