5 things you should take care of before choosing a Linux Distribution for DUAL BOOT and Vertulization
March 12, 2021
5 things you should take care of before choosing a Linux distribution.
Today we are going to talk about
The list of topics I've written below will educate you about the best practices about Linux and the culture you must know. Ubuntu or Kali Linux is easy to install however it can be critical if you don't know the basics and requirements. Before Installing a new Linux Distribution 5 things you should take care of can be the decision-maker or road map for your Hardware to interact with the newly installed software. The measure mistake we usually do is, we never research hardware and its capacity which can cause heavy damage to your operating system and a huge headache. Now let's talk about the top 5 things quickly.
5 things you should take care of before choosing a Linux Distribution
The list of topics I've written below will educate you about the best practices about Linux and the culture you must know. Ubuntu or Kali Linux is easy to install however it can be critical if you don't know the basics and requirements. Before Installing a new Linux Distribution 5 things you should take care of can be the decision-maker or road map for your Hardware to interact with the newly installed software. The measure mistake we usually do is, we never research hardware and its capacity which can cause heavy damage to your operating system and a huge headache. Now let's talk about the top 5 things quickly.
1 What kind of user you are?
2 Hardware and Linux Desktop Environments?
3 Your Bios Type?
4 Linux as dual-boot or base OS?
5 Best way to Install Linux?
Bonus: Advantage and disadvantage of Linux?
2 Hardware and Linux Desktop Environments?
3 Your Bios Type?
4 Linux as dual-boot or base OS?
5 Best way to Install Linux?
Bonus: Advantage and disadvantage of Linux?
1 What kind of user you are?
The process in which the user performs multiple tasks to achieve his goal (final work) is known as user behavior. For example, you can be a user who loves coding, loves playing online games, you can be a social media marketer, android developer, or something else.
For each occupation, the user behaves and type of requirements are going to change, which tells us about the kind of user you are. For coding and development work Linux can be the best option. It can be useful for social media and video content marketers as well. Linux helps you to process your work quickly if you know some sort of automation in bash, PHP, and python language. If you are a normal user like me then you should you are good to go with your default hardware configurations.
For developers and content makers, there should be good support of ram and graphic card else Linux can be problematic too. After 6 years of experience in Linux, I've observed because of less knowledge about the hardware we are having in our systems can gradually slow down the Linux Distribution and you have to reinstall the OS once again.
KED Plasma (HD graphics and cool transitions) requires more resources and LXDE least (No effect and transitions by default), for average users XFCE Desktop Environment (Effects and cool HD display projections) will be the best choice.
2 Hardware and Linux Desktop Environments
First, you have to understand there is a massive number of Desktop Environments we can use to Powerup our Linux os for each Desktop Environment the hardware requirement matters. The desktop environment can be described as the choice of quality of them and their customization according to hardware capacity. It gives final look to your Desktop. If you love cool funky HD graphic-based Desktop Environment you can go with KDE-Plasma. According to Google, you require
A single-core processor
Ram- 1 GB (DDR2 667)
Graphic card- Integrated graphics (GMA 3150)
The 2nd option can be for those users who don't have much money to invest in a Desktop and hardware they just want to make an old laptop alive. You can use LXDE Desktop Environment. LXDE is the lite DE available as of now. It will consume very little memory to run the fully functional Linux OS and there is no requirement for an External Graphics card.
It can boot up almost all the old hardware. So if you've given up on your old PC just because Windows 10 don't work. It's time to back it up. Install Ubuntu With LXDE Desktop Environment and you are good to go. Overall, if you love graphics with the high performance you can use KDE-Plasma or you don't have enough resources have bought an old laptop you can use LXDE or XFCE (Kali Linux has default) Desktop Environment.
3 Your Bios Type
Legacy BIOS and UEFI BIOSBefore installing a Linux OS onto your desktop you should have little information about your Hardware type also known as BIOS type. There are two types of BIOS; Legacy BIOS and UEFI BIOS. To identify the type of BIOS you are having in your base os you need to follow the steps: Windows user: Press Win+R and type msinfo32 you will see the bios version with all the other details.
