I’ve been having enough issues with Windows 8.1 lately I decided to give Linux another try. A lot has changed since I last had a dual-boot machine and I think I would use Linux a lot more these days.
- Create a Windows Recovery drive on a USB flash drive, backup important files.
- Download MX Linux, I use QBitTorrent
Verify the .ISO with checksum:
C:\Users\neonaut\Downloads>certutil -hashfile MX-19.3_x64.iso MD5 MD5 hash of file MX-19.3_x64.iso: 0c 78 c1 60 d4 5c 4b 1e b7 30 e7 53 80 a5 c7 b0 CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.Use Rufus to burn a live MX Linux USB.
Create a new 40GB Windows partition. When I attempted to do this through Windows Disk Management I was told I could only shrink the drive by about 6GB. I attempted to use diskpart but had the same issue. This is a common issue that occurs when there are immovable files at the end of the volume that need to be removed.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600] (c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\Windows\system32>diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600 Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation. On computer: GAMING DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 System Rese NTFS Partition 350 MB Healthy System Volume 2 C NTFS Partition 232 GB Healthy Boot Volume 3 E Games NTFS Partition 931 GB Healthy Volume 4 F Projects NTFS Partition 1863 GB Healthy DISKPART> select volume 2 Volume 2 is the selected volume. DISKPART> shrink desired=40000 Virtual Disk Service error: The specified shrink size is too big and will cause the volume to be smaller than the minimum volume size. DISKPART>
Cannot Shrink Drive in Windows 8.1
If you search this problem you see a bunch of people trying to get you to download their partition tools, like EaseUS and MiniTool. I distinctly remember weirdness with MiniTool Partition Wizard when I used it a while back, if I remember correctly it wanted to add a bunch of extra stuff to my PC and it was difficult to remove. As far as I can tell, most of these tools are borderline malware (it depends on your definition of “malware” but they are pretty clearly opportunistic) so I wanted to see if there was a way I could resolve the issue myself. Things I tried:
Disk Cleanup
Defragment/Optimize Drive
dfrguiDisable hibernation
powercfg –h OFFDisable System Protection: Control Panel > System > System Protection > System Protection: Configure… > Restore Settings: Disable.
Disabling Paging: Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings > Performance: Settings > Advanced Tab > Virtual Memory … Change > Uncheck Automatic paging if it is checked, then set Drive to No paging file > Set to take effect, you will be prompted to reboot. (Be warned you need to set this back.)
Disable Kernel Dump: Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings > Advanced: Startup and Recovery > Change “Write Debugging Information” to “None”
Delete Shadow Copies
vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /all
Most of these didn’t do much for me, Disabling Paging only granted about 2GB, but deleting shadow copies freed up about 90GB which was plenty.
Once I shrunk the drive I found I needed to go ahead and format it.
- Prepare PC to boot from USB. For me, this means disabling Compatibility Support Module (CSM) on ROG BIOS.
Unlike Ubuntu, which provides an option to install alongside Windows, MX Linux just asks you to either choose a disk, existing partitions, or auto-install using the entire disk. I went through the wizard without a hitch, but when I rebooted I found Windows 8 was not loaded in GRUB. Fortunately, I was able to resolve this by updating GRUB sudo update-grub
Thoughts
I like MX Linux a lot and so far the process has been quite painless. MX Boot Options allowed me to easily configure GRUB (it previously gave me a 5 second window to choose which OS to boot, sometimes it takes me longer than 5 seconds to actually turn my monitor on). Some of the programs I use came preinstalled (Thunderbird, Gimp, Firefox) and the rest were pretty easy to figure out once I familiarized myself with tar files and AppImages. I set up Homebrew package manager for Hugo. Once I get everything set up I can create an .ISO snapshot if I need to migrate to another computer, which is a nice bonus.
I had some issues getting my Yubikey to register at first. There’s a helpful article and I found all I needed to do was install libu2f-udev sudo apt install libu2f-udev
One issue I have noticed is sometimes MX Linux can’t find my internet connection. It has happened three times now, usually when booting over from Windows, and restarting resolves the issue. If it continues to happen I will research more.
Another issue I noticed is after installing and using homebrew, I found it was later gone. Hugo, which I had installed using brew, also appeared to be gone. I’ve installed homebrew twice now, only to find it gone at a later date, so I skipped it entirely and just installed Hugo via apt.
Sources:
https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/0524d6/how-to-turn-on-system-protection-in-windows-8/
https://www.tweakhound.com/2013/01/02/how-to-resize-your-windows-8-partition/
https://www.eightforums.com/threads/cant-shrink-c-partition-in-windows-8-1-with-diskmgmt.65604/
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-boot-from-a-usb-device-2626091
https://www.lifewire.com/dual-boot-windows-8-1-linux-mint-2202090
https://www.techsolveprac.com/mx-linux-bootable-flash-drive-windows/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/hands-on-with-mx-linux-a-pleasant-easy-to-install-linux-distribution/