Dual Boot Workstation - Windows 11 & Ubuntu 22.04

Hi Ron @zander,

  Looks like we are thinking along the same lines ... I have just been trying to point out what I see as the benefits and downsides of using Bitlocker ... if only because it seems to have higher profile than its predecessors as the 'norm' to enable, and I haven't seen anyone else question whether it is a good option for everyone. 

As a large proportion of those on the forum are now retired, and this thread is about a dual boot workstation which is less likely to travel or be stolen, than a laptop or phone, I thought it was worth mentioning, and particularly as MS appears to have demonstrated how it can result in unexpected data loss to the legitimate users.

In the past, when disk drives and Windows were both less reliable, I managed to recover family photo albums, etc. for a few friends and extended family, by temporarily transplanting their disk into my (dual-boot) PC,  using Linux, since Windows would not boot when the errant disk was also present. Had they used Bitlocker, that recovery would not have been possible.

Best wishes, Dave

@davee Bitlocker has been around since Win 8.1 2007 I think. Unless you have genuine sensitive data like tax files AND you plan on taking the USB stick outside your house there is no need for bitlocker. Don't forget, you can use bitlocker on a separate data drive like a USB drive I THINK! Or use any of a number of security packages. I am pretty sure your last statement is incorrect. As long as you know the key for your bitlocker drive you are fine, the recent issue is some people have encrypted 14 years ago and forgotten about it. Unless they stored the key in their Msft account or some other known location then yes they have lost the entire disk.

Hi Ron @zander,

  Obviously, it is possible someone with the correct key might be able to read an intact disk.

 And my experience predated, Bitlocker on Windows ... probably back in XP or Vista era .. so it is a hypothetical extension from the past.

  These disks were from 'non tech' people on home PCs, who would probably have lost any record of keys.

  Furthermore the disks themselves were not intact ... there were a large number of sector errors ... and the directory structure was badly broken.

Obviously, I didn't get everything back, but I think (from their reaction) I got nearly all of the photos.

We can only speculate what would have happened if they had been encrypted ... I suspect nothing, as the keys would have been lost.

If I had the keys, then my gut feeling is that there would have been harder to try to find the pieces ... but that may be my prejudice.

So whilst I completely agree with Bitlocker in appropriate circumstances, I am only questioning its value in other cases where it is more likely to cause failures and reduce performance, with little or no benefit.

....

And I doubt if my tax records would be of interest to anyone ... unless they were looking for a cheap laugh ... virtually all of my tax was paid at source, deducted by my employer!

We are actually in agreement!! Let's put this one to rest.

Best wishes and take care my friend. Dave

@dronebot-workshop

I'm having an issue installing the 2.0.3 version of the Arduino IDE under Linux on my dual boot computer.  Trying to follow a similar process that you used for the 1.8.13 version by moving the extracted directory to the /opt directory, there is no "install.sh" shell command to install it properly.  Anyone with any ideas?

Hi Steve @codecage,

Re: installing the 2.0.3 version of the Arduino IDE under Linux 

   I was hoping someone else could offer a 'proper' answer, because what I did seemed over complicated, and frankly, I don't remember the details, but as no other offers have appeared, I'll just offer what I can. It was not the same as 1.8.x, which seemed much easier ...

The first stage was based on downloading the AppImage into an appropriate directory. I think this basically followed the instructions on the Arduino website

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjXxY-d1_L8AhWMEMAKHVVDAVoQFnoECA0QAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.arduino.cc%2Fsoftware%2Fide-v2%2Ftutorials%2Fgetting-started%2Fide-v2-downloading-and-installing&usg=AOvVaw1PgAAGgAJvp7Usdv4oefTb

At the end of this, you should have working Arduino 2.0.x IDE ... but inconveniently, you have to navigate to the directory to launch it .... do-able, but inelegant, to say the least.

I then went through the usual Google channels to figure out how to add a launch button to the 'task bar' ... something that seems to have been made deliberately difficult.

