I just got a new laptop and installed Linux on it. I mainly run OpenSUSE.

Getting full encryption on both was a bit of a challenge and I had no idea what I’m doing. Will having the swap partition in the middle break things? Did I really need so many partitions (Mint and OpenSUSE don’t show up in eachother’s boot menu)?

I’m probably not gonna change this layout (because reinstallation seems like a pain) unless the swap partition’s position is a problem. I’m just curious how many mistakes I made.

EDIT: I’m not upgrading my drive capacity. I do not need it.

    • CrackedLinuxISO@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      The pain of keeping it around will outweigh the pain of needing it and not having it.

      Quick boot into windows to help a friend test something on your machine?

      • Twenty-five bajillion updates since you never logged in
      • Windows “helpfully” cleaning up your Linux bootloader
      • Any shared NTFS partition between windows and Linux is almost guaranteed to be left in a “dirty” state when windows shuts down, meaning you have to run ntfsfix before Linux will mount it again

      And suddenly, that’s where you’ll be spending the whole afternoon. I agree with the others who say a VM is probably good enough.

      • Tenderizer78@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        I absolutely do not trust Windows 11 to be a good dual-boot citizen so I’m going to remove it. Gonna replace OpenSUSE with Kubuntu so I’ll do it then.

    • AndrewZabar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      Virtual Machine.

      My laptop came with Windows 11, I nuked it and installed Linux before even booting lol.

      • Tenderizer78@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Could I preserve the activation key the refurbisher provided doing that (I’m gonna google whether I can anyway)?

        • appropriateghost@lemmy.ml
          1·
          3 days ago

          that’s a good question and I’m not sure. Worth it to find out, but personally I don’t dual boot with Windows. I just have my main linux install and use a virtual machine. I never have needed to use a windows virtual machine but it would be interesting if I could activate it with the copy that came with my laptop.

          Unless that copy is registered to my microsoft account? I have no idea that’s how much I try to avoid windows now

    • monovergent 🛠️@lemmy.ml
      1·
      3 days ago

      Are you able to install a second SSD in your laptop? If you really need to keep it around, it’s best practice to have Windows on its own physical drive.

      Or if it’s feasible, make your old laptop your dedicated Windows machine.

      • Tenderizer78@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        My old laptop doesn’t have a TPM or Secureboot (or a working CTRL key). So that idea’s out.

        I’ll try and put it on a VM, not sure whether that’ll preserve my key though.