Arch Linux

peloris

Member

Registered: 2021-11-24

Posts: 6

Upgrading dual boot to win 11

I'm running Arch Linux dual boot alongside Windows 10 on my laptop, and I'm considering upgrading that Windows to 11. I have never upgraded the windows in place on a dual boot before. Apart from backing everything up, is there anything I should watch out for? Will the windows upgrade mess with my current boot setup and require me to set that up again? Will it write over my Linux partitions? Basically, should I set aside an afternoon, two days, or a whole week to handle the fallout?

My boot loader is rEFInd, and I currently have secure boot disabled.

Thank you.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,670

Re: Upgrading dual boot to win 11

Normally, on a proper UEFI implementation, Windows will just update it's own partition and bootloader and this will not have any effect whatsoever on anything else.

If you have a stupid UEFI implementation there's a chance it overrides either the nvram entry or/and the boot loader settings, in whcih case you'll have to readd/reinstall just the boot loader. Not sure what kind of fallout you have with regards to secure boot and whether Windows 11 actively mandates it, afaik it shouldn't but don't know it definitely. If it does mandate it and you need to setup secure boot as well this will be more of the "longer time frame" business to properly set up a secure boot capable kernel.

According to this official article it should be business as usual and secure boot simply recommended but not actually required.

In which case yeah, the biggest question will be what your mainboard is doing exactly.

Last edited by V1del (2021-11-25 13:14:16)

peloris

Member

Registered: 2021-11-24

Posts: 6

Re: Upgrading dual boot to win 11

Thank you, that makes me more comfortable about the process. Hopefully Lenovo didn't put a stupid UEFI implementation, as you said, in this.