Pure OS + Windows 10 dual boot tutorial?

Have you tried mashing the escape button during the Lattepande boot? Based on these docs it seems like that should take you to the BIOS menu, where presumably you could then choose the boot device.

There are steps listed there for booting Ubuntu on the Lattepanda, so I would suggest trying to follow those steps exactly, except using PureOS instead of Ubuntu.

That said, I see in the Lattepanda documentation that it uses UEFI to boot, and I don’t believe PureOS supports UEFI since it’s not compatible with PureOS’s FLOSS-only philosophy, so that may explain your inability to boot PureOS from USB. It’s probably worth trying with Ubuntu to first verify that you’re able to boot Ubuntu successfully, and then if you can do that, but PureOS doesn’t work, it’s almost certainly a UEFI problem

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@taylor-williamc
Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

I’m finally in the BIOS and unlike in the link you mentioned there isn’t a ‘Boot Option #3’ (USB flash is inserted though). Going through the option list I have no idea which to change to what. See image attached.

I assume it should be USB support, which is part of the ‘Fast Boot’ directory under ‘Boot Option Priorities’ and now labeled as [Partial Initial]

I would try with Ubuntu first then. I’m not an expert on UEFI, but in the screenshots in the Lattepanda documentation, you can see that they select UEFI: SanDisk (which is the USB)

So I think PureOS’s lack of UEFI support is the culprit.

Alternatively, there may be an option in one of the other BIOS sections to enable Legacy Boot, which I believe effectively reverts the UEFI to and older BIOS version, which PureOS may be compatible with.

Not looking for Ubuntu so to me there’s no point in booting that. As for the legacy Boot option, there’s no option with that name in the BIOS. On the bottom there’s a ‘New Boot Option Policy’ option now on [Default] which can be changed to [Place First] or [Place Last]. Haven’t done that as I have no idea what the consequences might be?

A tutorial/best practice by Purism to persuade others to start using Pure OS would be nice…

The main issue is that there is a very restricted set of hardware on which PureOS will work. Almost all hardware requires non-free drivers to run, which PureOS doesn’t include. If you’re trying to run PureOS on non-Librem laptops (which have their hardware carefully selected), you’re outside Purism’s scope of work.

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For Users using Librem Laptops

Coreboot does work with Windows, or at least it did last I checked.

However, you may have some issues with the Grub menu conflicting with Windows.

My recommendation is to get 2 drives, one m.2 SATA and one 2.5" SATA 3 SSD.
In theory, you could install Windows on one and Linux on the other.

Then just change the boot settings to which drive to boot first.

Note: I have not tested this.
Please correct, if wrong.

to be a little more clear about this …
pureOS is not the culprit here. it is based on the debian distribution but because it want’s to be respect-your-freedom (RYF) certified (at some point in the future) it has to run a libre-linux kernel for which the required drivers/firmware have not - YET - been made copyleft (not in the public domain because of copyright/patent legal issues with the manufacturers).

so the problem is not that hardware REQUIRES drivers/firmware to be copyright/patented but rather that’s HOW currently SOME manufacturers decide to stay in business (or rather they feel compelled to keep their products isolated from the public domain).

again it’s not that it couldn’t work - it’s a legal issue. just as non-open-hardware legally ONLY runs with copyrighted non-free-software so open-hardware MUST ONLY run free-software (to be RYF certified aka 100% copyleft/public domain).

but as soon as a non-open-hardware is fully (100%) reverse-engineered it automatically enteres the public domain (it is fully known and documented so it is copyleft aka it is public property). please somebody correct me if i am wrong.

I have a Windows10 USB stick. It will boot my Mac but not my librem. Hmmmmm

Just to make sure … what did you do to put the .ISO file on a USB flash drive?

I don’t think it is as simple as copying the .ISO file to the USB flash drive.

If already running Linux, you would use Startup Disk Creator (very easy, but circular if you only have Microsoft Windows) or something similar.

If you are starting with only Microsoft Windows then maybe the following instructions will work for PureOS. (They are written for Ubuntu.) https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

The alternative to USB flash drive is a DVD - if you have an optical drive.

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well, it was likely written to be UEFI compatible, not legacy BIOS compatible.

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@kieran
I started with only Microsoft. To get the .ISO image on the flash drive I followed the instructions under the ‘Creating an install drive’ as can be found here https://www.pureos.net/download/ .

As soon as I get home I will format the flash drive and follow the directions in the link you provided. Thank you!

OK, you can maybe ignore my comment. Those instructions should be fine - but it doesn’t hurt to try the Ubuntu instructions.

For basic sanity checking, you could actually download a Ubuntu .ISO and follow the Ubuntu instructions and confirm that you can boot Ubuntu.

So I created the USB media using woeusb and I could then boot to Windows from USB. I am trying to install to the 120 GB SSD but the Windows installer complains about not being able to create a partition. I was able to use gparted to create and use successfully an ext4 partition. Any idea what could be wrong?

99% of the time, it’s best to clear all partitions from the disk onto which you want to install Windows, and simply tell Windows Setup to install into the unallocated space on the drive (allowing it to re-partition and format as needed). Open a command prompt and use diskpart to clear the disk if the UI interface is being problematic.

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@jeremiah
Earlier on you mentioned the best way to install Pure OS is to coreboot the device. The device I’d like to use as a dedicated Pure OS device is a Latte Panda Delta, it has an Intel N4100 with built-in GPU (data sheet).

How to know for sure this will run the coreboot and be secure (Intel?) and if so where to find the coreboot procedure - in plain English - ?

The last thing that Latte released was that there was Ubuntu support now for the Panda Delta. However, let’s not forget that this is supposed to be a windows 10 development board.

I’d recommend installing Ubuntu on it, and once that works, you can install PureOS over that, making sure during the installation you over write all of the Ubuntu partitions.

If you want to be safer, then just use the bootloader and all that comes from Ubuntu. Unless you just got to have coreboot which is being developed by Purism for their own products. There is no official support for coreboot for devices outside of the Purism product catalog. Thus a procedure - in plain English, is unlikely to ever materialize.

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Thank you for you reply. I will try.

Fyi, today LattePanda confirmed to me they’re going to test Pure OS. I hope they will come up with good results and be able to provide support for Pure OS.

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