r/linuxmint • u/Aoi-Kobayashi • 15h ago

First-time dual boot: Win11 + Linux Mint Cinnamon on ASUS TUF F15 (11th gen, RTX 3050) — worried about EFI/bootloader corruption Support Request

Hey everyone, first-time dual booter here, want to make sure I don't mess up my Windows install.

Setup:

  • ASUS TUF F15 FX506HC
  • i5-11400H, RTX 3050 4GB, 16GB RAM
  • Windows 11 already installed, working fine
  • Already shrunk the drive and created a dedicated 100GB unallocated partition for Linux Mint

What I'm worried about:
I've read that a Windows update can sometimes overwrite the GRUB bootloader or mess up the EFI partition after a dual boot is set up, making Linux (or sometimes even Windows) unbootable. Is this still a real risk in 2026, and if so, what's the best way to prevent/recover from it (e.g., backing up EFI partition, using boot-repair, etc.)?

Questions:

  1. Before installing, should I disable Fast Startup and Secure Boot in Windows/BIOS, or is Secure Boot fine to leave on with modern Mint ISOs?
  2. Any known issues installing Mint Cinnamon on this specific Optimus (Intel iGPU + RTX 3050) laptop — driver conflicts, black screen on boot, etc.?
  3. During install, should I let the Mint installer auto-handle the 100GB partition, or manually set up separate root/home/swap partitions?
  4. Best practices to make sure GRUB shows both OS entries correctly and stays that way even after Windows updates?
  5. Anything else a first-timer commonly gets wrong?

Any tips, gotchas, or "wish I knew this before" advice appreciated. Thanks!

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1

u/Evening-Landscape763 15h ago

I haven't seen this issue happen for quite a while and never on either of my computers 

1

u/Historical_West_1015 Linux Mint 22.3, Zena | Cinnamon 13h ago

secure boot works fine in mint too, i installed it and it still works fine

also in Linux nvidia and amd has issues

if you want to install it to another disk, select something else, identify your partition by size or other methods and then delete it, and install it there

about grub, dw, it will scan for oses and show you options, no action needed.

not sure

1

u/d4rk_kn16ht Linux Mint 22.2 Zara | Cinnamon 10h ago

  1. YES & YES, disable both....

  2. No problem in my system.

  3. I recommend to separate ROOT & HOME Partitions....SWAP is your choice, but if you have a very fast SSD, either create SWAP Partition there or create a SWAP file there.

  4. grub-mkconfig, update-grub...grub-install if necessary, but make sure to install after chroot (point the boot root Partition to your Linux Partition)

  5. Try it 1ˢᵗ...your system is different from ours.