[Installation] Install Kubuntu while keeping Windows essential files only

[KIMWWW]

I've been using Linux Mint KDE for a little while and I loved it but since they've stopped the KDE version I've decided to use Kubuntu.

I'm not (yet) a Linux expert and I need some advice to install Kubuntu (on my brand new Dell laptop) while keeping Windows 10 essential files ONLY for reinstallation later on. Or eventually just to keep the Dell Support Assist OS recovery/repair tool which will help me to reinstall Windows 10...
There are many topics about installing ubuntu alongside Windows but it's not what I want. I don't necessary want to have Windows for dual booting but want to keep the minimum of Windows files for reinstallation when I'll sell my laptop.

[KIMWWW]

Because I am new here unfortunately I can't upload picture to show you...

[oshunluvr]

I don't believe what you are asking for actually exists. "...essential files ONLY for reinstallation..." isn't really a thing. Either you re-install windows completely or you don't.

Bottom line is either you keep Windows or you don't, period. If you need to possibly have Windows for warranty service or resale or whatever other reason, just leave it on there. Boot into Windows, remove as much software as you can, shrink its partition to a comfortably small size (leave some room for later updates, a couple GB).

In theory, you could use something like Clonezilla and duplicate the drive partitions for later recovery, but to what advantage? You'd have to store the images somewhere so you're not saving space, just relocating it.

It might be possible to discover what exactly you need to have and keep nothing else, but to what end? Spending days and days of your life to save a few 100 MB?

Do yourself a favor and don't over-think this until it becomes impossible. Just minimize Windows, install some Linux distro(s) along side and move on.

[Fred47]

Sounds like you don't want to run W10 at all? You can still download W10 and put it on DVD or Flash drive. Then wipe Windows off and if you want to put W10 back on if you need it. It's pretty easy to install, just follow the prompts. Also my experience with reinstalling W10, is that it wipes you Linux entry from the boot process and the only way to get it back is to reinstall.

[claydoh]

is that it wipes you Linux entry from the boot process

Nope, at least in my experience Windows 10 just sets itself as the first boot OS. This can be reset in the bios.
Linux installs do the same thing - setting itself as the first boot OS. But it also provides a handy menu to pass things off to other OSs

and the only way to get it back is to reinstall.

That is pure bollocks.

[oshunluvr]

Dual booting with Windows 10 using UEFI is trivial and solid. Even I, who abhors UEFI and Windows like the plague have no trouble booting *buntus with Win10.

[Fred47]

Nope, at least in my experience Windows 10 just sets itself as the first boot OS. This can be reset in the bios.
Linux installs do the same thing - setting itself as the first boot OS. But it also provides a handy menu to pass things off to other OSs
That is pure bollocks.

I'm not the only one https://duckduckgo.com/?t=canonical&...om+boot&ia=web The problem is specific to HP as it has it's own built in boot menu. It happened to me twice.

[claydoh]

I'm not the only one https://duckduckgo.com/?t=canonical&...om+boot&ia=web The problem is specific to HP as it has it's own built in boot menu. It happened to me twice.

Many of those search results in your link are supporting what I said [emoji14]



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[Fred47]

Many of those search results in your link are supporting what I said

Yes because DDG and people misunderstand the problem, or I'm not explaining it well, dual booting works fine. What I'm saying is that Windows does a big upgrade it removed the linux app from the boot menu, the HP boot menu in the bios, and there is no way to reinstate without a re-install.

[claydoh]

If a windows installer or a recovery disk does completely erase the Efi partition, it most definitely does not require a reinstall to fix. Grub can be recovered/repaired/reinstalled from a live USB stick. There are howtos and utilities to do this all over the place.


This does assume that the actual Linux install is still present.

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[Fred47]

If a windows installer or a recovery disk does completely erase the Efi partition, it most definitely does not require a reinstall to fix. Grub can be recovered/repaired/reinstalled from a live USB stick. There are howtos and utilities to do this all over the place. This does assume that the actual Linux install is still present.

Again it's not Grub it's HP Bios boot menu.

[jlittle]

Again it's not Grub it's HP Bios boot menu.

I would try booting from the installer media, choose Try, and install efibootmgr (into the installer's temporary OS session), and use it to fix the "HP BIOS boot menu". It's a command line utility and a bit clunky, but after one has worked it out once, the next times can be quick. It can be a good idea to use it before you need to and make a note of what the grub entry looks like.

In principle, running grub-install from the live session would work, but you'd have to use a chroot, or the right command options.

[KIMWWW]

Sorry for the late answer... Because I haven't received any notification, I thought there wasn't any reply to my query.

Perhaps the best for me is to download the official W10 recovery image from Dell and keep it for a later re-installation.

My laptop is still under warranty. Suppose I have an issue with it and I have to send it to Dell, do you think they might discover I had wiped the original Windows installation and because of that say the warranty has been voided?

Otherwise, from time to time I need to use Windows and so far I did it through VirtualBox without any problems. I'd like to know if absolutely everything can be done on a virtual Windows OS similarly as a "real" Windows OS?

[GreyGeek]

...
I'd like to know if absolutely everything can be done on a virtual Windows OS similarly as a "real" Windows OS?

Probably not.

Some of it depends on how many cores and how much RAM you contribute to the virtual machine.
Those Win10 applications that require high speed, high res graphics (games, CAD, etc) are problematic.
I have qemu/KVM installed and it comes closest to giving me a fast display when I install other distros as a VM, like I did yesterday for deepin20201002, which I deleted after a couple hours of playing with it.
I haven't run Windows as a VM since XP, so that experience doesn't really count for much these days.

However, for the Windows apps I do run I find that WINE works as well. I am running SpaceEngine-0.98 under WINE, a graphical PCL tool called IQAN under WINE and my wife's EKG app using WINE. But, I've had several Windows apps fail to install and run using WINE. To circumvent that problem each app is put into its own "wine bottle" in which windows DLL's and other files can be added without affecting the wine bottles of other Windows apps.

Mint is a great distro but they have limited resources and can't support too many DE's. Kubuntu's default DE is KDE, which I've been using as my DE since September of 1998. You can add other DE's from the repository and they will run fine, but the KDE dev crew, as far as I know, didn't work on them.

Create and/or DL your recovery disks, save your Windows GUID key and then install Kubuntu and give it your entire drive. Have you heard about BTRFS?

[KIMWWW]

Thank you GreyGeek for your reply.
I also use Wine and like it, although sometimes is not possible to run some specific software. Perhaps one day I'll have to use your technique to put each app in it's own Wine environment...

Mint is a great distro but they have limited resources and can't support too many DE's. Kubuntu's default DE is KDE, which I've been using as my DE since September of 1998.

I know, I loved Mint KDE... it's why I want to switch to Kubuntu now.
1998... Wow! I wasn't even using a computer at that time. It's great to have people like you here with so much experience to share.

Create and/or DL your recovery disks, save your Windows GUID key and then install Kubuntu and give it your entire drive. Have you heard about BTRFS?

That's interesting! So I suppose the Windows GUID key is what Dell would check if I had to return my laptop to them? If the GUID key is different than the original one, it would void the warranty?
If I'm correct, I really have to find out how to extract that GUID key from my laptop. Once it's done, if in the future I want to reinstall W10 can I just use the Dell recovery disk and then add into it the original GUID key?

I hadn't heard about BTRFS till today. Thank you.
It seems to be such a great tool. I don't know how I'll be able to use it for installing Kubuntu but I'll do some research.