Add a file called something like ArduinoV20.desktop to /usr/share/applications, fill it with something like

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Arduino IDE 2.0
GenericName=Arduino IDE
Comment=Open-source electronics prototyping platform
Exec="/home/dave/Downloads/Arduino_2.0/arduino-ide_nightly-20220921_Linux_64bit.AppImage" %f
Icon=arduino2
Terminal=false
Categories=Development;IDE;Electronics;
MimeType=text/x-arduino;
Keywords=embedded electronics;electronics;avr;microcontroller;
StartupWMClass=processing-app-BaseCategories=Utility;
Encoding=UTF-8

adjusting paths and filenames as necessary, and make the file properties include 'executable' - 'Allow executing file as program'

(The 'Exec' line finishes with '%f' ... the forum box shows the line split  .. do a copy and paste of the box contents, rather than typing it)

Note this text points to an icon file 'arduino2', which is put at '/usr/share/pixmaps/arduino2.png'

It is a 'Arduino' style png file, 116 (w) x 130 (h) pixels in size.... I must have copied it from somewhere..... 🤔 

-------------

Sorry, that is all I remember at the moment. I hope that will be enough for your purposes.

Best wishes, Dave

@davee

Thanks for your reply Dave!

I actually found somewhat the same solution, via Google, and I have to agree it isn't very elegant, but it does work.  I had to use the ZIP file since the APPImage did not seem to produce anything on my system even after changing the permission to allow execution.  And I had to find an image for the ide-logo.png as one was not in the zip file.

I wonder why the Arduino folks didn't include an install.sh file like they did for the 1.x IDE?

Any I'm working with the 2.0.3 IDE now.  Next up is figuring out how to return a Pico W that has had MicroPython installed back to being usable by the Arduino IDE.

Since this concerns the Dual Boot Workstation I left this in this thread instead of starting a new topic.

My dual boot workstation defaults to Ubuntu if I don't select Windows quickly enough.  I think that was the default on the first setup.

Where would I go about changing the order to Windows first and the default if not selecting Ubuntu?

Thanks in advance for any directions and advice.

@codecage Which bootloader are you using, i.e. GRUB, BURG, Windows Boot Loader? The instructions are different for each one, GRUB and BERG have a text file that you can edit to set the default OS, and the timeout (I belive a timeout of zero stops the automatic OS loading).

😎

Bill

@dronebot-workshop 

Now I guess that is a good question.  I just went along with the defaults, I think, so which one would that leave me with?

I have VMed and Dual Booted but I was finding the whole thing a time drain and decided to just use Linux for everything.

Posted by: @davee

↑

At the end of this, you should have working Arduino 2.0.x IDE ... but inconveniently, you have to navigate to the directory to launch it .... do-able, but inelegant, to say the least.

I then went through the usual Google channels to figure out how to add a launch button to the 'task bar' ... something that seems to have been made deliberately difficult.

I just installed Ardunio IDE 2.X and havent even run it up properly over a few sketches yet.

Specifically as to a Launcher the channel Code and Make suggests this soulution.

http://github.com/TheAssassin/AppimageLauncher/releases

I havent given it a hiding yet to see how robust it is but so far so good.

HTH

Mark

Has anyone tried this dual boot install using a machine that already has Win11 installed and gotten to work.  A friend of mine watched Bill's video, and in Windows make sure FastStart and BitLocker were off, resized the partition that Windows wanted control of, and booted from the Ubuntu downloaded ISO.  When the Ubuntu first started its install he saw the GRUB menu, but after the reboot at the end of the install, instead of the GRUB menu being displayed with the choice of Linux or Windows, the machine goes right to Windows.

Hi Steve @codecage,

   I don't have Win 11, and apologies if this is 'obvious', but is the Bios pointing at the right Boot priority target?

  My Win 10/Ubuntu dual boot has Ubuntu and Windows Boot manager as its first two options, with Ubuntu at the top, which means I get a Grub menu with both Ubuntu and Windows.

My guess is that if it was set to Windows, it wouldn't be so inclusive!

Best wishes, Dave

@davee

Doesn't apply in this case.

Sorry Steve @codecage if my comment wasn't helpful - I knew it was long shot at best.

I am sure I recall that there are 'live boot' installations of Linux designed for editing Grub ..  though you can get in a mess, so I would only suggest for a machine that can be rebuilt from scratch without losing data, if it it all goes pear-shaped.

It's a while since I built my machine, but I remember having a bit of battle with the UEFI support part of the bios to get both Windows and Ubuntu to play nicely, in a way I hadn't seen previously, and it might have had similar symptoms. Hence, my comment.

Best wishes, Dave

@davee 

Thanks Dave.  Appreciate the suggestions though.