this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2026
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Dual-boot questions (but not about Windows) (feddit.uk)
submitted 2 days ago by smeg@feddit.uk to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Background: I've been running Linux Mint XFCE for a couple of years now, Windows 10 has been sitting unused on a separate drive but it turns out the one thing I need it for works passably in a VM so it's time to bin it. I've used Fedora Atomic (UBlue) on some laptops and I like it so that seems like a good candidate to replace the Windows install, and Mint can hang around for when I need a "normal" Linux install.

Worry: I tried dual-booting them together on a laptop before and I couldn't get grub to recognise both installs, it only detected the most recently installed one and after an evening of running commands way beyond my knowledge I gave up. I'm hoping that's just because I installed them on the same disk though.

Question: does anyone successfully dual-boot a Fedora Atomic install and a "normal" install? If so then what did you do to set it up and did you encounter any issues? And if you're feeling extra helpful, do you have any pro tips for setting up shared storage between the two distros or backups for either?

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[–] hdsrob@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Does your motherboard have a boot menu option?

I haven't done 2 Linux installs in this way, but for Linux / Windows I don't really "dual boot". I have two separate drives, with two separate installations. I can boot into either one, even if the other drive is missing.

I did each install with all of the the other drives removed from the machine to keep things clean. Then I can just select whichever drive I want to boot into from the motherboards / UEFI boot menu.

The only downside to this is that I do have to select a default boot drive, so if I'm not paying attention, Windows update will reboot into the Linux installation since it's the default drive.

[–] fozid@feddit.uk 3 points 2 days ago

You don't need separate disks for this to work. I have my main distro and a recovery one all in the same disk in different partitions, and no grub. It is called efi stub and it's really easy to set up and use. You can have as many boot options as you want.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 2 points 2 days ago

I can currently hold down a key (del or f12?) when powering on to choose between the Linux disk and the Windows disk, that's my current dual-boot setup. I also installed each one with the other disk disconnected. I remember the Windows update rebooting into Linux unless I interrupted it too.

[–] bizdelnick@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

I’m hoping that’s just because I installed them on the same disk though.

No. It does not matter where they are installed.

Usually Grub successfully finds all distros installed. I guess that it fails because of some Atomic distro differences. If you use Grub from Fedora Atomic, it should also find a "normal" distro.

[–] zostdeemas@friendica.eskimo.com 2 points 2 days ago

@smeg It sounds like the issue might be that you are running them on separate drives, as opposed to partitions. You may have two installations of Grub.

You might have to run update-grub on the older installation in order to re-detect everything because grub will detect the installations on other drives but the second one did not yet exist at the time it was installed on the first drive.

And, it all depends on which drive the computer is actually booting from. If you have two versions of grub, then the one that launches is the one that the computer boots up from. If that one hasn't detected what is on the other drive, then you won't see it.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Windows 10 has been sitting unused on a separate drive...

Maybe you could clarify a few things. You say Windows was on a separate drive, but then you talk about dual booting. Do you mean that Windows was on another partition on a shared drive, or do you have two separate hard drives?

If you have Mint on one hard drive and uBlue on another, seems to me what you should be looking at is adding an entry to Grub. I've only ever done this with Limine, but I would imagine it similarly involves editing some config and running a rebuild command to refresh Grub. There should be plenty of info about how to do this, given how old and ubiquitous Grub is.

If it's two partitions on the same drive, it might be similar, but I don't know.

Tbh though, I'm at a loss as to why you want to dual boot an atomic distro and a typical one. You should be able to do almost everything a normal distro can do by using Distrobox. If you prefer having total control over everything, why bother with an atomic distro? What problem are you trying to solve?

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 2 points 2 days ago

You say Windows was on a separate drive, but then you talk about dual booting. Do you mean that Windows was on another partition on a shared drive, or do you have two separate hard drives?

I assumed dual booting just means having multiple OSs installed, does it specifically mean having them on the same disk? I have separate disks, so hopefully no need for partitioning shenanigans.

What problem are you trying to solve?

Partly redundancy, if I mess up one then I've still got the other; partly for supporting people, I've set up non-techies on both and I want to be able to load up the same system myself when I need to help them.