Dual boot - Windows 11 and SparkyLinux....

[tenfoot]

Please move this to the appropriate section, if necessary.

I have purchased a Dell Inspiron laptop, with Windows 11 Home already installed, and a member of the Dell Support team ensured me that I will be able to dual boot Windows 11 and Linux on it without problem.

Several videos on YouTube speak of people having issues with this, as any updates by Microsoft overwrites the grub menu. However, I understand that this is not a concern for some distributions and the one frequently mentioned is Ubuntu which fully supports UEFI and Secure Boot and something called TPN.

So, my question is, am I likely to have any difficulty dual booting Windows 11 and SparkyLinux, please?

[8bit]

It's no different with W11 and Sparky as it would be any Linux and W11.

If it's not too technical;
Add a second drive (SSD) to your computer. Most computers and some laptops have room and provisions for a second drive.
Install Linux on the second drive.
Assign the boot loader to that drive. It will pick up and dual boot with W11.
Change the BIOS/UEFI to boot from the new drive.
Leaves the original W11 drive intact and can be booted as before by telling the BIOS/UEFI to do so.

HTH
8bit

[tenfoot]

Thank you for your prompt reply.

The suggestion you make is definitely the most secure one. The only difficulty I see is my ability to install the other SSD.  It wouldn't even mean purchasing another as I already have a spare :-)

When the new computer arrives - hopefully by 7th Jan 2022, I'll do some investigation and keep you posted.

[tenfoot]

First, my apologies for the  delay in proceeding with this  matter.

I have a new Dell Inspiron 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11390H laptop with Windows 11 installed.  My intention was (a) to try and learn the basics of Windows operating system, and (b) dual boot with Linux.

However, after two months with Windows I was tearing my hair out and reset it to factory settings.  At the moment, the drive is still in the computer.

I purchased a Kingston KC3000 NvMe M2 SSD and installed it in the spare SSD bay on the laptop.

Then created a UEFI bootable drive and installing Sparky Linux to it using balenaEtche.The target drive on the Dell is the new Kingston KC3000 NVMe M2 500GB.

Inserted the USB drive and Sparky Linux booted O.K. So, I  started the installation. Chose Manual partition and the USB drive was recognised.  It contained two partitions:
/dev/nvme0n1p2  ext4    48.8GiB
/dev/nvme0n1p1  ext4    428.8GiB

The intention was to install Sparky Linux on /dev/nvme0n1p2  ext4    48.8GiB

I chose that option and clicked on Edit and chose
Keep (Ext 4 format)
Mount point /boot/efi uefi bootable drive
FS Label: Sparky Linux
Flags: ticked boot

There was no option "Next" to continue the installation, Only Edit and Delete.

I then selected the same options for /dev/nvme0n1p1  ext4    428.8GiB with the same result.

Can some kind person, please tell me what I have done wrong?