Setting up a new workspace

Installing Windows and Linux

Install Windows before Linux, as it uses an existing EFI partition, but we need to keep OSes fully separeted. An alternative is to backup and then delete and restore an existing EFI partition. Windows can also be safely reinstalled, given the original Windows' EFI partition left intact.

Installing Linux

1. Leave Secure Boot ON and TPM OFF
2. Partitions: 128 MB EFI, 2GB-128MB /boot, 120 for w, 100 for s, the rest for the LUKSed system
3. sudo adduser $USER vboxusers && sudo adduser $USER disk
4. sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/VMs/windows.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda (or sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "~/VMs/windows.vmdk" -rawdisk /dev/nvme0n1 -partitions 1,2,3,4,5,6, refer gparted)
5. sudo chown $USER:$USER ~/VMs/windows*
6. Actually create a VM (Win10, 4096MB RAM, 3D Acceleration and 256 MB VRAM, EFI, mark drive as an SSD)
7. VBoxManage setextradata "Windows" "CustomVideoMode1" "1920x1080x24"
8. VBoxManage setextradata "Windows" "CustomVideoMode2" "2560x1440x24"

Installing and signing NVIDIA drirvers

1. Secure Boot should be enabled;
2. Check if the MOK is enrolled: mokutil --list-enrolled
3. Import the certificate to enroll:sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.der
4. reboot and enroll the certificate, the password has been set during the Mint 22.1 installation
5. Sign the driver: sudo /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file sha256 /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.priv /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.der $(modinfo -n nvidia)
6. reboot again
7. Finall, sudo modprobe nvidia
8. Test: nvidia-smi

Setting up MSI GF63 drivers on Windows:

1. For Intel WiFi driver on Win10 Win64\Installer\setup.xml and Win64\Installer\wirelesssetup.exe must be moved to Win64\Installer\extensions and started there.
2. Call to enable BitLoker without TPM, if needed. Go to Run gpedit.msc > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > BitLocker Drive Encryption > OS Drives > Require additional authentication at startup, enable the polycy, ensure TPM is not required

Setting up Intel Wifi on Linux

1. Must switch to the Ubuntu's Hardware Enablement kernel as of Mint 22.1 in June 2025

Setting up HP printers/MFP on Linux:

1. sudo apt install hplip
2. Run pkexec /usr/bin/hp-plugin to install a plug-in for the actual device.

Software to setup on Linux

1. Double Commander (sudo apt install doublecmd-gtk)
2. ffmpeg (sudo apt install ffmpeg)
3. Docker from PPA, not default repo: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-use-docker-on-ubuntu-22-04
4. Ansible, better with modern Python
5. PostgreSQL (https://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/ubuntu/)
6. vscode (https://code.visualstudio.com/Download)
7. dotnet:
   • sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y dotnet-sdk-8.0
   • echo 'DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT="true"' | sudo tee -a /etc/environment && source /etc/environment && echo "$DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT"
8. Rider (https://www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/Installation_guide.html#standalone_linux)
9. Node Version Manager (https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm):

• Install: curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh | bash
• Re-start the terminal
• Do nvm install 20.2.0 or whatever version is needed

12. Xray

• Install: https://github.com/XTLS/Xray-install
• Put config.json to /usr/local/etc/xray
• Enable: sudo systemctl enable xray
• Refer to: https://xtls.github.io/en/document/config.html

13. Wireguard