Dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 11 on my organization managed school laptop

Olle

7/20/24, 4:18 PM

thanks for taking the time to read this. I want to dual boot ubuntu and windows 11 on my school laptop that is managed by my organization/school. I don't want this process to go wrong since I want this to go unnoticed by my organization, I'm not up to anything bad, I just want to learn Linux and try to use it as a daily driver but doubt that they would be too happy about it, and I'm going to try to completely reset everything to the state it was before when I finish school and need to hand in my laptop, so no harm should be caused. I have admin privileges on a local windows account, so I should be able to perform most operations. The uncertainties that I have are:

Some video told me to disable secure boot, I opened bios/uefi and turned off secure boot but was not able to boot back into windows because I got stopped by a BitLocker screen saying I needed to enter a bitlocker recovery key, which I don't have since it's probably managed my my organization, I never myself enabled bitLocker and don't know well what it is.

So basically the main thing I'm wondering is if it is a problem that my disk seems to be encrypted by bit locker. When I go into disk management, is says the C: drive is a (BitLocker Encrypted) NTFS drive, what does that mean for my dual boot, will that cause complication? Like For partitioning the drive or something?

And also I was considering to try to "suspend protection" of bitLocker, will that help me to get past the bitLocker screen and then be able to dual boot safely with secure boot off? I heard somewhere that it should be fine to install ubuntu with secure boot on, but I don't want to risk it really, nothing is allowed to go wrong during this installation.

And should I re-enable secure boot and bitlocker after having installed ubuntu completely?

I'd appreciate some help in how to go about this, thanks in advance!

116

1 + 1

dual-boot

secure-boot

ubfan1

7/20/24, 4:32 PM

Consider WSL or a virtual machine on the Windows host, that will not change any system settings, is easy to remove, and should avoid any problems when the machine is to be returned.

Score:4

Ubuntu

user535733

7/20/24, 4:45 PM

"I want this to go unnoticed by my organization"

DON'T DO IT!

Never make changes to hardware that you don't own without written permission from the owner.

In some places, unauthorized changes may result in disciplinary action: Firing, Suspension, Expulsion. Possibly criminal charges.

You might be required to purchase replacement hardware of their choice to replace what you vandalized.

It may seem like you're not doing harm, but that's false: The owner gets to decide if they were harmed, not you.

+ 3

waltinator

7/20/24, 6:10 PM

After a 50+year computer career, last 25 in security, I could not agree more.

Raffa

7/20/24, 6:11 PM

+1 That is a very good advice … Nothing goes unnoticed nowadays … It might be out of sight for a while, but will bite you back in case of e.g. a security incidence in the corporate network that demands a thorough investigation and it might bite back extremely bad … Good intentions, unfortunately, won’t help then … Sincerity is the only way to go … And you still need to document a permission if you get one.

Olle

7/21/24, 7:16 PM

Thanks, I guess I'll have to purchase my own laptop afterall, I appreciate the answers!

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 11 on my organization managed school laptop

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