Dual-booting using windows bitlocker

The article “Dual boot Manjaro and Windows” published by linux-aarhus
is really worth reading!

I would like to discuss the “Bitlocker” section, which states: BitLocker encryption is not compatible with a Manjaro Linux installation.

I bought an out-of-the-shelf new PC with Windows 10 pre-installed. The 1st thing I did was to use the Windows disk administration to shrink the size of the Windows partition as much as possible in order to obtain space for Manjaro plus my data. At that point I noticed that the Windows partition was not NTFS (as formerly usual), it was a so-called “basic data partition”. In the next step I booted the Manjaro live system from USB stick, started Gparted and saw that the Windows partition is an encrypted one.

Nevertheless I invoked the Manjaro installation program, selected manual partitioning. I was unable to continue the installation process unless I extended the ESP to at least 300MB (it had come with 260MB). After that the installation procedure completed regularly. On power-on I see the Manjaro Grub boot menu, from there I can start either Manjaro or Windows.

In contrast to dual boot installations on older PCs it seems to be impossible to transfer data from/to the Windows partition. That is a disadvantage; formerly I could mount the Windows partition in Linux and transfer data in the rare cases where it deemed necessary.

So my experience contrasts that section on Bitlocker and I ask the author: What does your caveat “we have enough evidence to discourage dual booting a BitLocker environment.” mean to say for a private user, who is not bound to potential restrictions of a corporate environment? Do you have a specific situation in mind?

BitLocker seems to require Secure Boot and Manjaro does not support Secure Boot.

No it’s not mandatory, it’s a bit complicated story but it shows how good MS has implemented it: BitLocker check after firmware update | Microsoft Docs

BTW I have Secure Boot activated and use both real BitLocker for Windows and LUKS2+TPM (BitLocker-like setup) for Manjaro. BitLocker partitions are even unlockable within Manjaro environment.