Microsoft's Media Creation Tool is only for Windows so what happens if you're on Linux? I didn't want to download another third party tool when I don't need to. Fedora (and most Linux) had all the tools needed in the distribution to do this.
This article tells you how to do it manually but I'm lazy and wanted a script to do it and it is now available on Github.
I recently purchased a Framework 13 (AMD) laptop to replace my 7 years old Razer Stealth as my travel companion and wanted to share my first impressions after taking it on a trip and using it for about a month.
My main criteria for a travel laptop is that it must be light, but as I've gotten older I've added a few more things to look for:
When installing Windows 11, it assumes you have a network connection and doesn't let you proceed with the installation. To bypass this, press Shift+F10 to open a terminal and type:
oobe\bypassnroThe laptop will restart and when it reaches the network connection page there will be a new option for no network that will allow you to continue the installation.
I previously posted on how to dual boot between Windows and Linux with each on them on separate disks, but what if you only had one storage device? This is also possible can be a bit more messy because Windows and Linux must share the same boot partition (the part of the storage with the instructions on how to boot the OS).
The common convention is the install Windows first and then install Linux. Windows has a "you don't need any other OS" mentality so when it gets installed it doesn't care if you have another OS, it will change the boot sequence to boot itself and you'll need to go into the UEFI menu to boot into Linux. Linux distributions, on the other hands, comes with a boot loader that offers a menu of all the OS so that you can choose which OS to boot. So the common convention is to
What you end up with is that when you boot up, you'll see the Linux boot manager with the options to pick either Linux or Windows.
What happens when you install Linux first and then Windows? Since Windows doesn't have a boot manager, it will just tell your system to boot directly into Windows. To restore the Linux boot manager on older systems (BIOS-based), you'll need to use your Linux recovery disk and restore the boot manager (Windows mostly likely did NOT delete your Linux disk unless you installed windows on top of where you installed Linux).
The general process is pretty similar:
On newer UEFI systems, the boot manager pointing to all the OS is still there in the boot partition but Windows only just changed it to boot its section. You can generally change this back by going into your motherboard's UEFI menu on or on Linux you can use the efibootmgr tool to make the change.
To set up a Microsoft Windows PC to power down during a power outage does not require installing any proprietary software.
Simply create a new power profile in Windows and go to the advance setting to set the conditions you want to power down.
For example, the machine can be configured to power down when the battery reaches a certain point. This works because when the CyberPower UPS is connected to the Windows machine through a USB connection, Windows will sees it as being on battery power like a laptop. It will see how much power is left.
More details about the battery probably will need the CyberPower software but for simple shutdowns no additional software is needed.
I needed a computer for a remote location. It would be used only for short periods of time a few times a year so it is not worth it to invest in a high end system, but it still needs to be powerful enough to do my work (including basic gaming for the kids). In a more normal time, I might simply build a basic system for about $500, but the shortage of electronic components means many items are simply not available or have sky rocketed in price so that even low end systems now cost too much to build to make them worth it.
I considered getting a laptop but decided that a mini-pc fits this need better. I am able to use it at home but can easily transport it to the remote location when needed. My experience with the Asus PN50 has been very good so I decided to go with it again. This time I opted for the lowest end model that uses the Ryzen 4300U with 4 cores/4 threads running at 2.7 GHz (base)/3.3.7 GHz (boost). I went with just a single stick of 8 GB 3200MHz Crucial SODIMM and 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD.
For the monitor, I got a Lepow Z1-Gamut (2021) portable USB-C monitor. It is easy to transport but also able to use at home.
Total cost came to $611 with no OS. The price is reasonable given the current state of the world and portability it provides. Note that if you don't have a keyboard or mouse, you'll need to provide one yourself. I'm using it with a Logitech K400 Plus wireless keyboard that also has a track pad built in. The keyboard is light and portable as well.
I had no problem setting up my previous PN50 with Windows and Linux, but did run into an issue with this particular unit when installing Windows 10. During the installation, the lower part of the monitor was distorted. I tried this on both the Lepow and on a existing monitor that I know worked. The problem appeared on both. I was still able to see the menu and install choices and the problem went away once the installer rebooted into configuration screen.
Initially, Windows complained that it couldn't install to the drive and I worried that either the drive was bad or the memory was bad. The ASUS BIOS doesn't normally show memory and it doesn't make it clear what drives it sees so it wasn't helpful in determining where the problem was. I just took everything out and re-inserted everything. This time, the installation worked.
After Windows finish installing, I couldn't access the internet through the ethernet connection to download anything and Windows itself couldn't get any updates and drives. Ping/tracert from the command line worked but apps that tries to access the internet did not work. I searched on Google, but none of the solution I found worked for me.
I had to use WIFI and that worked to get all the updates, drivers and patches. Once those were all installed, using the Ethernet connection worked. With Linux, I didn't experience this problem.
The Lepow monitor worked both through the USB-C and HDMI. Using the USB-C, the video and power can be handled with a single cable between it and the PN50. A problem occurred when it started to display something. There was a whining sound coming it but it goes away if the brightness is turned up to 100% (the default setting is 30% - 50%). Besides this issue, everything else worked as expected.
