What bios settings do I need to change before installing Linux?
So I got a new HP Victus 2023, and I want to install Fedora on it, it has an RTX 4050 and has win11 preinstalled, my last laptop was a 2014 Toshiba and I only had to disable secure boot for Linux to run, is there something else to disable before installing Fedora ? Maybe TPM?
I turn off secure boot, simply because I don't like it, don't need it, and it isn't really secure. But this is only a preference of mine.
Fedora works perfectly with secure boot and I keep it enabled when I’m using fedora. It’s worth noting, that if you require any software in the form of a kernel module (for instance, openrazer, a Linux tool for controlling razer devices) it won’t function with secure boot enabled because it isn’t registered at boot. You’d have to reboot to bios, turn off Secure Boot, log in and set your configs, then reboot and turn secure boot back on.
Or you could just leave it off.
I'm only worried about the nvidia driver, will it work with secure boot enabled? Given I install it from rpmfusion
It can, but it requires creating your own signing key, registering it with secure boot, and signing your nvidia driver.
There's a guide here: https://askubuntu.com/a/1049479
But if you're running any out of tree drivers (e.g. the nvidia driver), I'd recommend just leaving secure boot off.
I think I've been able to use secure boot with fedora. I didn't need to change any of my settings. But I build my PC myself, so there was never any windows specific config. I did dual boot at the start for a bit, but now I just have Linux on it.
Overall I doubt you need to change any BIOS settings. I'd just try to install and if you run into issues figure it out from there.
If you plan on dual booting, remember to disable fast startup on the windows side, or you won't be able to access the windows partition(s) as read/write in Linux. I have to dual boot for school, (God damn you, Lockdown Browser!) But as soon as I'm done, I'm dropping MS like the hot steaming pile it is.
I ran Lockdown in Wine without any problems during my time at school. Given, this was about 7 years ago so things may have changed.
I tried it in Lutris and in a VM, neither worked. I never tried it just in Wine. Hmm... Well, I have two weeks left of school, so I don't know if it's worth trying anymore.
Fedora should play nice with Secure Boot enabled. You also shouldn't need to do anything with the TPM.
Nothing, secure boot should work fine, no reason to disable TPM.
Rarely anything. There can be some newer Bios/chip features that are not supported in the kernel yet, and a few older/quirky machines requires setting correct kernel parameters in the boot phase. But overall, you wouldn't normally do it any different from win, and a laptop from 23 should be supported with all newer kernels.
I'm sure there are Bios settings that could be changed dependent on operating system. Perhaps some internal timing works best with this and that ram clock, or whatever, but it would be a hazzle to figure out, and there may not be any gain - other than the fun of exploring oc..
I'd say experiment. It's fun and kinda mandatory in the Linux world 😉
But make backups...
WEAK. WASTE 17HRS AND UNCOUNTABLE AMOUNTS OF DATA BY FUCKING AROUND. 40 BILLION SUCH CASES!
Linux will run fine with secure boot you just have to have it set for other OS not Windows specifically, however, it is a pain in the ass and if you have physical control over your machine I see no good reason to enable it, it significantly compliciates things like building your own kernels.
Is secure boot required for LUKS?
Nope. They are separate security features so you can use them independently or together. LUKS does disk encryption whereas secure boot verifies the digital signatures of boot loaders/kernels
You need to disable secure boot for the installation process, but you can turn it back on afterwards. Secureboot just blocks the changes your new install needs to make once its installed it wont mess with anything, and you should have it on to prevent things like rootkits.
It can cause issues with things like virtual machines but that just means you need to configure them to work with it.
I didn't have to change anything including secure boot when I removed windows and installed Fedora on my laptop. Should generally work, but there's a possibility some newer features may not or may have a Windows-only setting and an other OS setting. Update the BIOS to the latest and just try it..
My thinkpad from 2017 has a setting for Windows vs. Linux sleep (i think sleep level 3 being bugged in that CPU generation or something?). Better google your specific model.
Leave it as is. Some people go tin foil hat about Secure Boot being insecure, but that's like saying "don't lock the bottom lock on your door because someone can use a lockpock in 2 seconds".
Fedora works fine and automatically with Secure Boot, and that is an important defense against on-boot malware injection.
I stopped using Reddit because the majority of tech subs were people asking shit you can just search on google, duck duck go, bing or even just ask one of the free gpt's available to everyone. Alas, here we are.