Linux users: You can use a command
If you are on Windows 10 there is another way to do the same.
Right-click on My Files -Manage-Filesystems- Right-click on partition name click on properties and then choose volume> if you see partition type GPT it means you have UEFI else MBR means you are running on legacy bios.
There is another method for Linux. Run the command it will show about UEFI is supported or not.
$ sudo dmidecode |grep -A 2 -2 EFI
Let us explain the difference between Legacy and UEFI bios:
Legacy is the outdated version of BIOS and UEFI is the latest.Still, some devices are running on Legacy Bios with minimal resources and less amount of error during installation, but not secure and there are some limitations.
UEFI is more secure than Legacy because Legacy was written in one of the oldest languages which is known as an assembly on the other hand UEFI has been written in C language which has fewer characters and better security in internal coding.
A legacy can have 4 primary partitions (MBR), UEFI can have 128 partitions(GPT).
Legacy bios can read up to 2TB partition size, similarly, UEFI can read up to 9ZB.
Legacy bios do not allow the user to have multiple boot loaders, it will wipe the first boot loader as soon as you install 2nd or dual boot on your system.
UEFI can have multiple boot loaders in a separate EFI system partition created by default.
Most important it loads the windows very quickly, and if you have virtualization enabled on your bios and feature section you will get amazing speed.
Still, we can't leave a legacy because it is for beginners doesn't require an EFI partition to run the system, easy to install and it comes pre-loaded in some older computers which support UEFI as well but not enabled by default.
If your device supports Legacy BIOS you can convert it to UEFI very easily. Keep a backup of your entire system before following these steps. How to convert MBR partition to GPT so that we can use UEFI on Legacy bios enabled systems. To do that you can watch the video embedded below or read. Restart your system and hold left shift
Step 1 Under choose and option select Troubleshoot
Step 2 Select Advance Options
Step 3 Select Command prompt
Step 4 Fire command in CMD one after one
Step 2 Select Advance Options
Step 3 Select Command prompt
Step 4 Fire command in CMD one after one
mbr2gpt /validate
mbr2gpt /convert
Step 5 Close the command prompt and click on turn off your PC. Now when you restart your Desktop Windows 10 you will see certain changes.
1 When you check the system information you will find BIOS type as UEFI
2 You can check your Harddisk partition type GPT
3 Extra petition added to the partition table Known as EFI partition (keeps multiple bootloaders in the single partition to load the OS faster).
2 You can check your Harddisk partition type GPT
3 Extra petition added to the partition table Known as EFI partition (keeps multiple bootloaders in the single partition to load the OS faster).
To use UEFI secure and fast boot on your base OS, you need to install OS using UEFI Bootable disk. To create a bootable UEFI flash disk or Pendrive always use Rufus and Ventory for Legacy BIOS.
Once you successfully install your base os using UEFI bootable disk you can install your secondary os which will be installed automatically support the UEFI framework. It is faster than Legacy for normal users. If you are still more concerned about the minimum number of errors, and stability; I'll suggest you go with Legacy BIOS. For security concerns that can cause more errors and you have to fix them one by one.
The main reason behind all the errors during installation is unnecessary actions without knowing your BIOS type and user behavior. If you try to install OS using UEFI Bootable disk to enable the UEFI framework you must have a primary os that supports the UEFI BIOS.
To install UBUNTU using UEFI BIOS follow these steps:
Step 1 download the latest Windows 10 ISO and backup your all files to an external hard disk or out of C drive (system partition).
Step 2 Create a bootable disk using Rufus (GPT partition)
Step 3 Boot your system with a UEFI bootable disk or USB you created with the help of Rufus.
Step 4 Create a backup and wipe (recommended) your entire system or go above and follow the procedure to convert the MBR partition to GPT.
Step 5 After that login to your Windows os and create another UEFI bootable disk with Linux Os. I'll suggest you go with Ubuntu.
Step 6 Create some free unallocated space minimum 50GB maximum according to user type and behavior. The video tutorial is embedded below.
Step 7 Boot your OS with the UEFI bootable disk.
