If I buy a new or refurbished PC with TPM 2.0, will I be able to dual boot Ubuntu?

[ajohnl]

I have done the different desktop and select by user name in the past. I got really annoyed. It resulted in a mix of applications from different desktops on each one. Annoyed because of how the desktop icon files were arranged by the distro i used. All in one directory and not separated according to desktop, Maybe things have changed. I did look at xdg aspects to correct it but too much work. If apps were off the ~xdg home directory it could have worked or if they were split according to desktop type. There were comments around concerning the myth that a linux install can offer different desktops.

Straight Ubuntu and Studio though. Studio has shifted to KDE so totally different on the desktop area. I'm not sure it's possible to add what it offers to Ubuntu any more. Must admit for my use I am not keen on Ubuntu's start button or as I sometimes wear varifocals having things right at the top of the screen. Needs a rubber neck. I have added things to change that but.............

UEFI though. I have read a reasonable overview about but comments I see add to confusion. Those efi entries are pointers to boot loaders. It would seem that all an install needs to do is extend the list, change the boot order and collect the pointers to other OS's boot loaders which could be located anywhere. The Dell includes 2 net ones. IPV4 and 6 and network. Suppose for support. Also a change boot setting - that may be Dell's F12 key to set a none standard boot such as UEFI usb or even legacy. Some of these can not be changed from the bios only via a utility.

The opensuse output I posted fitted in with my view of how it should work by offering an option during it's boot to jump to the win boot manager. Sadly they seem to be falling behind on maintaining popular apps in their long term releases. Also a video by an Arch user who tries various distro's. All appear in his menu and items can be removed with efibootmgr.

I think I will try renaming the Ubuntu entry to Studio if I can after making sure it is booting UEFI mode as it did install legacy when win was on the machine as win was installed that way. This can even happen when 10 is on a machine. Then reinstall Ubuntu over it's current partition to see if it gets it right. I'll just assume it will automatically use the existing efi. On studio I could only do that with an auto install pointing at a particular partition. Manual partitioning insisted I needed to create one even though there was one there. The auto way didn't appear to create a new efi and doesn't seem to have overwritten the lot as it still contains bios entries.

[ian-weisser]

Sadly they seem to be falling behind on maintaining popular apps in their long term releases.

That's not a bug. That's been the main feature of LTS since 2006. That's what makes LTS possible.

[oldfred]

You just have to be consistent.
If UEFI hardware better to always use UEFI, not BIOS/Legacy/CSM.
CSM - UEFI Compatibility Support Module (CSM), which emulates a BIOS mode, only available with secure boot off.

And if using UEFI always use gpt partitioning. From
man fdisk

GPT(GUIDPartitionTable)
GPT is modern standard for the layout of the partition table. GPT uses 64-bit logical block addresses,
checksums, UUIDs and names for partitions and an unlimited number of partitions (although the number of
partitions is usually restricted to 128 in many partitioning tools).

Note that the first sector is still reserved for a protectiveMBR in the GPT specification. It prevents MBR-only
partitioning tools from mis-recognizing and overwriting GPT disks.

GPT is always a better choice than MBR, especially on modern hardware with a UEFI boot loader.

GPT Advantages (older 2010 but still valid) see post#2 by srs5694:
[gpt Advantages](http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1457901) &
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Par...en_GPT_and_MBR

[MAFoElffen]

+1 on GPT and using UEFI.

[ajohnl]

That post was a bit confused in terms of what went wrong. My fault. The output shown by efibootmgr is in none volatile memory. The install should have added an entry to that and collected any other OS's. The machine shows one ubuntu entry. That points to a 32bit FAT partition on a particular disk+sector that contains grub and what ever. Ubuntu is the highest priority in the list so if Studio is using UEFI that is how it's booting. As there is only one ubuntu entry it can't have added another entry, It could still boot legacy and add efi boot manager entries to it's menu. I haven't checked that it is using UEFI yet, I need to follow instructions in another post I made,

Collecting OS's isn't nice as for instance windows is still shown but no longer exists on the machine. It's 32bit fat partition has gone. It could have been anywhere. Grub could pick up all nv stored boot entries and jump to them even USB etc if that was there.

The OP's post. This is one of the few that mentions using win's boot manager for other OS's including Linux. Sadly it doesn't use Linux as an example, just mentions it. Grub would be in it's efi partition and not offer boot options Just load etc. This gets mentioned but I have yet to see an example of how it could be done. Things can be reordered within win's boot manager. There are also other boot managers around. Not something I have looked into.

[tea for one]

If I buy a new or refurbished PC with TPM 2.0, will I be able to dual boot Ubuntu on it?

Yes, I would certainly hope so, because you should be able to disable TPM in the UEFI settings.

How about re-phrasing the the question:-
If I were to buy a PC with Ubuntu pre-installed, can I dual boot with Windows 11?

[AbleTassie]

Hello,

Thanks to everybody for their posts. I think you all have more or less persuaded me to switch back to Lubuntu and just to run the Windows 10 I already have in a Virtual Machine. I also did some reading comparing the security of Linux vs Windows 10, as well as the speed of Linux vs Windows 10 and that was persuasive too.

