Install Windows the Arch Linux Way • Hacker News Board

Re: Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

#21

Post by dataflow » Thu, Sep 21, 2023, 6:58 AM UTC

greatcircle wrote: post #13

I installed Windows 10 the other week - it kinda blew my mind how poor the install experience was. The iso contained files greater than 4GB, which breaks fat32, which I'm sure many people are still using on flash drives. So I had to use an MS cmd-line tool to split the wim files manually and edit the install files. Why doesn't the installer just use smaller archive files?

> breaks fat32, which I'm sure many people are still using on flash drives

They're probably expecting exFAT instead?

Re: Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

#22

Post by RedShift1 » Thu, Sep 21, 2023, 6:58 AM UTC

greatcircle wrote: post #13

I installed Windows 10 the other week - it kinda blew my mind how poor the install experience was. The iso contained files greater than 4GB, which breaks fat32, which I'm sure many people are still using on flash drives. So I had to use an MS cmd-line tool to split the wim files manually and edit the install files. Why doesn't the installer just use smaller archive files?

Use NTFS instead of FAT32?

Re: Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

#23

Post by j-a-a-p » Thu, Sep 21, 2023, 6:59 AM UTC

greatcircle wrote: post #13

I installed Windows 10 the other week - it kinda blew my mind how poor the install experience was. The iso contained files greater than 4GB, which breaks fat32, which I'm sure many people are still using on flash drives. So I had to use an MS cmd-line tool to split the wim files manually and edit the install files. Why doesn't the installer just use smaller archive files?

There was a time when Linux distros tried to concur the desktop. For that they needed the normal user to re-install the OS. Windows never really had this challenge as Windows was and still is pre-installed.

To ease the self installation quite a few nice innovations were made. One is a easy and beautiful install process. Also remember the LiveCD and not sure if related but the UnionFS was also a smart idea to support LiveCD deployments.

Re: Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

#24

Post by gdprrrr » Thu, Sep 21, 2023, 7:05 AM UTC

greatcircle wrote: post #13

I installed Windows 10 the other week - it kinda blew my mind how poor the install experience was. The iso contained files greater than 4GB, which breaks fat32, which I'm sure many people are still using on flash drives. So I had to use an MS cmd-line tool to split the wim files manually and edit the install files. Why doesn't the installer just use smaller archive files?

The image contains the various editions (Home, Pro, etc) but only one language. Doesn't make sense to me as a company will like use one edition but possibly various languages.

Re: Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

#25

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Thu, Sep 21, 2023, 7:07 AM UTC

sambazi wrote: post #12

RachelF wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it is a continuous fight with Microsoft, though. They are pretty hostile to their end-users.

end-users don't install windows

Most users don't install Windows. Power users and tinkerers are still users.

Re: Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

#26

Post by BxGyw2 » Thu, Sep 21, 2023, 7:11 AM UTC

Just the other night I was looking at the way a Windows 10 install wrote the EFI partition to some random disk it was not installed on at all, and wishing for this, the GUI installer just does ridiculous shit and is really not up to par with even some no name Linux distro's Calamares. I have no idea why people buy this shit, it's Microsoft's luck that it comes preinstalled and most users never touch it

Re: Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

#27

Post by anaisbetts » Thu, Sep 21, 2023, 7:15 AM UTC

jpgvm wrote: post #3

CodeCompost wrote: post #2

It's basically headless Windows, isn't it?

No. This will produce a fully fledged GUI Windows install. All this is doing is bypassing the GUI install in favor of manually partitioning + formatting the disks and applying the system image to the partition, then skipping the OOBE (Out of Box Experience) so it can be configured normally with just a standard local account.

If you create a USB install disk with Rufus, it will automatically allow you to create a local account which is pretty useful

Re: Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

#28

Post by vladvasiliu » Thu, Sep 21, 2023, 7:21 AM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #20

greatcircle wrote: post #13

I installed Windows 10 the other week - it kinda blew my mind how poor the install experience was. The iso contained files greater than 4GB, which breaks fat32, which I'm sure many people are still using on flash drives. So I had to use an MS cmd-line tool to split the wim files manually and edit the install files. Why doesn't the installer just use smaller archive files?

But then you'd use the same method as installing other OS and people would realise installing a Linux distro is easy. Of course MS already made it much harder with secureboot and "accidentally" wiping Linux installs when you install it second. Given the massive updates you immediately have to download, and the heavy push for only installing with an online account, there seems little reason to have anything beyond a m…

Meh, I don't have any love for windows, but IME newish versions seem quite well-behaved regarding Linux. Sure, they'll rewrite the UEFI boot order, but once you set it back to what you want, it leaves it alone.

The one thing I absolutely hate, is the recovery partition at the end of the main C: drive. So that if you want to grow the C drive, you have to jump through some ridiculous hoops to move the recovery partition. Had they put it the other way around, it wouldn't have been 0 pain. Even with a healthy dose of cynicism, I really don't know what purpose this could serve.

Re: Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

#29

Post by Zetobal » Thu, Sep 21, 2023, 7:26 AM UTC

I don't even want to install Arch the Arch way.

Re: Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

#30

Post by vladvasiliu » Thu, Sep 21, 2023, 7:28 AM UTC

SanjayMehta wrote: post #19

I’ve learnt the hard way that it’s best to let Windows do whatever it wants on the entire drive or virtual machine. Anything out of the ordinary gets broken in the next update. Hardware is much cheaper than time.

It's not always a question of cost. I can't stand windows for my day-to-day job, but I do need it from time to time. Yet, my work provided laptop can only take one internal drive, and there's no way I'll lug around USB drives.

IME windows has worked well enough in a single-drive dual-boot config, even by evicting the original SecureBoot keys from the PC and replacing them with my own, with which I've also signed Windows' bootloader.