Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are two of the most popular operating systems in the world. Windows is known for its ease of use and compatibility with a wide range of software, while RHEL is known for its stability and security. If you're looking for a way to get the best of both worlds, dual booting Windows and RHEL is a great option.
Dual booting allows you to install both operating systems on the same computer. This means that you can choose which operating system to boot into each time you start your computer. This can be a great way to use Windows for everyday tasks like browsing the web and playing games, and then switch to RHEL for more demanding tasks like development or server administration.
Dual booting Windows and RHEL is a relatively simple process, but there are a few things you need to do to make sure it goes smoothly. In this guide, we'll walk you through the steps of installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Windows Dual Boot setup. We'll also provide some tips on how to troubleshoot any problems that you might encounter.
Table of Contents
Getting Windows Ready For Dual Boot
Dual booting RHEL and Windows is a two-step process. Before installing RHEL OS you need to perform some steps on the Windows side.
- Windows 10/11 should be already installed as the primary operating system.
- Check if the disk partition scheme is set to GPT.
- Check if Windows is using BIOS or UEFI.
- Disable secure boot in BIOS or UEFI settings.
- Shrink existing partitions to create some free space to install RHEL OS.
Let me explain the above steps in detail. I assume the first requirement of installing Windows 10/11 is already satisfied.
1. Check Disk Partition Scheme
The simplest way to check the disk partition scheme in Windows is to open the PowerShell and run the 'Get-Disk' command which will show the disk partition style as the last output.
$ Get-Disk
If the output shows as GPT, you are good to proceed with the next step.
2. Check Windows BIOS Mode
Follow the below steps to validate if Windows is using BIOS/UEFI mode.
- Go to the Windows start menu and search for the "System Information." keyword.
- Under the "System Summary" section look for the "BIOS Mode" parameter.
- For the UEFI mode, the value will be set as "UEFI" and for the BIOS mode the value will be set as "Legacy".
If the output shows as UEFI, then you are good to proceed with the next step.
3. Disable Secure Boot
During the boot process, secure boot only allows OEM-signed bootloaders to be loaded. Also, in some cases, secure boot might create some problems with the Linux operating system. It is safe to disable the secure boot from the BIOS interface before moving to the next step.
You can check if secure boot is enabled or disabled from within Windows.
- Press the Windows key + R shortcut to open the "RUN" dialog box.
- Enter "msinfo32" in the dialog box and hit Enter.
- Look for the "Secure Boot State" entry under the system information section.
- If the Secure boot state is set to ON, it means the secure boot is enabled. If it is set to OFF, it is disabled.
If the secure boot is enabled, follow the below steps to disable it.
- Go to the Windows start menu and type "Settings".
- Select "System > Recovery" from the settings.
- Click "Restart now" from the Advanced Startup option.
After the system restarts, you will be directed to a window where you need to choose the "Troubleshoot" option.
Select "Advanced options" from the next window.
Next, select "UEFI Firmware Settings".
Select "Restart" which will take you to BIOS/UEFI firmware settings.
Upon restarting your system, you will be guided to the UEFI/BIOS settings interface. Keep in mind that the user interface for BIOS setup can differ depending on the manufacturer. Below, you can find an example image from a DELL Inspiron.
Regardless of your computer's manufacturer, you should be able to locate the secure boot option under the boot settings/configuration. Simply disable secure boot and save the changes you've made. This step is crucial to ensure a smooth dual boot process.
4. Create Partitions for Linux
This is an important step in Windows side setup. You are about to install RHEL and have two different operating systems in the same physical drive.
You need to have two separate partitions where one partition will have the Windows operating system and another partition will have the RHEL operating system.
From the Windows search bar, type "Disk Management" and open the utility.
If you do not have any free space in the drive, you have to shrink a partition to create free space. Right-click on the partition you wish to shrink and click "Shrink". Enter the size in MB and click shrink.
Now that you have completed all the necessary Windows side setup, let’s proceed with downloading the RHEL ISO image and creating USB bootable medium.
Download RHEL ISO Image
Unlike other operating systems, you can not download the RHEL ISO image straight away from the Red Hat website. You need to have a Red Hat account. If you do not have a Red Hat account, create one to download the ISO image.
RHEL 9.2 is available for free to download from Red Hat Developer's website. Visit https://developers.redhat.com/products/rhel/download page and click "Download" button.
You will redirected to the RHEL developer login page. Enter your credentials and your download will begin automatically.
Create RHEL Bootable USB with Etcher
Once the RHEL ISO image is downloaded, you need to write the image to an external USB drive. There are a lot of popular open-source tools to create a bootable USB medium. Here, I choose Etcher which is a simple-to-use, and cross-platform tool.
1. Download the etcher installation file for Windows and install it. The installation will be the same as any normal Windows software installation.
2. Once the installation is completed, open the Etcher utility from the Windows start menu. Make sure the USB driver is plugged in before proceeding with the next step.
3. Select the ISO image by clicking on "Flash From File" option. Select the target which is the USB drive.
4. Now click "Flash" to start the process.
Once the process is completed, exit Etcher. Reboot the machine and choose the USB medium to boot from.
If you already have any other linux distribution and wish to create a USB medium then we have some articles that are going to help you in achieving it.
Command line bootable USB creation tools:
- How To Create Multiboot USB Drives With Ventoy In Linux
- How To Create Bootable USB Drive Using dd Command
- Bootiso Lets You Safely Create Bootable USB Drive In Linux
Graphical bootable USB creation tools:
- Create Bootable USB Drive With Ventoy WebUI In Linux
- Create Bootable USB Drives And SD Cards With Etcher In Linux
- Popsicle – Create Multiple Bootable USB Drives At Once
- Create Bootable USB Drive With USBImager In Linux
- Kindd – A Graphical Frontend To dd Command
Dual Booting Windows and RHEL Step-by-Step
STEP 1 - Make sure the USB device is plugged in and restart the machine. Press the bootloader shortcut key (F12, F10, F9) based on your machine which will take you to the window and display a list of available bootable devices. Choose the connected USB device.
After booting the machine from the USB bootable medium, you will be directed to the GRUB window. Choose the first option "Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux".
STEP 2 - RHEL uses the anaconda installer. Once you have completed 'Step 1,' the anaconda installer will load the startup scripts and initiate the installation wizard. Before starting the main installation, the installer will prompt you to select the installation language, which will be utilized throughout the entire installation process.
STEP 3 - In the next window, you will see all the installation options that can be configured. The options that are marked with a 'warning' sign are mandatory and without configuring them, you will not be able to proceed to the next step.
There are totally four sections and each section has a couple of parameters to be configured. Let’s go through each section in detail.
STEP 4 - Let’s start with a simple and mandatory configuration which is 'User Settings'. You need to set the password for the root user and create a user account that will be used as the regular user.
To create a new user click 'User Creation' which will open the following window. Fill in the username and password. If you wish to allocate superuser privilege to the user, select the 'Make this user administrator' checkbox. This will add the user to the 'wheel' group which grants sudo privilege.
Click "Done" once all the necessary fields are filled.
Click "Root Password" to set the password for the root user. If you want to disable root user login through SSH, then deselect the "Allow root SSH login with password" checkbox. Click "Done" and move to the installation summary window.
STEP 5 - Let’s configure all the options under localization.
KEYBOARD - Click 'keyboard' which will take you to the keyboard layout window. Here you can add or remove keyboard layouts according to your need. If you need a new layout click the '+' symbol and it will show the list of available keyboard layouts. If you wish to remove a layout, select the layout and press the '-' symbol.
Click "Done" once the keyboard layout is selected.
LANGUAGE SUPPORT - Click 'Language Support' and it will take you to the window where you can select any additional language to be installed. You have options to choose multiple languages and click 'Done' after selection.
TIME & DATE - Click on 'Time & Date' which will take you to a window where you can configure date and time based on timezone. You can either choose the region and city from the drop-down box or pinpoint the location on the map.
You can also enable 'Network Time' which will sync the system time with the network time server. Toggle the 'Network Time' which will pool the time from a predefined network time server. If you wish to configure additional network time servers, click the 'Settings' icon next to network time and add the hostname.
Now we have configured all the options under localization.
STEP 6 - In this step, we will configure all options under 'Software'.
CONNECT TO REDHAT - You need to register your machine with redhat and subscribe in order to install any packages or updates. Click 'Connect To Redhat' which will take you to the window where you can use your redhat credentials to register. Once all the details are entered click “Register”.
I prefer to skip registration for now and will show you the steps to register once the installation is completed.
INSTALLATION SOURCE - There are different ways to install RHEL OS. You can install it through ISO file, CDN, and over the network.
The default option is 'Auto Detected Installation Media', which automatically scans for the ISO image from the connected device. If this option is not selected, be sure to choose it and then click on 'Verify'. Afterward, you will receive a message confirming that there are no issues with the installation media.
Click 'Done' to configure the next item under software.
SOFTWARE SELECTION - Click 'Software Selection' and select 'Workstation' as the base environment. RHEL comes with Gnome as the desktop environment. If you wish to install additional software like Internet applications, development tools, administration tools, etc you can select the appropriate options from the right-hand side of the window.
Click 'Done' to move to the next step.
STEP 7 - Now that we have configured all the options under the software section, let's move to the System section.
INSTALLATION DESTINATION - This is an important step in the installation process. You have to partition the disk to install the RHEL operating system and store the system and personal files. Click 'Destination Location' which will open the window to create and configure partitions.
Select 'Custom' and press 'Done'.
You can see the existing Windows partitions by expanding the 'unknown' section.
There are two ways to create new partitions.
- Create partitions automatically by clicking the 'Click here to create them automatically' option.
- Click the '+' symbol to manually add each partition and configure its associated parameters.
Let’s see how to create partitions in both ways.
Method 1:
First, let’s create partitions automatically by clicking the highlighted (#1) option in the above image. Before selecting the option, you have to decide the partitioning scheme for the disk. Based upon the selection the partitions will be created.
There are three partitioning schemes. I choose to go with the Standard partition.
Once you click the first option, partitions will be created as shown in the below image. Depending upon your disk's total size, the size for each partition may vary.
From the above image, you can see the majority of space is allocated to the root partition followed by the home, swap, and boot partitions. You can change the partition size, file system type, and mount points for each partition from the right-hand side of the window. If you're not happy with this partition method, you can discard all the changes by simply clicking on 'Discard All Changes' option.
Method 2:
As an alternative to the previous method, you have the option to create partitions manually by clicking on the '+' symbol. Doing so will open a small dialog box where you can enter the size of the partitions and specify the desired mount point for each partition.
Similar to the first option, you can change the partition-related settings on the right-hand side which is highlighted in the image below.
Once you've created all the partitions, press 'Done'. It will display the summary of changes. Press 'Accept Changes' to write the changes to the disk.
KDUMP - Kdump is used to capture the kernel dump which is needed to determine the cause of the kernel crash.
By default, kdump is enabled, but it is not needed. Disable the kdump by unchecking the 'Enable kdump' checkbox.
NETWORK & HOST NAME - Click 'Network & Host Name' to configure network-related settings. You can set the static IP and hostname. Press 'Done' once the configuration is completed.
SECURITY PROFILE - Security profiles contain different profiles which will implement industry standard policies. This is very helpful when we install RHEL as a server operating system. From the workstation perspective, the security profile is not required and if needed, it can be enabled later.
Toggle off the 'Apply Security Policy' and press 'Done'.
STEP 8 - Click 'Begin Installation' and wait for the installer to do its job.
Once the installation is completed, reboot the machine.
STEP 9 - After the reboot, the GRUB window will appear, offering you the choice to boot into either RHEL or Windows. By default, GRUB will prioritize booting into the RHEL operating system.
STEP 10 - Login with the user name and its password you created during the installation.
STEP 11 - As previously mentioned, it is important to register the system with Red Hat. Once you log in to the machine, you will encounter a notification prompting you to take action. Simply click on 'Register System' from this notification to proceed with the registration process. This step will enable you to access Red Hat's services and receive necessary updates for your system.
Alternatively, you can go to Settings -> About Section -> Subscription to register your RHEL system.
Enter your Red Hat developer account credentials and press register. You should see a similar message post-registration.
After completing the registration process, the next step is to subscribe, which will allocate a suitable subscription for your account. Click on the "Subscribe" button to proceed with the subscription process and ensure that your account is appropriately provisioned for access to Red Hat services and updates.
Now login to the Red Hat portal -> Subscription section. You should see active subscriptions and registered systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
A: Dual booting is the process of installing and running two separate operating systems on a single computer.
By setting up Windows and RHEL in dual boot mode, you can access the benefits of both systems. Windows offers familiar user-friendliness and a vast software library, while RHEL provides robust security, stability, and open-source advantages.
A: In most cases, dual booting Windows and RHEL is feasible on compatible hardware. However, it's essential to check system requirements and ensure sufficient disk space for both installations.
A: Yes, you can switch between the two operating systems during the system startup. The GRUB bootloader will present you with the option to choose the desired OS.
A: Yes, to access and install RHEL updates and security fixes, you need a valid Red Hat subscription. However, Red Hat offers a developer subscription that allows you to use RHEL for development purposes free of charge.
A: Yes, you can dual boot Windows with various Linux distributions, including Fedora, Ubuntu, or CentOS. The process may vary slightly, but the general principles remain the same. Check our Dual Boot category for other distributions installation in dual boot mode.
A: Yes, if you decide to remove the dual boot setup and revert to a single operating system, you can do so. However, it's essential to back up your data and follow the proper steps to avoid any unintended consequences. Follow our guides to Safely Remove Windows From Windows-Linux Dual Boot and Safely Remove Linux From Dual Boot Windows for more details.
A: Dual booting is generally safe if done correctly. However, improper partitioning or installation can lead to data loss or booting problems. It's crucial to back up important data and follow the installation guide carefully to minimize risks.
A: Dual booting itself should not significantly impact system performance. However, having two operating systems may require more disk space, and the performance of each OS depends on available hardware resources.
Conclusion
Congratulations! We've now reached the conclusion of this article, where we've thoroughly covered the step-by-step process of setting up Windows 11 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 in a dual boot configuration. Additionally, we've guided you through the crucial steps of registering and subscribing to Red Hat to access updates and essential packages.
We hope this guide has been valuable in assisting you with the installation process. If you have any questions, feedback, or would like to share your installation experience, please do so through the comment section below. Your input is greatly appreciated, and we're here to help with any further queries you may have. Happy RHEL and Windows dual booting!
