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A safe way to remove Windows from dualboot(partition and grub)?
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:10 pm
by ryks
Well ,finally i will get rid of stupid ,big ,ugly windows but i need to ask if is safe to run gparted with sudo and delete the partitions
quote from google
Once you have deleted the partitions you need to go into the EFI partition (mounting at /boot/efi) and delete the windows folder. Then do a sudo update-grub. Next time you boot it should boot directly into linux with no grub menu. You can then resize your / partition to use all the drive, you need to boot from your install stick and run gparted from that. You can't change a mounted partition and you can't unmount / booting normally. Make sure you have a backup first.
Re: A safe way to remove Windows from dualboot(partition and grub)?
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:12 pm
by ryks
Code: Select all
System:
Kernel: 6.7.12-1-liquorix-amd64 [6.7-18~mx23ahs] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0 parameters: audit=0
intel_pstate=disable rcupdate.rcu_expedited=1 BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.7.12-1-liquorix-amd64
root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: Compiz v: 0.8.18 vt: 7
dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.5_ahs_x64 Libretto July 31 2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
(bookworm)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20BS003JSP v: ThinkPad X1 Carbon 3rd
serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: LENOVO model: 20BS003JSP v: SDK0E50510 WIN serial: <superuser required>
UEFI-[Legacy]: LENOVO v: N14ET54W (1.32 ) date: 03/19/2020
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 18.7 Wh (100.0%) condition: 18.7/49.0 Wh (38.1%) volts: 16.7 min: 15.4
model: LGC 00HW002 type: Li-poly serial: <filter> status: full
CPU:
Info: model: Intel Core i5-5200U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Broadwell gen: core 5 level: v3
note: check built: 2015-18 process: Intel 14nm family: 6 model-id: 0x3D (61) stepping: 4
microcode: 0x2F
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache: L1: 128 KiB
desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 2494 min/max: 500/2201 boost: enabled scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq
governor: ondemand cores: 1: 2494 2: 2494 3: 2494 4: 2494 bogomips: 17560
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Vulnerabilities:
Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
Type: retbleed status: Not affected
Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB
filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-8
process: Intel 14nm built: 2014-15 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2
bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:1616 class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Lite-On Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-8:6 chip-ID: 04ca:7049
class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: Compiz v: 0.8.18 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 509x286mm (20.04x11.26") s-diag: 584mm (22.99")
Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x14a8 built: 2013 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 158
gamma: 1.2 size: 308x173mm (12.13x6.81") diag: 353mm (13.9") ratio: 16:9 modes: 1920x1080
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 24.2.8-1mx23ahs renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2)
direct-render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0
chip-ID: 8086:160c class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:9ca0 class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.7.12-1-liquorix-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
2: wireplumber status: active tools: pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Server-2: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: off (using pipewire-pulse) tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I218-V vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: kernel port: 3080
bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:15a3 class-ID: 0200
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl pcie: gen: 1
speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:095b class-ID: 0280
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
IF-ID-1: vmnet1 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
IF-ID-2: vmnet8 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
IF-ID-3: wwan0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 2-7:5
chip-ID: 8087:0a2a class-ID: e001
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 3 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.2
sub-v: 1000 hci-v: 4.2 rev: 1000
Info: acl-mtu: 1021:5 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff
link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio,
telephony
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 125.78 GiB (52.7%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: MZNLN256HCHP-000L7 size: 238.47 GiB
block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2L6Q
scheme: MBR
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 157.39 GiB size: 153.86 GiB (97.76%) used: 125.78 GiB (81.8%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 76.0 C pch: 67.5 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 4335
Repos:
Packages: 3813 pm: dpkg pkgs: 3786 libs: 2164 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 27
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/megasync.list
1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/meganz-archive-keyring.gpg] https://mega.nz/linux/repo/Debian_12/ ./
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
1: deb http://mxlinux.mirrors.uk2.net/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
2: deb http://mxlinux.mirrors.uk2.net/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm ahs
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teamviewer.list
1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teamviewer-keyring.gpg] https://linux.teamviewer.com/deb stable main
Info:
Processes: 329 Uptime: 21m wakeups: 1 Memory: 7.45 GiB used: 3.78 GiB (50.7%) Init: systemd
v: 252 target: graphical (5) default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 11/12
Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)
Re: A safe way to remove Windows from dualboot(partition and grub)? [Solved]
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:30 pm
by j2mcgreg
Your best bet would be:
1) create a snapshot of your current MX install and write it to your USB drive
2) Use User Installed Programs (UIP) on MX Tools to generate a text file of all the packages you have installed yourself then save it to an external location
3) back up your data to an external location + bookmarks + address books etc and the hidden .thunderbird folder
4) do a fresh install with the snapshot made in step #1 and then restore your data et al from the backup created in step #3
5) run UIP and feed it the text file created in step #2
Re: A safe way to remove Windows from dualboot(partition and grub)?
