Linux and Windows on the same computer

[Dickens]

Hello,

I'd like to know what the best way to have both windows and linux on the same computer is? I use linux more because but still need windows from time to time.

I already have them both installed on my computer and get a question which of them I'd like to use every time.The reason why I'm writing here are the issues I have with windows - most of the times I try to turn the laptop off or let it sleep it gets into a condition where the monitors goes black and whatever I press nothing happens but I can still hear that the laptop is turned on and working and have to press and hold the power button to switch it off. According to a technician I have this issue because of the two operating systems on my computer which is way I'm asking what is the best or is there a better way to use both on the same computer?

Best regards

[Mario F.]

There are two good options you can choose from:

You install just your main operating system and then use a VM to install the other one.
You install both operating systems as a dual-boot configuration.

The answer to which one is best depends on your answer to the following two questions:

- What is your current hardware? (amount of memory, type of processor, and graphics card)
- What are you going to use your less important operating system for?

[Guest]

Issues with sleep states are fairly common unfortunately. I don't think that it's likely that having multiple OSes on your harddrive has anything to do with it. You should instead troubleshoot the operating system* that is showing the problematic behavior.

*in the case of Windows, dive into the advanced power management settings and see what options there are, if you haven't already. Consult a dedicated Windows user forum, if the issue persists.

[Dickens]

You install both operating systems as a dual-boot configuration.

- What is your current hardware? (amount of memory, type of processor, and graphics card)
- What are you going to use your less important operating system for?

I am using dual-boot configuration now.

Hardware - I'm using a lenovo laptop which I bought a couple of months ago - intel core core i7-4500U, graphics intel haswell mobile x86 and memory - 53 GB for linux(out of 1000gb)

And since I work more on linux now I basically need windows for games.

I used 2-3 laptops before I got this one they all had only windows and I didn't have this issue with any of them

[Mario F.]

Hardware - I'm using a lenovo laptop which I bought a couple of months ago - intel core core i7-4500U, graphics intel haswell mobile x86 and memory - 53 GB for linux(out of 1000gb)
And since I work more on linux now I basically need windows for games.

Your computer hardware and the fact you wish to use windows for games, make your current dual-boot configuration the optimum choice. So you are good.

(1) Your processor is an ok processor, but it's dual-core and it is lacking VT-d features. Although it comes with VT-x, these two technologies are essential for top performance out of a virtual machine, which is essential for a gaming guest machine. Dual core also limits the virtual machine performance range.
(2) Another simple fact of life is that this is a laptop. And that greatly limits your computer upgradeability, particularly your cooling and video card options. Cooling is important in VM environments, because no matter what, you will always be straining your hardware more when running a virtual guest operating system (even in the presence of a full VT-d/VT-x processor).
(3) Graphics is important too because you want to game on the guest machine. And your current on-board GPU (actually it comes inside the CPU) is just not good enough to handle the sharing of its meager graphics resources between the host and guest operating systems on graphic demanding applications.

A good computer setup for windows gaming guest machine, almost always involves today a GPU SLI setup, in which you can assign one GPU to your windows guest and the other one to your Linux host. But not only this is hard to achieve on laptop computers due to their lack of upgradeable options, but also puts a lot of heat on the chassis that somehow a laptop has to dissipate. I wouldn't trust this setup for anything other than a desktop computer. Despite there in fact existing a few SLI laptops, I suggest you never go for them. They'll burn a hole down through your desk, they rip through your battery in minutes and have incredibly reduce overall life. No matter what the marketing guys tells you a SLI laptop will probably not survive for many years due to the simple rules of physics on how heat damages electronic circuitry.

VM is still a great option for your machine. But only for non intensive applications. For instance if you wanted to use Windows for office and other applications of the like.

So, this does not solve your current predicament about sleep mode. And of course it shouldn't. Contrary to what your tech person says, sleep/hibernation has nothing to do with your dual-boot configuration. Nothing, nada, zilch. And you can recommend him to go and find a job cleaning computers or perhaps even better just get away from computers and find a job elsewhere. Sleep/hibernation is an integration feature between the OS and the hardware. It requires both the OS and the hardware to support it. The other OS that is currently not running in your dual boot configuration is just an hard-drive partition. Just like a D: drive. And in the case of Windows, not even that. Since it can't understand Linux partitions, to windows the linux partition is simply an invalid partition it ignores in its hardware management service.

If you have sleep mode problems in your windows configuration that is either a fault of Windows or your hardware. Or a combination between windows and your hardware. If your Linux kernel is recent enough to fully support your hardware and gets Sleep mode to work, then you know this is a Windows problem. Otherwise you may also have an hardware problem... Which unfortunately is all too common on laptops. The irony is that desktop who usually don't need sleep mode are the ones who usually offer have it work the best. Go figure.

Besides, you don't care about sleep mode in windows. Since this is a gaming machine. Just disable sleep and hibernation mode on windows if you can never find a solution to this problem. Or maybe just make sure you have all the windows updates. Sleep and hibernation features are great power conservation options if they fire as you are using applications. But you never want to do that in-game. Whi9le the OS is idle, the power conservation isn't as efficient because an idled Windows is already pretty conservative. Whatever you save will mean very little when you start your game and that CPU/GPU start working like crazy. Imagine that for every 30 minutes you saved on sleep mode, you get 5 minutes of gameplay.

[Dickens]

Thanks Mario

[Aslaville]

(1) Your processor is an ok processor, but it's dual-core and it is lacking VT-d features. Although it comes with VT-x, these two technologies are essential for top performance out of a virtual machine, which is essential for a gaming guest machine. Dual core also limits the virtual machine performance range.

VT-x is enough for virtualization, really.

VT-d is just a bus device that does memory managament for devices (IOMMU) thus allowing PCI passthrough, so unless you may be want to passthrough your graphics card, its of no use.

Also, to the OP, are you experiencing this problem with windows only on both windows and linux ? Are you running windows 8 (note windows 8 trys to hybernate when you shutdown) ? Are you sure windows is not trying to hibernate and failing horribly at it ? If your laptop comes with a driver pack you might want to reinstall/install the chipset drivers.

[Dickens]

Also, to the OP, are you experiencing this problem with windows only on both windows and linux ? Are you running windows 8 (note windows 8 trys to hybernate when you shutdown) ? Are you sure windows is not trying to hibernate and failing horribly at it ? If your laptop comes with a driver pack you might want to reinstall/install the chipset drivers.

It's windows 7. I have the problem only on windows, linux is ok. And yes it's when I shut it down as well, because I've tried shutting it down from the start menu.

What works for now is every time I use windows I restart the laptop after that in order to switch to linux and shut it down from linux

[Hodor]

Hmm. I had problems with Windows 7 hibernate, sleep and shutdown as well. I wish I could remember what I did (but it was certainly nothing to do with me "dual"-booting; I have 3 OSs installed)