I’m interested in dual booting Ubuntu on an HP laptop that’s also running Windows 11. I’ve read through the It’s FOSS guide on setting that up when the Windows drive has BitLocker, so I know you have to disable that, install the Ubuntu partition, and then re-enable BitLocker.
My question: is it possible to also have the Ubuntu partition encrypted? I’ve heard of a Linux tool called LUKS, but not that familiar with it, and unsure if there are any other tools that could accomplish this. So what I’d be interested in ultimately is having Windows encrypted with BitLocker, and Ubuntu encrypted with LUKS (or whatever), so that the full drive is encrypted. (Technically, I’d be doing the two-drive setup with an SSD and an HD and having Windows and Ubuntu split between them, but I don’t think that matters for this discussion).
[edit: Just noticed that Pop!_OS has encryption by default, so would this accomplish what I’m looking for if I went with that distro?]
Also, one kind of unrelated question - if I forgo dual booting and just wipe the whole Windows drive and install Ubuntu, is there a way to climb back from that using the Windows Recovery partition or something to get everything back the way it was, or would that be wiped during the Ubuntu install? I’m guessing there’s an option to at least recover from USB, but I don’t have much experience with this.
If you wipe the whole drive the Windiws recovery partition would be wiped.
You can make a Windows recovery usb drive or dvd.
It is always preferable to put Windows on a drive first, then install Linux.
The key to what you are attempting it to get your disk partitions organized so you can keep Win and Linux separate.
I am not a windoze user although I read many many times that to change the partition sizes etc
one MUST use the M$ tools on the partitions and not to do any adjustments using Linux tools
If done in with Linux tools runs a very good chance of bricking the Window$ install
and we wouldn’t want that to happen to a Window$ install
and then only then having setup partitions the install of Linux can go on.
Mostly don’t rush, know how much room each Distro needs Inc M$ and be aware that with M$ an M$ update could disrupt the Linux grub bootloader and not difficult.
My biggest recommendations to anyone dual booting Windows and Linux, is
One: Think about which one out of the two you’re going to use more?
Two: Is Dual booting really the only option? As can run Windows or Linux in virtual machine.
Three: If dual booting is the only way to go, should consider different hard drive to put Linux on if possible?
I actually Dual boot Windows 10 on my main Desktop computer, but have Icy Dock setup, which means keeping Windows separate in it’s own space on a separate SSD.
Dual booting Windows on same drive can lead to Windows eating into your Linux side, that is why I recommend different hard drive or SSD to put Linux on.