264: Interview with Aleix Pol i Gonzàlez of KDE & Jill's Robot Wars Story

MichaelTunnell · February 8, 2022, 1:07am

Definitive_Linux · March 2, 2022, 9:22am

In 2:16 of the Community Feedback: More choices in distro installers

Systemd-boot is a great simplistic way to boot your OS. Over the years, I have had issues with Grub/Grub2, so switching to a boot loader as simple as systemd-boot has made things very easy for me. Here is a quick guide on how to dual boot with systemd-boot.

or this guide on github

github.com

spxak1/weywot/blob/main/Pop_OS_Dual_Boot.md

# Dual Boot Pop!_OS with Windows using systemd-boot
### The ultimate guide for any combination

**EXTREMEY SHORT TL:DR**: If you know what you're doing - The absolute quickest:

1. ```sudo apt install os-prober```
2. ```sudo os-prober```. The output is ```/dev/sdb1@/efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi:Windows Boot Manager:Windows:efi```
3. ```sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt``` (you can find your drive in the first part of the os-prober's output)
4. ```sudo cp -ax /mnt/EFI/Microsoft /boot/efi/EFI``` (you can find the folder after the word ```efi``` in os-prober's output. It's always ```Microsoft``` but you need capital ```EFI``` when copying.
5. Reboot. Spam your spacebar for the menu. Select with arrows, add timeout with "t" or reduce with "T" (+/- also work), select default with "d". Hold "l" to boot linux after POST or "w" to boot Windows after POST without visiting the menu.


**TL:DR**: Dual boot from the same drive with Windows and Pop!_OS already installed: See **4. TL:DR** at the end of this document.

## Abstract
To dual boot Windows and Pop!_OS with a menu, both operating systems' EFI files need to be in the same FAT32 partition. This guide elaborates on how to either install OS's using the same EFI partition or **copy Windows's EFI ```Microsoft``` folder into Pop!_OS's ```/boot/efi/EFI```**. 

## 1. Introduction
Pop!_OS uses **systemd-boot** as its boot manager. Most new users don't know how **systemd-boot** works and the fact that it is mostly transparent to the user (as a boot-manager should be), makes it hard for some users to understand. As such a common advice when new users want to dual boot with Windows is to install **grub**. Grub is better known as it is commonly used by other distributions, namely **Ubuntu** and has a visible menu at boot, which new users grow to expect. As such it is common *advice* between new users to install **grub** in order to dual boot Pop!_OS with Windows. This, is **totally unecessary** as not only it removes the ease and simplicity of **systemd-boot** and replaces it with the rather complex configuration of **grub**, but also **grub** has the tendency to break with **Windows updates**, while **systemd-boot** does not.

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ak2020 · March 6, 2022, 8:06am

Thanks, everyone. I’m still catching-up but wow - what another great episode! @jill_linuxgirl 's awesomeness is just endless - please write us an autobiography, Jill, so we can buy ourselves a signed copy - I’m serious! And @MichaelTunnell 's rapping - yet another hidden talent - also awesome! Thanks for the recommendation, @dasgeek - I was fascinated more by the debates on artificial consciousness when I was studying computing back in the early nineties, so ideas such as presented in Blade Runner, though of course the battle-droid side of the Terminator films was also interesting. I guess because I pretty-much stopped watching TV regularly in the late 80s, I missed Robot Wars? Maybe worth going back to see on YouTube.

Always a pleasure to hear from developers, thanks Aleix. Over the years I’ve kept an eye on open source projects where I feel I might fit in. Previously I was looking at Ubuntu Touch, because we have such a huge need for an open mobile platform. However KDE is looking increasingly attractive for many reasons I mentioned, after the last time we had a KDE guest.

In the early 90s, C was the language to know, then C++ became more popular with its object oriented additions, and was my favourite language for some years. I do find Qt’s non-custom additions a little jarring, but I guess they are proven to be effective in practice and worth learning. Some years later I moved to Java, mainly due to its portable(!) GUI and extensive standard class libraries. Never really got into Python myself, though I gather it became more popular after Google revealed they relied on it for their search engine, if memory serves me correctly? Currently I am learning Ruby, for the first time, and very impressed with that too!