Step 2 Create a bootable disk using Rufus (GPT partition)
Step 3 Boot your system with a UEFI bootable disk or USB you created with the help of Rufus.
Step 4 Create a backup and wipe (recommended) your entire system or go above and follow the procedure to convert the MBR partition to GPT.
Step 5 After that login to your Windows os and create another UEFI bootable disk with Linux Os. I'll suggest you go with Ubuntu.
Step 6 Create some free unallocated space minimum 50GB maximum according to user type and behavior. The video tutorial is embedded below.
Step 7 Boot your OS with the UEFI bootable disk.
4 Linux as dual-boot or base OS?
I'd always suggest you go with dual boot. If you use VMware or Virtual box on windows 10 (consumes more memory) you will get the quite low performance and speed. On dual boot Ubuntu (consumes less memory) you can do all the virtualization efficiently. Enabling the Virtualization on your base system will allow you to use all the virtualization-based software on secondary OS too. To enable Virtualization on your system follow the Click here to watch full video on full screen.
To enable hyper-v functionality, follow the steps:
Step 1 Search for control panel
Step 2 Click on the search box and type programs and features, click on that.
Step 3 Click on Turn Windows features on or off. Checkmark same as shown below.
Step 2 Click on the search box and type programs and features, click on that.
Step 3 Click on Turn Windows features on or off. Checkmark same as shown below.
After doing all the things you can enjoy Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Windows 10 Parrot os, and more on a virtual box. It will depend on the number of CPU cores and the amount of memory (RAM) you have. You may not be able to run more than 1 virtual machine at the same time if you have less amount of memory or CPU cores. Your base system will use the at list 1 core and the rest can be allocated to the multiple virtual machines. As the base, OS Windows 10 will limit you and virtual box or VMware speed would reduce. If you use Virtualbox on Ubuntu or other Linux Based OS which is your second os, will give you better speed with more machine running capability at the same time. So yes Dual boot with Ubuntu would be the best option.
5 Best way to Install Linux:
Again by reading above you can simply say that it depends on the type of built-in BIOS and hardware capabilities of your system. The best way would be to Install fresh Windows 10 with UEFI then dual-boot it with Ubuntu. Leave windows 10 as a backup OS. If in case you find any kind of issues with your Linux OS you can simply remove that partition from Windows 10 and Install a new one. It would never impact your base os until you delete your C drive or system files.
Bonus: Advantage and disadvantage of Linux
1 Linux can read everything in windows 10 without switching to windows 10. You can copy-paste all the files present on windows 10 directly from Ubuntu secondary OS. In Windows 10 you could delete the partition on which Ubuntu is installed but you could not read the data inside it. To read the Data present in the EXT4 (file type) partition you need to install a third-party tool on windows 10 known as EXT4 reader.
2 Linux gives better speed compared to windows 10. It depends on the amount you have invested in your Hardware. Virtualization support is awesome. Hyper-V can be used to have virtualization under Virtualbox. Means another machine inside a virtual machine that is running on base OS ubuntu.
3 Linux would never crash itself. It will become slow but there is no chance of system crash until you do something you have no idea about.
4 Linux is more secure than Windows 10. It is also easy to exploit if some outdated services are there and someone knows how to exploit that. So batter scan your entire network from outside the network and update all the found outdated programs.
5 After installing windows on a C drive without wiping it, it may cause the error while you try to access your files present in other drives. You will get no owner permission error. To fix that you can run the command in PowerShell one by one.
2 Linux gives better speed compared to windows 10. It depends on the amount you have invested in your Hardware. Virtualization support is awesome. Hyper-V can be used to have virtualization under Virtualbox. Means another machine inside a virtual machine that is running on base OS ubuntu.
3 Linux would never crash itself. It will become slow but there is no chance of system crash until you do something you have no idea about.
4 Linux is more secure than Windows 10. It is also easy to exploit if some outdated services are there and someone knows how to exploit that. So batter scan your entire network from outside the network and update all the found outdated programs.
5 After installing windows on a C drive without wiping it, it may cause the error while you try to access your files present in other drives. You will get no owner permission error. To fix that you can run the command in PowerShell one by one.