Q4OS Forum

arcadiabay

Member

Registered: 2019-03-05

Posts: 11

Setup partitions after W10 installation or guide to create trustedkeys

Hello,
first of all thanks for this nice distribution, i really like it (especially for the old windows look with MS fonts when tweaked).
Unfortunately i bought a laptop that has the secure boot permanently activated (it's not possible to disable it, it's an amibios OptioV UEFI firmware). My laptop has an emmc with Windows 10 preinstalled on it).
It's not possible to boot on a Linux boot key (In UEFI mode) even with the Centaurus version and the calamares installer, but it's works like a charm when booting with a Windows 10 key :-(
So i test the alternative to install Q4OS from Windows 10. And it worked ! (and Grub is installed) Surprisingly i did not have to perform the MOK management (But i have done so many tries to manage UEFI, that i remember that i already had to pass through these screens...
After that here are my questions :
- I noticed that when using the windows installer, Q4OS is installed on a NTFS partition which is not the best way to install Linux...
So after the installation is it possible with gparted in Q4OS to create new EXT4, swap partitions (for eg.) and migrate Q4OS to them ?

- Is there a step-by-step guide somewhere to generate all the trusted keys (PK,KEK,..) to be able to boot from Linux in usb ? I saw some docs on the web, so i partially made the thing, but never arrived to do it entirely.
I asked the question because i read somewhere that with a Debian distro it was possible to do so

Thanks for your help

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,501

Website

Re: Setup partitions after W10 installation or guide to create trustedkeys

Q4OS Live media should boot on Secure boot machines out of the box. So a few questions:
- What specific installation media did you download to install Q4OS from ? Install-cd or live-cd, Scorpion, Centaurus, cd, dvd, usb.. ?
- How exactly did you create the media ? Please specify.
- Have you been able to boot the installation media ?

... but it's works like a charm when booting with a Windows 10 key ...

- So, are you able to boot Q4OS in some way ? If so, which way exactly ?

I noticed that when using the windows installer, Q4OS is installed on a NTFS partition which is not the best way to install Linux...
So after the installation is it possible with gparted in Q4OS to create new EXT4, swap partitions (for eg.) and migrate Q4OS to them ?

Q4OS for Windows setup does its job in a special manner. It creates a huge file on a Windows NTFS partition, mount it as a loop device and format as Ext4 filesystem. That works really fine. Once you boot Q4OS, the root filesystem is Ext4 mounted on the loop device, you don't need to create a real Ext4 partition and move Q4OS onto it. Also you can easily activate swap partition by editing the "/etc/fstab" file, just un-comment the corresponding swap partition line. If you would still want to migrate Q4OS, we recommend you to proceed a standard installation from the live media.

Is there a step-by-step guide somewhere to generate all the trusted keys...

Unfortunately we have no specific documentation for such a job. We can only recommend you to start at the Debian Secure boot wiki:
https://wiki.debian.org/SecureBoot
https://wiki.debian.org/SecureBoot/Discussion

arcadiabay

Member

Registered: 2019-03-05

Posts: 11

Re: Setup partitions after W10 installation or guide to create trustedkeys

Thanks for your fast response, i confirm that my laptop can not boot on a kind of bios mode (i don't have any "Launch CSM" option or any menu similar to that...) I only tried to boot Q4OS with a usb key. To make the usb key : i first downloaded the iso image (i tried q4os-3.5-x64.r3.iso and also q4os-2.7-x64.r2.iso but same result). Then put on the usb key with Rufus Program, I chose the option : GPT as partition scheme and UEFI as target system, FAT32 as file system and a cluster size of 4096. I select the option "iso image mode" as recommended. I think i also tried all possible options in Rufus lol. Then when the computing was booting i pressed F7 to access the boot menu options... I chose my key in UEFI mode but i had a black screen and nothing happened... But this generated usb key was well functioning on other computers where UEFI was desactivated (or at least in dual mode CSM/UEFI !).

OK for the installation in Windows, nice to learn it's working pretty much like a fresh real OS ! ;-) (well i guess i can not use LUKS partitions though...)

Thanks for the links, i will have an eye on them because it's maybe the only option to make windows disappear.

Last edited by arcadiabay (2019-03-05 20:35)

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,501

Website

Re: Setup partitions after W10 installation or guide to create trustedkeys

... I chose my key in UEFI mode but i had a black screen and nothing happened...

We guess, your usb bootable key hasn't been created correctly using the Rufus tool. As said above, Q4OS should boot on Secure boot machines out of the box. We can suggest you a few more attempts:
- Burn a bootable CD and try to boot from it
- Create the bootable USB key in Linux, see the Q4OS documentation https://www.q4os.org/dqa011.html#install.1
- Check your USB key on another Secure boot machines
You are welcome to post back a result.