Dual Boot Preliminary Setup and Post-Setup Guide

Bazzite
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This is the old documentation, please view the new documentation.

Note: Make sure to read the Installation Guide for your device first before proceeding.

Two Methods: Method A or Method B

  • A) Installing Bazzite on a separate drive (Recommended)
  • B) Manual partitioning on the same drive

A) Separate Drive Method

Note: This method is ideal for desktops and HTPCs, and would be inconvenient for handhelds unless planned to keep stationary.

Install Bazzite on a separate internal or external drive.

  1. Install the other operating system on a drive (like Windows)
  2. Install Bazzite on a second drive
  3. Set Bazzite as the default in your boot order (optional)

You can also install Windows to an external drive with Windows-to-Go using Rufus to dual boot if you do not have an internal drive available.

B) Same Drive Method

Note: This must be done before installing Bazzite.

Recommended for handheld PCs or mobile setups.

If you do not have multiple drives or are using a device that will not be stationary, then you will have to manually partition on the same drive.

Note about dual booting with Windows specifically:

Dual booting Bazzite with Windows on the same drive works better with Windows already installed before Bazzite.

Bazzite Partition

Create space for Bazzite with the Disk Management application in Windows.

Win + R to open Windows Run and enter:

diskmgmt.msc

Then, right-click your Windows partition and select “Shrink Volume” from the drop-down menu. Afterwards, select how much storage you want to allocate for Bazzite.

It is strongly recommended for to setup a separate EFI partition. The separate EFI partition will help prevent Windows Updates from affecting your Bazzite installation later down the line.

Manual Partitioning to the Same Drive for Dual Boot Setups

If you need a tutorial video for manual partitioning, watch this tutorial.

  1. Select Installation Destination

  2. Select Advanced Custom(Blivet-GUI) under Storage Configuration.

  3. Create partitions and devices:

    Manual Partitioning Scheme:

mount point: /boot/efi  
format:      EFI system partition
size:        300MB  

mount point: /boot
format:      ext4
size:        1GB

mount point:
format: btrfs
size: [max]

mount point: /
format:      btrfs (subvolume)

mount point: /var
format:      btrfs (subvolume)

mount point: /var/home
format:      btrfs (subvolume)

Note about dual booting other Fedora Atomic Desktop images on the same drive: If you want to dual boot another Fedora libostree image (like Bluefin) installed alongside Bazzite, then you would have to make an additional EFI partition and switch between them through the BIOS boot menu.

Dual Boot Post-Configuration Setup

Note: Handheld/HTPC images hide GRUB by default, but the Esc key on a keyboard will unhide the GRUB menu without unhiding it with a ujust command.

Regenerate GRUB to show Windows Entry

If you do not see your Windows boot in the GRUB menu, then open a host terminal and enter:

ujust regenerate-grub

Bazzite as Primary Boot

If the OS Boot Manager has set Windows Boot Manager to be the first boot priority, then this may result in booting directly into Windows after the install instead of Bazzite. You may have to fix this in your BIOS settings.

Documentation Contributors: ChaiQi, Damian Korcz, and Aarron Lee

2 Likes
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TYVM!

I was looking for just this information albeit for Aurora and Bluefin.

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I have also used this for Aurora.

I ended up reinstalling Windows on a couple machines to then dualboot. If you just make a smaller capacity size at the time of the Windows install, you don’t have to repartition before running the ublue OS installer.

Just a side note, if you only have Windows installed and SecureBoot is enabled, Windows will apply a system update to secure SB more. SecureBoot Advanced Targetting (SBAT) will get updated and will deny older versions of GRUB and Ventoy 1.0.99 and below. Just disable SecureBoot, do the install and you can re-enable SB after the ublue OS is bootable. Run ujust enroll-secure-boot-key if the MOK isn’t enrolled. sudo mokutil -l lists all enrolled MOKs, the ublue akmods is the one ublue uses.

I also had to run a grub config update for it to pick up the Windows entry. ujust regenerate-grub is the command.