Dual Boot Pop along side windows

This is specifically for Dell G15 series laptops(works with any laptop and any gnome distro tbh), because that’s what our interns gonna use at Apxor and this is supposed to help them (or anyone really) with initial setup.

Note: This blog mainly focuses on how and why to partition your disk, so you can skip it if you already know how and why.

Anyway,

Things you need to do before starting the process:

1. Backup your data, I am not responsible, you’re. If possible backup your backup too.
2. An empty pen drive ~ 8+ gigs
3. Download latest LTS version of pop from here. Yes, Only LTS!
4. Flash the pen drive with the downloaded pop using some tool like Rufus or Etcher.

Now, let’s start with some disk shrinking stuff:

In windows, type discmgmt.msc in your terminal to open your disk manager. Right click and shrink your largest empty partition. 100000(~100*1024) is 100 gb, so shrink accordingly.

Ideally we need around 500 gb of unallocated space.

Let’s get started

• Restart your laptop, Press F12 or F2 multiple times when you see the DELL logo.
• You will see so many things at once, ignore them and check out the list under one-time boot options and select your USB/Pen drive.
• After clicking enter, Some random things will show up on a black screen exactly like seen hacker movies — flex all you want, then you will be proceeded into GUI of pop. You will be asked to enter some basic language, keyboard settings and then comes partitioning.
• Basically, you need four partitions: root, swap, home and boot.
• We will allocate some amount of space for each of them, logically, not randomly.

Before that, lets just understand the definitions of these and why we have to do this and why not just clump everything up into a single partition:

/boot:

The /boot partition contains the files needed for the system to start, such as the kernel, bootloader (like grub), and other important boot-related files.

Isolating these critical files ensures the boot process remains stable and reduces the risk of corruption from other system changes. If the system can’t access /boot, it won’t be able to load Linux.

/ :

The / (or root) partition is where the core system files, libraries, and binaries are stored. This includes system configurations and installed software.

As you guessed it, this is essential for obvious reasons — the functioning of the operating system. It houses all the files and directories required for Linux to operate, except for those that are placed on separate partitions like /boot, /home, and swap.

/home:

The /home partition stores user-specific data, such as documents, downloads, and personal configurations.

I do this because i can access this partition from both the OS which is very convenient for me. But Separating /home from the system's core files allows for easier backups, user management, and system upgrades. If you need to reinstall or upgrade Linux, having a separate /home partition ensures that your personal files remain intact.

swap:

Swap is used as virtual memory(interesting concept, you should look into it), which acts as an extension of your physical RAM when it gets full.

When your system runs out of RAM, it “swaps” some of the data in RAM to the swap partition, freeing up space for new processes. It helps prevent crashes when system memory is low and can improve performance in low-RAM scenarios.

It is advised to have 2x of your RAM as your swap space. Now you know why.

Assuming total space for pop os on my SSD is 500–600 gb.

I allocated swap, boot, home and root as following:

• /boot ~ 1 gb = 1 * 1024.
• / ~ 200 gb = 200 * 1024.
• /swap ~ 32 gb = 32 * 1024.
• /home ~ remaining space left after all this = 350 gb = 350 * 1024.

This should do. And we are done.

But if you want to know what file systems to use for each of them or need help about anything else, i will attach few images for your reference:

This is how all the partitions look

Not so good quality image of my laptop

Right click on the shrinked unallocated partition, it will open a dialog and you can start partitioning the entire partition into above four partitions. Woah read it out loud, it’s almost like a tongue twister.

another dialog box

In this picture, you can see the GUI for naming and allocating space for each partition.

Filesystems for

• /boot — fat32
• swap — linux-swap
• / — ext4
• /home — ext4

After creating the required partitions you can see the partitions altogether. Cross check and apply the changes.

tadaaaaaaaaaaa

Donee, You are good to go and install your favourite browser (*coughs* *brave*) and other applications.

Thank you! Have a great day.