Convert to UEFI

General system Newbie
1

I dual boot (Windows Linux) because I like to play VR games.
if I want to upgrade my W10 to W11 I need UEFI/secureboot.
Now Linux and Windows are both using BIOS-boot, and they are both on separate ssd.
Can I just change Windows to GPT and UEFI and leave Linux on BIOS?
Or must I change both?

And If I have to convert both, what s the correct way to do that?
First convert Windows and then Linux?

And last question
If I need to change Linux to UEFI, can I keep my separate home partition?
I now have 3 partitions for my Linux, root,swap and home

2

EndeavourOS won’t boot with Secureboot enabled.

You can use bios/legacy boot for one OS and efi for the other. However, grub won’t be able to handle the dual booting automatically. You can use your bios to switch between them.

Is your Linux disk mbr or gpt? If it has an mbr partition table on it the correct method would be to make a full backup of your data because converting a disk from mbr to gpt has a high risk of data loss.

Of course, the type of partition table and boot method have no impact on this.

3

Thank you for your answers.

As long my games work on Windows 10 I am not planing to convert.
But correct me if I am wrong, at this moment I can not dual-boot between EndeavourOS and Windows 11? (Because Windows 11 requires secure boot)

4

Are you sure? I was under the impression that you could disable secure boot after installing Windows 11.

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5

I have dual boot with Windows 11 and EnOS.
Secure boot is set to (Other OS) in Bios, not sure if all manufactures have this option, using an Asus mobo here.

If I change the secure boot to Windows, grub complains and it doesn’t boot.

6

You should be able to disable secure boot on Windows. If Windows is installed in UEFI mode and EOS is installed in legacy/bios mode then as @dalto said you have to use an F key to switch the boot between Windows and EOS.

I don’t understand this as i have never had this issue on any Windows install with secure boot enabled. I have always been able to disable secure boot without issue. :man_shrugging:

7

In my BIOS, there are these options, Secure boot disabled, Secure boot Windows, Secure boot OtherOS.
When its set to OtherOS, everything just works, Windows 11 and EnOS with grub..
Its the default setting in my Bios.

1 Like
8

I agree with you that it’s the UEFI implementation on your particular hardware that is set this way. You may not have any other option. Mine is not the same on my MSI boards or my Intel boards. They have Secure Boot, CSM and you can turn then on or off. It also allows you to remove the secure keys that get set if you use secure boot which i normally do if turning off secure boot.

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9

I don´t know for sure.
I only knows that if I check the requirements to update my Win10 to Win 11 it claims to need secure boot.
But I think I leave my system as it is for now.
Maybe try to get VR working under Linux :wink:

10

I will put a few points:

  • Win11 requirements are not actually required. You can boot Win11 in UEFI without secure boot, or even in Legacy/BIOS/CSM mode. (there is even a different splash compared to Win10 on Legacy mode) These requirements are stuff enforced by ms for no reason for the user.
  • You may be able to upgrade to Win11 with bypassing the changes. AFAIK this is done by downloading and extracting the Win11 ISO, doing some registry changes or deleting a dll and running setup.exe on ISO.
    You can very easily clean install Win11. Just create install media with Rufus and Rufus will auto-bypass the checks.
  • If you really want to use UEFI then it is simple. You create an EFI system partition, tell linux to install GRUB in UEFI mode and reinstall Windows boot manager in UEFI mode. (I can help with that)
11

Then you enable secure (!) boot, make Win10 happy and upgrade and disable it back.
Just in case, you don’t play Valorant, do you? Because it enforces secure boot if running on Win11 and wll ruin everything.
(sorry dor multiple posts, stupid phone)

12

The only requirement for Win 11 are TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) Secure boot can be disabled.

Edit: It only has to be Secure Boot capable.

13

Thanks for all the answers.

No, I don´t play Valorant.
Most of my games I play in Linux, I use Windows only for VR-Games.
Besides that I need UEFI for Windwos 11, what are the pros/cons for Linux?
Is it wise to switch in the future to UEFI or is it not worth the trouble…?

14

uefi is more flexible, so I would definitely use it for any new installs.

In most cases, I would say there is no reason to switch unless there is some driving reason to do so.

15

So a dual-boot will not be a problem…
Good to know.
I know how to convert Windows to UEFI, if I start with Windows, will that have an effect on my Linux install (I mean the boot-loader)?

16

Unless you need Win11 for whatever reason you can stay on Legacy/BIOS/CSM.

if I start with Windows, will that have an effect on my Linux install (I mean the boot-loader

If you convert Win to UEFI, you may wish to convert linux to UEFI too for convenience. Also Win might prioritize itself on updates when on UEFI.

17

As @mrvictory say’s if your computer is UEFI it would be best to have both installed that way. I’m not sure how you have both installed now?

18

Both are on BIOS/Legacy.

19

Does the computer support Windows 11? Was your plan to upgrade to Windows 11 on it?

20

The computer does support W11.
You can run a pc-check.
Only thing that I need to fix (outcome of this PC-check) was UEFI/secure-boot.
I don´t care much about Windows except that I need it for my VR-games.
Also I saw a youtube video and the youtuber talked about that Fedora might drop support for BIOS
So I thought I should switch to UEFI so when I need to upgrade to W11 (or linux will no longer support BIOS) Iĺl be ready…

The youtube-video: