Dual boot

Dual Boot Guide: Windows + AxOS

How to do a full dual boot installation with Windows 11 and AxOS (Windows 10 should work as well).

System Requirements: Check here Minimum disk space: 10 GB (but 50 GB or more is strongly recommended for a smoother experience)

Step 0: Before You Begin

I will skip the steps for flashing AxOS to a USB. Please make sure you’ve already created a bootable USB by following this guide.

Step 1: Create Free Space on Your Disk

We need to shrink an existing partition to make room for AxOS.

Windows

1. Press Win + X → choose Disk Management or Press Win + R, type diskmgmt.msc, and hit Enter.
2. In the Disk Management window:
   • Right-click on a partition with enough free space (e.g. your D: drive)
   • Click “Shrink Volume”
   • Enter how much you want to shrink (in MB). For example, 50000 for 50 GB
   • Click “Shrink”

This will create unallocated space which we’ll use to install AxOS.

Linux

1. Open a terminal.
2. Type in lsblk -f to see all the partitions.
3. In the lsblk -f output:
   • Decide what partition you want to shrink.
   • You can choose the root partition (/) to make room for AxOS.
4. You’ll need to shrink the partition using a Live USB and a tool like GParted.

→ Don’t worry, we cover this in more detail in Step 4.

Step 2: Boot into AxOS from USB

1. Reboot your computer
2. Enter your BIOS/UEFI menu
3. Select your bootable USB device
4. Boot to AxOS

Step 3: Verify Free Space in AxOS

Once inside the live AxOS, open the terminal (Win + Enter) and run:

sudo parted -l

This will list all available disks and their partitions.

Look for something like:

Unallocated space: 50GB

Or run:

sudo parted -l | grep "Unallocated"

Note: Take note of your disk’s name — it could be something like:

• /dev/sda
• /dev/nvme0n1

We’ll use that name in the next step.

Step 4: Create Partitions with gdisk

We’ll now use gdisk to manually create two partitions:

• One for the EFI System (/boot/efi)
• One for the Linux Root (/)

Replace yourdiskname below with your actual disk name (e.g. /dev/sda or /dev/nvme0n1).

sudo gdisk /dev/yourdiskname

Inside gdisk:

1. Press n to create a new partition
2. Press Enter to accept default partition number
3. Press Enter to accept default first sector
4. Type +512M → this creates a 512MB partition
5. Type EF00 → this sets it as an EFI System partition

EFI partition done!

Create the Root Partition (/):

1. Press n again
2. Press Enter for all prompts (partition number, first/last sector, partition type)
3. Type w and press Enter to write changes

Confirm with y if asked.

We’ve now created two partitions.

⚠️ The partition names depend on your disk:

• If your disk is /dev/sda, partitions will be /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, etc.
• If your disk is /dev/nvme0n1, partitions will be /dev/nvme0n1p1, /dev/nvme0n1p2, etc. (Note the “p” before the number of partition)

Step 5: Mount the Partitions

Mount the Root Partition (Linux filesystem):

sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt

Create and Mount EFI Directory:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot/efi

Adjust disk and partition names and numbers as needed.

Now we’re ready to launch the installer.

Step 6: Launch the AxOS Installer

1. Open the AxOS Install application from the menu.
2. Proceed through the installation.
3. When you get to “Installation disk and partitioning”, choose Manual Partitioning.

Configure the Mount Points:

• For the EFI partition:

  • Set FAT32 format
  • Set mount point to /boot/efi

• For the Linux root partition:

  • Set ext4 format (ext4 is an example, but it’s also recommended)
  • Set mount point to /

4. Continue through the installer
5. Once installation finishes, reboot

Adjust disk and partition names and numbers as needed.

Step 8: Configure GRUB to Detect Windows

After rebooting into AxOS:

1. Open a terminal and edit the GRUB config:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

2. Find this line:

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER

Change it to:

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Save and Exit Nano:

• Press Ctrl + O (to save)
• Press Enter (to confirm filename)
• Press Ctrl + X (to exit)

3. Detect Windows:

sudo os-prober

If it returns your Windows installation, proceed.

Step 9: Generate GRUB Config

Choose the appropriate command depending on your system:

BIOS Systems:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

UEFI Systems:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/grub/grub.cfg

⚠️ If you are not sure what to choost stick to BIOS System.

Final Step: Reboot

Now reboot your system:

sudo reboot now

You should now see the GRUB boot menu, with both AxOS and Windows listed.

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Done