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Desktop Setup Process

Overview of my dual boot setup process

Introduction

Quick overview of sources and things to remind me of things to install

Glossary

MSM: Mint's Software Manager

Dual Boot Partitions

Separate partitions for OS and data so I can reimage without losing data. Well that was the plan until I made them too small to update so I had to reimage anyways.

Boot into Live USB with Linux. Install and create partitions using the tool.

Create GPT Drive.

  1. EFI Boot partition; 512 MB; EFI
  2. Linux Boot; ~40 GB; EXT4 (I had it at like 15 for Mint 21 and didn't have enough space to update to 22)
  3. Linux Home; 35 GB; EXT4
  4. Windows Boot; 75 GB; NTFS (Requires 64 GB)
  5. Shared Data; ---; FAT NTFS (Many games and Proton will not launch when installed to a FAT partition. Mounting it with the method below still lets you read/write on Linux.)

Boot into USB and install Windows with a custom install. Use autoattend file if applicable. With GPT drive, make sure you boot with UEFI. With Ventoy, this is a separate option in the boot options (UEFI: Generic instead of Generic since it's a flash drive).

Scripts

Create Scripts folder in home directory (~/Scripts). Add snippet of code to ~/.bashrc (make sure hidden files is enabled in Nemo, toggle with ctrl + h).

# Adds scripts folder to executable path
export PATH=$PATH:~/Scripts/
# Extends sudo to work with aliases
alias sudo='sudo '

Copy aliases into ~/.bash_aliases from the Scripts repo.

OBS Sinks

Creates a new null sink (for OBS only audio) and combined sink (OBS only + stream to headphones). Default sink is still the headphones. Route game audio through combined sink through pavucontrol (because I like GUIs). PulseAudio Volume Control, install through MSM.

Note that if OBS starts before the sinks are created, audio won't play through them. In Startup Programs, add a delay to OBS.

Mount Partition with Steam Library

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Using-a-NTFS-disk-with-Linux-and-Windows

Find partition name using sudo fdisk -l then sudo blkid for the UUID

Add to /etc/fstab/: /dev/nvme0n1p5 /mnt/data ntfs uid=1000,gid=1000,rw,user,exec,umask=000 0 0. First entry is the name or UUID. vfat is needed to be specified for FAT32 Don't use FAT.

Booting into Windows may make this partition read only when coming back to Linux. Run sudo ntfsfix /dev/nvme0n1p5 to fix the permissions then reboot the computer. You may need to unmount the partition first. I did both at once so couldn't isolate the true solution (because I'm lazy).

App Settings

Clock

Custom formatting in settings: %a, %Y-%m-%d, %H:%M to create something like Mon, 2024-12-30, 14:21

Keyboard

Add custom shortcut to open gnome system monitor (task manager) to mimic Windows. Use ctrl+shift+escape to execute command gnome-system-monitor

Celluloid

User Scripts: Go to next file in folder with SHIFT + RIGHT_ARROW celluloid

Media Info and mediainfo-gui

Shows video resolution and stuff. Install through Software Manager

Vencord

Install Vesktop through MSM for working stream audio. Import settings from repo. Install Flatseal through MSM and give it permissions to access the memes folder.

Firefox Extensions

In case sync fails or I forgot to turn it on. Ublock Origin remove playables and shorts and TamperMonkey NexusMods download fix

Fonts

Install Faustina font for projects. Use with installFont.sh script.

CPU Scaling Governor

Change from schedutil to performance

Check current plan with cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Change using echo performance | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Does this actually make a difference? It was like 2% better a few years ago but now I think I'm just changing things for placebo.