I used to use Lubuntu all the time and in fact ran Windows XP as a Virtual Machine in Lubuntu. But I had some problems connecting the Virtual Machine to the internet and also to the CD Disc reader. As I recall I eventually got the Virtual Machine with Windows XP to connect (at least to some extent) to the internet and the CD Disc reader. But, I also ended up creating a "Shared Folder" that allowed me to transfer files back and forth between the regular real Lubuntu Machine and the VM with Windows XP. And that worked pretty well.

But, if it is appropriate to ask the questions here on this Forum, I have a couple of questions about using a VM with Windows 10 with my present PC after I install the latest Lubuntu LTS.

My present machine is an ACER E5-575-33BM with Windows 10 Home Edition; Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7100U CPU @ 2.40GHz 2.40 GHz, RAM 4.00 GB (3.87 GB usable), System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor.
I believe the Windows 10 Operating System Product Key that came with my present machine has code that is somehow burned into the UEFI or motherboard so that the Windows 10 operating system can be reinstalled via an internet connection. I think this link (https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html) contains instructions on how to do this.

QUESTIONS: Do you think I will have trouble Virtualizing the Windows 10 that I presently have on my PC after I install the latest Lubuntu LTS given that the Windows 10 Product Key is apparently on the UEFI or motherboard?

Do you think I will have trouble connecting the VM with Windows 10 on it to the internet or my CD/DVD reader?

If I do have such a problem with connecting the VM with Windows 10 to the internet and/or my CD/DVD reader, would there be some limited work around, like a "shared folder" that would allow me to transfer files back and forth between the real machine with Lubuntu and the VM with Windows 10?

Thanks again,

A.

[MAFoElffen]

News on your Microsoft Pluton TPU concerns...
RE: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Pluton...rged-Linux-6.3

On retrieving your motherboard injected digital product key, from Windows Powershell, started with Admin rights, do:

(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService'). OA3xOriginalProductKey

You can use that key to re-activate your Windows...

Shared storage folders, yes. Many ways, differing based on the VM Host system you are using. Be specific and someone who knows about that Virtual Host system can answer you about the how-to's. I mostly use KVM, which varies depending on the viewer you are using. Passing through the CD/DVD drive is possible, but how to do that also varies on what you are using.

Networking, yes. Same conditions as above. Most use NAT and dhcp as a default.

[ajohnl]

That's not a bug. That's been the main feature of LTS since 2006. That's what makes LTS possible.

I was referring to a different distro not Ubuntu flavours. I haven't seen the same problem on Ubuntu. I expect LTS packages to lag behind the latest releases. What I don't expect is to find only experimental packages to be available or via another install method to offer a selection with no mention of which one is best to use. So I installed an experimental version of gimp and had dependency problems within 2 days on updates.

Another change as well. I had a problem with wine asked winehq what to do. Go away and install the latest version pointing out that I was lucky as the repo of the distro I was using always contained the latest version that would be compatible with my release.. This wasn't maintained by the parent distro company but by some individual. A couple of photo apps I use were maintained in much the same way so were always updated and never caused problems. There is some risk when these are used so some removal may be needed at times but that never happened with the ones i regularly used.

Ubuntu. The desktop app search has failed to provide some packages I need. Use of the official LTS repo to install has thrown up dependency problems - of the can't install type. Apt search and apt install has so far installed. Risky? have to wait and see.

Another example. I'm not sure I want a snap version of Firefox. Youtube of all places informs me that 2 installable versions are maintained by some one that is seen as reliable. One version is kept fairly up to date. The other lags for business and school use. What I have done is installed Chromium the OS version of Chrome. Initial feeling what the hell have they done to it - toolbar gone. I sometimes print to pdf. Maybe I need to poke around in it's settings more. Anyway these things are available under Ubuntu. Finding them may be a bit more tricky than my previous disto but the facility I used has gone.

[TheFu]

My present machine is an ACER E5-575-33BM with Windows 10 Home Edition; Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7100U CPU @ 2.40GHz 2.40 GHz, RAM 4.00 GB (3.87 GB usable), System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor.
I believe the Windows 10 Operating System Product Key that came with my present machine has code that is somehow burned into the UEFI or motherboard so that the Windows 10 operating system can be reinstalled via an internet connection. I think this link (https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html) contains instructions on how to do this.

So, you will want more RAM. 4GB isn't sufficient to run a VM, well, not really. RAM is cheap. 16GB should be about $40.

I know nothing about Win10 or licenses of it. Sorry.

Do you think I will have trouble connecting the VM with Windows 10 on it to the internet or my CD/DVD reader?

In virtualbox, choose either NAT or bridged for the networking type and it sorta "just works". Also, use virtio as the type of NIC, if virtualbox allow it. Otherwise, choose one of the Intel PRO/1000 virtual-NICs as the presented hardware to the VM.

If it were me, I'd completely forget about accessing the CD/DVD drive from inside any VM. It just isn't worth the hassle and terrible performance.

If I do have such a problem with connecting the VM with Windows 10 to the internet and/or my CD/DVD reader, would there be some limited work around, like a "shared folder" that would allow me to transfer files back and forth between the real machine with Lubuntu and the VM with Windows 10?

Lubuntu used to be based on GTK+/Gnome2. In 2020, they switched to be based on Qt which what KDE is based on, so there will be many differences and the default applications will all be Qt-based, not Gnome-based. With only 4GB of RAM, this will matter a bunch. If you put in 8-16GB of RAM, then it becomes less important and you can run almost anything you like. 4GB of RAM is the bare minimum for any computer these days, much more so if you use virtualization.