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:35 pm
by ryks
j2mcgreg wrote: Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:30 pm
Your best bet would be:
1) create a snapshot of your current MX install and write it to your USB drive
2) Use User Installed Programs (UIP) on MX Tools to generate a text file of all the packages you have installed yourself then save it to an external location
3) back up your data to an external location + bookmarks + address books etc and the hidden .thunderbird folder
4) do a fresh install with the snapshot made in step #1 and then restore your data et al from the backup created in step #3
5) run UIP and feed it the text file created in step #2
My only concern is to make a mistake and xxxxxxx up quickly ....I will digg for more options and of course ,backup data first ...
Ths j2mcgreg
Re: A safe way to remove Windows from dualboot(partition and grub)?
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2025 4:25 pm
by MXRobo
Maybe try:
Still do j2mcgreg's steps 1,2, & 3, then wipe the window's partitions with Gparted,
then maybe MX-Boot-Options > Manage UEFI Boot Options.
Use Gparted to not only wipe windows, but enlarge MX partitions.
Leave the ESP partition as is.
Don't know:
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)
and reason for strikeouts.
Maybe something similar with Legacy MBR in Gparted.
Gparted is fairly robust, and on the surface, it seems as though enlarging would be safer than shrinking - but maybe not.
Re: A safe way to remove Windows from dualboot(partition and grub)?
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2025 4:58 pm
by fehlix
Maybe you have asked the question wrongly, I.E. without providing context.
Now you got some answers. And have confused yourself and also partly the helpful helper.
Simply this: The QSI provided by you and also the Gparted far to big screen dump, shows clearly Windows is installed on a msdos-partition table
where only one bootloader exists within the MBR section of the drive.
And Windows can only be installed and run with non-UEFI boot mode on a msdos-drive.
After you have installed MX Linux, the mbr-bootcode was replaced already by MX Linux GRUB installer.
So, simply reformat all Windows NTFS drives and no trace would be left from Windows on that drive.
Thats it.
Re: A safe way to remove Windows from dualboot(partition and grub)?
Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 3:04 pm
by ryks
j2mcgreg wrote: Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:30 pm
Your best bet would be:
1) create a snapshot of your current MX install and write it to your USB drive
2) Use User Installed Programs (UIP) on MX Tools to generate a text file of all the packages you have installed yourself then save it to an external location
3) back up your data to an external location + bookmarks + address books etc and the hidden .thunderbird folder
4) do a fresh install with the snapshot made in step #1 and then restore your data et al from the backup created in step #3
5) run UIP and feed it the text file created in step #2
Fresh install again .I did make a backup with macrium reflect (entire hdd_),made a list with UIP.It took some time .Now i have only ext 4 .Uip list faild with half of my stuff so i will install them one by one .
So far so good .j2mcgreg was the right solution for me .Microsoft ,xxxxxxx off!
Re: A safe way to remove Windows from dualboot(partition and grub)?
Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 3:09 pm
by fehlix
Did you update the package list, e.g with sudo apt update, before running uip?
Re: A safe way to remove Windows from dualboot(partition and grub)?
Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 11:24 pm
by ryks
fehlix wrote: Sun Mar 30, 2025 3:09 pm
Did you update the package list, e.g with sudo apt update, before running uip?
In this scenario-no .Some of them are compiled by me with missing dependencies .Don t worries ,nothing is lost ,is more (the time lost -installing ) .Everithing is back again and running like it should .About update and upgrade ?Often .Thank you !