Dual Boot Win10 and Linux Mint
Introduction
I already have Windows 10 installed on my computer, and want to install Linux to dual boot.
Preparation
I don’t have any experience on installing a new OS. So I have to investigate enough to minimize the probability that emergencies happen.
Distro
I choose Linux Mint 20.03(Edge). This stable edition is distributed on Jan. 17, 2022. Some videos that helps to choose a distro (provided by @Erik):
Linux HATES Me – Daily Driver CHALLENGE Pt.1 - YouTube
Linus BREAKS Linux! - Daily Driver Challenge Reaction - YouTube
Creating a bootable USB Stick
Create the bootable media Create the bootable media
Download the iso image from mirrors. I chose the one the SJTUG site provided. Download the iso file.
Remember to check the file integrity using SHA256. Verify your ISO image As I am now operating on Windows, call cmd and type command:
CertUtil -hashfile <filename.iso> SHA256
where the <filename.iso> is the file name of the iso file.
(How to verify the ISO image on Windows)
screenshot of my SHA256 check
Download Etcher, install and run it.
16GB UDisk, after flashing
Fundamental Knowledges
Partitioning — Linux Mint Installation Guide documentation
A beginner’s guide to disks and disk partitions in Linux – LinuxBSDos.com
Backup data
There’s not a lot of things to say here. In case of emergencies, always remember to backup your important data!
Installation
A full tutorial by LearnLinuxTV:
Choose my USB stick as boot device (rather than “Windows boot manager”).
Actually, this process is really easy. Everything is pre-configured. I just need to choose a few options.
My computer only has one hard drive. I give Linux Mint 50GB space. At first I am afraid that: as it automatically re-partition the drive, the C:(the partition where my Windows system is put) of my Windows may be full, and Windows can’t run. But finally it turns out that it doesn’t touch the system partition, and my D: (partition that saves data, with 175GB free) reduced to 125GB free. Meaning the re-partition process takes its 50GB all frm D: .
After configuring, the system tells me to restart. Then a blue screen “Perform MOK management” jumps out, which i have never seen in other tutorials. Some websites say it has something to do with graphics cards. They say I should choose “Enroll MOK” to load the graphic card’s driver properly, but at this time my keyboard doesn’t work. I can’t gain control of anything on my computer. Then it automatically enters “continue boot”. So my graphic card may be misconfigured. I will try to fix this in the future.
Configuration
A problem - packagekitd
After some time (about 1 hour) I installed Linux, something went wrong. I can’t access anything about packages, including installing applications, updating cache, and so on.
All the things above were stuck. Waiting for them for a long time, I came to know that packagekitd must have run into a loop. This is an error. So I have to stop it:
sudo kill -9 43984
where 43984 is the process id of packagekitd. After doing this, the command line still told me that the file that installation needed was still locked by “aptd”. Then after a while, system jumped out a window, asking me to set a secure boot password. Then after several minutes, when I was randomly trying, I found the process was no longer locked. Then everything stuck was solved. But I still don’t know whether the system heals itself after “packagekitd” was killed, or setting that password worked.
Driver Manager
Some websites recommended this option.
Some websites recommend the NVIDIA official driver, but later it gave me a lot of trouble. Next time when I install a Linux system on a computer with NVIDIA, I will directly choose “Xserver driver”.
Another problem - Can’t shut down
Each time when i press “shut down”, it just restarts the system, doesn’t give me a chance to boot into Windows.
SolutionLinux Mint 无法关机（关机自动重启）问题解决:
sudo apt-get install laptop-mode-tools
Problem solved.
3rd problem - too much buffer/cache memory
The free memory is very little. My laptop has 16GB RAM, but memory are almost all buffered/cached, making the free mem less then 1GB:
I tried a lot, but nothing works. Then the blurred screen(mentioned later) happened, and I changed the driver of graphic cards. And now I suddenly find it is solved, even though I don’t know when and how:
Maybe it was because of the driver, I don’t know. That is the only thing changed that I can think of.
Emergency - Blurred screen
When I get almost everything done, I choose to restart the machine. Then the blue interface comes out again, and I still cannot control the keyboard. Then following this tutorial:
【联想拯救者R7000】安装nvidia驱动Perform MOK management 界面键盘失灵现象（已解决）
Disable the secure root, and choose the switching mode. Next time the keyboard does work, but the meau is a little different:
The second option is no longer “enroll MOK” as every tutorial says. It becomes “reset MOK”.
In normal case
Then I dare not choose reset, I let it “continue boot”, and then the whole screen became blurred. It really scared me that I didn’t take a picture, so here is no pictures.
According to some tutorials, I entered the settings of the Advanced Options for Linux Mint, searching for this line:
ash $vt_handoff
Sadly I did not find this line. Maybe it’s because mine is Linux Mint 20.04, this line has been removed.
The next tutorial helped me:
安装Linux Mint遇到的坑和解决方法花屏无法进入安装引导界面驱动异常无法连接WiFi……
Enter recovery mode, connect to the network(before the screen is blurred, we have connected to network), choose “root” and type:
ubuntu-drivers devices
It will retiurn a lot of drivers. Choose one to install:
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-470
After installing, input
reboot
and the system will restart. Boot into the normal Linux system, there is no more blurred screen, but the display is still not right. The brightness isn’t modifiable. No matter where I put the “brightness percent” to, the actual brightness is fixed at 100%. Too bright, making me nearly blind.
Once I have met this problem when on Windows, it was because I chose the wrong mode of the graphic card. Discrete mode is OK, switchable mode is “fixed at 100% brightness”. But this time I find the graphic card’s settings is correct, in Windows the brightness is still modifiable. So this is just some problem for this driver of Linux. Then I decide to directly change the driver of graphic cards.
After applying on this driver, the brightness is modifiable now.
Here are some other possible ways to solve this problem, but I didn’t try:
ubuntu20.04屏幕亮度无法调节（亮度条调节无效）的简单靠谱解决方案及踩坑历程
Linux / Ubuntu+win10双系统安装记录(2):AMD核显驱动引发的问题
联想拯救者R7000安装Ubuntu20.04后屏幕亮度调节终极解决方案
Configure VPN with valid *.conf file using WireGuard
reference:
How to Set Up a WireGuard Client on Linux with .conf File
Use wg-quick to make your Wireguard tunnels easy and persistent on Linux.
Move the *.conf to /etc/wireguard/, and type(in the following, I use the filename “Depoze_Laptop.conf”):
sudo wg-quick up Depoze_Laptop
It returns this message.
\[#\] ip link add Depoze\_Laptop type wireguard
\[#\] wg setconf Depoze\_Laptop /dev/fd/63
\[#\] ip -4 address add 10.6.0.22/24 dev Depoze\_Laptop
\[#\] ip link set mtu 1420 up dev Depoze\_Laptop
\[#\] resolvconf -a Depoze\_Laptop -m 0 -x
/usr/bin/wg-quick: line 32: resolvconf: command not found
\[#\] ip link delete dev Depoze\_Laptop
We should install resolvconf /usr/bin/wg-quick: line 31: resolvconf: command not found [WireGuard Debian].
sudo apt-get install resolvconf
After installing, execute:
sudo wg-quick up Depoze_Laptop
Then check if success:
sudo wg
it returns an interface, establishing connection successfully.
If want to quit the connection, use
sudo wg-quick down Depoze_laptop