I'm not really sure why it was more troublesome installing this PN50. Besides the CPU, the other difference with the PN50s I already own is the version of the BIOS so it is possible that the drivers on the Windows installation tool does match with this PN50 or its BIOS version. I wish the BIOS settings were more descriptive, but fortunately everything ended up working and I didn't have to exchange any of the parts.
Boot time has been surprisingly slow from when the power button is pushed to when the Windows spinner shows up. I can play Genshin Impact at medium graphics settings and I can run Tomb Raider at normal settings. Although I don't think another 8 GB might help for running games on this CPU, it might help with running multiple apps in Windows so I'm thinking of getting another 8 GB to fill out the memory slot and then hopefully I'll never had to open up the case again! Update: I ended up getting another 8GB so it's now running 16GB of memory.
The Ryzen CPU supports up to 3200 MHz memory and that's what I got, but based on some benchmarks that others have published it doesn't seem like the 4300U benefits much from it vs 26xx MHz memory. In this case, the 3200 was actually a few dollars cheaper then the 26xx ones so I went with 3200 anyway.
Updated 8/7/2025 - Self built daily driver
Updated 5/21/2023 with Beelink system
2021 brings upgrades to the computers in the house that has been fairly static over the past 7-8 years. I got a couple of new systems and repurposed some parts from the old systems so this post is mainly to inventory the new configurations for my own reference.
*** Update Feb. 28, 2021 ***
After having gotten both Linux and Windows dual-booting, I had to wipe and reinstall Windows 10. This time, however, Windows 10 refused to install and gave a message saying "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one."
This is caused by Windows being confused because there is another drive with a primary partition. Even though you can tell Windows which drive you want it to be installed on, it still can't figure out how to install itself. After trying a few different things, the solution was to unplug the other drive, install Windows and the plug the other drive back in.
If you are using GRUB as the boot manager the Windows entry will need to be updated or you'll get an error message when trying to boot into Windows. To update the GRUB configuration with the proper Windows values you'll need to run grub2-mkconfig and write the results to the configuration file.
For MBR setups:
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfgFor EFI setups:
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg Leaving out the -o option will print the config to screen so you can see it first before overwriting the config.
*** Original Post ***
For my new system, I also added a second SSD that is intended for installing Windows 10. My primary daily driver is Fedora Linux so I installed it first and it's on the primary drive.
I don't use Windows very often but I might use it to play some games with the family so I'm okay with dual booting for this purpose. I've not played with dual-booting Linux and Windows in a very long time. It's not something I recommend to someone who switch between the two operating systems frequently nor to someone who very rarely use one of them. Rarely using one operating systems means it isn't updated so when it is needed there might be a lot of lost time getting the operating system updated and running again.
Setting up dual booting can also be a pain as one operating system might mess with the booting of the others (Windows tends to be the more frequent offender here as it doesn't really like to recognize non-Windows systems). Most documentation I found suggests installing Windows first and then Linux so that the Linux boot manager (GRUB) can find Windows and add it to the boot options. However, there's still a possibility that a Windows update can mess up GRUB and then it needs to be restored. Another slight disadvantage is that it adds additional time for booting since there needs to be some pause to let users pick the right OS they want to run.
What I did was to install Linux first on one drive and then install Windows on complete separate drives so the boot manager of each drive is not effected by the other operating system. I rely on the BIOS (yes, I know, force of habit to call it the BIOS) to select which drive to boot.
After Linux was installed on disk "1", I installed Windows on disk "2" (Windows called it disk 0). Whenever it rebooted, I made sure to tell the BIOS to boot of the Windows drives and not the default Linux drive.
Fortunately, the Asus BIOS's boot options include an Boot Override option to boot a specific drive without having to permanently change the boot order. The other nice thing is that GRUB has the option to go back to the BIOS boot if I missed hitting the DEL key to get into the BIOS. When I run Linux it is a no-op and when I need to run Windows it's a an extra 1-2 key strokes during boot.
The only issue that I had was that after Windows was installed there was an error message because of Secure Boot. The simplest work-around is to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS so it can continue the booth process into either Linux or Windows. I'm still learning about Secure Boot to see how to make it work with this configuration.
$ cd ~/.ssh $ ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "github-acct1" -f "github-acct1"Then add the ssh key to the Github account.
# Github account #1
Host github.com-acct1
HostName github.com
User git
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-acct1
IdentitiesOnly yes
# Github account #2
Host github.com-acct2
HostName github.com
User git
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-acct2
IdentitiesOnly yes
$ git clone git@github.com-acct1:repoChange to the repo directory and set the name and email to use for commits if needed.
$ cd repo $ git config user.name "Acct1" $ git config user.email acct1@example.com
$ git config --global --unset user.name
$ git config --global --unset user.email
$ git config --global user.useConfigOnly true
If you get an error message about the user (or the wrong user) not having the right permission to access the repo:$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
$ ssh-add
