When you could still buy thick SUSE boxes with many DVDs, I started using Linux. But Linux was always a second choice (Dual Boot) for me because I depended on some Windows programs.
Almost seven years ago a new PC (c’t-Bauvorschlag Intel Allrounder 2018) arrived and I switched to „Linux inside VMware“. It was mostly Ubuntu, used mainly as a “protective measure”: primarily Firefox and Thunderbird were run — a browsing machine.
The world keeps turning. A little over a year ago I decided for my notebook (Lenovo T450s), to look for an alternative to Windows before the end‑of‑support for Windows 10. Microsoft wanted to turn my Notebook into e‑waste.
The “rolling‑release” concept appealed to me because I use the notebook only occasionally. And also because the “stable” branch isn’t “bleeding‑edge”. So I successfully installed Manjaro XFCE. From time to time I try things out with it.
Now I’m preparing to leave Windows behind. By the end of 2026 I want to build a new PC. Windows will, if needed, only run inside a virtual machine (I haven’t decided yet between KVM or VirtualBox). For gaming I might use a separate SSD, aiming eventually to run games under Linux as well. That latter part could involve a more specialized distribution, but it isn’t a priority right now.
You can see that I’m not rushing and have plenty of lead time. My idea is to install Manjaro first on an external SSD, so I can experiment on both devices (the desktop PC and the notebook).
As I learned today, I’ll also have to deal with my NVIDIA GTX 1060. I still need to get familiar with my satellite‑TV card (Digital Devices Cine S2 V7 Advanced) and Linux. With the USB‑SSD it’s just for experiments, not for productive use yet.
Feel free to ask any questions! But be prepared for some questions as well…
Ventoy-Persistence is not an option, There is a 4GB-Limit, IIRC. And I want to try things out: Sway or i3, SAT-TV, maybe VirtualBox. I know, that there‘ll be limitations, but space should not be one of them.
Never tried it, but launching Manjaro Live, mount the external disk and then run the installation?
But maybe the installer doesn’t allow the usage of an external drive…
At least i would try it that way (and probably fail )
Actually, in that case, you would be better off with a point-release distribution.
The idea of a rolling-release distribution — even a curated one like Manjaro — is that you must keep the system up-to-date, and if you’re only going to be using it once in a blue moon, then you’re setting yourself up for problems — especially so if there’s an Nvidia GU in the machine.
Well, given that Manjaro is a curated rolling-release distribution, updates are bundled together and issued on average — there are exceptions in both directions, i.e. more often or less often — twice a month, with the exception of fast-tracked packages, i.e. urgent bug fixes and security patches.
The update notifier icon will tell you when there are updates, but the icon isn’t always in sync with the amount of updates. It is therefore advised to refresh the mirror list before every bundled update, and this in and of itself can take some time as well.
In that regard, it is also advised to monitor the forum, and specifically — assuming you’re using the Stable branch — the Announcements > Stable Updates category, because every bundled update comes with a dedicated announcement thread — this is also true for the Testing branch (under Announcements > Testing Updates) — whereby the first post of the thread details all of the changes, and the second post details the potential gotchas, as well as how to work around them.
It is therefore important to keep your system up-to-date, because although in most cases, skipping an update won’t lead to any catastrophes, sometimes it will. A bundled update also often brings along .pacnew files, which must neither be ignored, nor copied over your existing configuration files. The idea is to inspect them, and to merge them in with your existing configuration files (although sometimes they can be discarded).
Another incentive for keeping your system up-to-date is that the keyrings periodically get renewed as part of the bundled update — or sometimes in between bundled updates — and if this does not happen in a timely manner, then you might not be able to update your system or install software from the repos later.
As your post content and responses generated are beyond that expected of the Welcome and introduce yourself topic, your posts and all those related have been moved to a dedicated Support topic, where your questions might better be answered.
Yay - ist works. Manjaro Xfce was installed from the current ISO onto a USB-SSD (Crucial X10). The installation was preformed via notebook. The EFI partition is also located on the USB-SSD.
Just passing through . . . seems like an overly cautious approach is being used, in that any software, installed to internal drive or external drive, can be removed . . . in what we in linux used to call “nuke n pave.” So why spend time installing to an “external” drive when “a drive is a drive”???
Just for information, I have Manjaro running on several machines, each of them “multi-boot.” On my recent home built machine I have two drives sliced and diced to hold 8 linux distros of various ilk. I would say that Manjaro is one of the more stable distros out there . . . dang those torpedoes install it and enjoy the rolling stability of it.
I also have Manjaro installed in a triple boot Mac Mini that I boot once a month and run pacman . . . sometimes yes the “keyring” process adds time to it, but otherwise smooth operator . . . almost zero issues, which in linux is actually saying something.
Just chiming in to mention I’ve taken multi-boot a step further.
I use removable caddies; with each SSD containing only one Operating System, separation from other systems is maintained, thereby avoiding the issues inherent of having multiple OS share one disk, for example.
Naturally, this scenario is limited by the number of SATA ports available, but at the same time, it’s enhanced by having multiple caddies that can be swapped out at any time.
This makes it practical, for example, to clone an entire OS disk (every so often) and have it always available in the case of an emergency – simply slide out the suspect OS and slide in the cloned caddy.
As I look back, I’m reminded that it must have taken me a decade before giving removable caddies any serious thought. Now, I’d feel lost without them.
thereby avoiding the issues inherent of having multiple OS share one disk, for example.
To each his own, it does seem like a dearth of experience available when it comes to multi-booting. It took me many years of “experimenting” to find out that it is preferred for one distro to handle os-prober duties, and even if possible removing grub from as many as possible. I install / to its own partition, and /home I can have sharing with other /home’s in another larger partition.
I found out the hard way that sharing /boot/efi with OSX and linux is a source of problems, so now linux gets its own /boot/efi partition, used to be I just had one for all of the linux (when you could choose to not install grub) . . . . On my new machine I think I have 5 linux distros install on one 1TB nvme drive, two on another SATA SSD, and one with / in one drive and ‘/home on the other.
One time I did have a linux OS in which apt reached over partition walls and removed data from another system . . . that system was “nuked n repaved.”
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