I'm a curious George and I have a laptop that is 8th gen Intel cpu and looking at my bios I see that I do have what looks like TPM (Dell
calls it something else), and I don't have secure boot set. It's UEFI and GPT so everything seems to be capable of a test.

I dual boot Mint and Windows 10 and I surely don't want to mess up my Mint by switching things, but turning on the TPM and secure boot, will
they hurt my Mint? Even if it doesn't work or boot, at least if I can just rest the settings, will I not hurt the installs?

I'm sure there's someone techie enough to know.

Al

On 3/12/22 2:01 PM, Big Al wrote:
> I'm a curious George and I have a laptop that is 8th gen Intel cpu and
> looking at my bios I see that I do have what looks like TPM (Dell
> calls it something else), and I don't have secure boot set.  It's UEFI
> and GPT so everything seems to be capable of a test.
>
> I dual boot Mint and Windows 10 and I surely don't want to mess up my
> Mint by switching things, but turning on the TPM and secure boot, will
> they hurt my Mint?   Even if it doesn't work or boot, at least if I
> can just rest the settings, will I not hurt the installs?
>
> I'm sure there's someone techie enough to know.
>
> Al

What is TPM?

On 12/03/2022 19:35, Nic wrote:
> On 3/12/22 2:01 PM, Big Al wrote:
>> I'm a curious George and I have a laptop that is 8th gen Intel cpu
>> and looking at my bios I see that I do have what looks like TPM (Dell
>> calls it something else), and I don't have secure boot set.  It's
>> UEFI and GPT so everything seems to be capable of a test.
>>
>> I dual boot Mint and Windows 10 and I surely don't want to mess up my
>> Mint by switching things, but turning on the TPM and secure boot,
>> will they hurt my Mint?   Even if it doesn't work or boot, at least
>> if I can just rest the settings, will I not hurt the installs?
>>
>> I'm sure there's someone techie enough to know.
>>
>> Al
>
> What is TPM?
>
>
Trusted Platform Module

Try Google. It's free today.

On 3/12/22 14:35, this is what Nic wrote:
> On 3/12/22 2:01 PM, Big Al wrote:
>> I'm a curious George and I have a laptop that is 8th gen Intel cpu and looking at my bios I see that I do have what looks like TPM (Dell
>> calls it something else), and I don't have secure boot set.  It's UEFI and GPT so everything seems to be capable of a test.
>>
>> I dual boot Mint and Windows 10 and I surely don't want to mess up my Mint by switching things, but turning on the TPM and secure boot,
>> will they hurt my Mint?   Even if it doesn't work or boot, at least if I can just rest the settings, will I not hurt the installs?
>>
>> I'm sure there's someone techie enough to know.
>>
>> Al
>
> What is TPM?
>
>
It's a needed motherboard component for Windows 11.

My first idea for a response was "I don't know, some f**king thing Microsoft wants for Windows 11", but decided to use the nicer response.
.... still I really don't know what it is but it's needed.

Al

On 3/12/22 4:56 PM, Big Al wrote:
> On 3/12/22 14:35, this is what Nic wrote:
>> On 3/12/22 2:01 PM, Big Al wrote:
>>> I'm a curious George and I have a laptop that is 8th gen Intel cpu
>>> and looking at my bios I see that I do have what looks like TPM
>>> (Dell calls it something else), and I don't have secure boot set. 
>>> It's UEFI and GPT so everything seems to be capable of a test.
>>>
>>> I dual boot Mint and Windows 10 and I surely don't want to mess up
>>> my Mint by switching things, but turning on the TPM and secure boot,
>>> will they hurt my Mint?   Even if it doesn't work or boot, at least
>>> if I can just rest the settings, will I not hurt the installs?
>>>
>>> I'm sure there's someone techie enough to know.
>>>
>>> Al
>>
>> What is TPM?
>>
>>
> It's a needed motherboard component for Windows 11.
>
> My first idea for a response was "I don't know, some f**king thing
> Microsoft wants for Windows 11", but decided to use the nicer
> response. ... still I really don't know what it is but it's needed.
>
> Al

You have to get over to your addiction to that virus infected disease
from your dealings with anything m$.

Linux does it all.

On 3/12/22 17:08, this is what Nic wrote:
> On 3/12/22 4:56 PM, Big Al wrote:
>> On 3/12/22 14:35, this is what Nic wrote:
>>> On 3/12/22 2:01 PM, Big Al wrote:
>>>> I'm a curious George and I have a laptop that is 8th gen Intel cpu and looking at my bios I see that I do have what looks like TPM (Dell
>>>> calls it something else), and I don't have secure boot set. It's UEFI and GPT so everything seems to be capable of a test.
>>>>
>>>> I dual boot Mint and Windows 10 and I surely don't want to mess up my Mint by switching things, but turning on the TPM and secure boot,
>>>> will they hurt my Mint?   Even if it doesn't work or boot, at least if I can just rest the settings, will I not hurt the installs?
>>>>
>>>> I'm sure there's someone techie enough to know.
>>>>
>>>> Al
>>>
>>> What is TPM?
>>>
>>>
>> It's a needed motherboard component for Windows 11.
>>
>> My first idea for a response was "I don't know, some f**king thing Microsoft wants for Windows 11", but decided to use the nicer response.
>> ... still I really don't know what it is but it's needed.
>>
>> Al
>
> You have to get over to your addiction to that virus infected disease from your dealings with anything m$.
>
> Linux does it all.
>
Yep I know, it's my daily bread. But I need Windows once a month for a bit and just to keep abreast of things. (my wife uses it and I have
to be tech support quite a while).

On 3/12/22 5:25 PM, Big Al wrote:
> On 3/12/22 17:08, this is what Nic wrote:
>> On 3/12/22 4:56 PM, Big Al wrote:
>>> On 3/12/22 14:35, this is what Nic wrote:
>>>> On 3/12/22 2:01 PM, Big Al wrote:
>>>>> I'm a curious George and I have a laptop that is 8th gen Intel cpu
>>>>> and looking at my bios I see that I do have what looks like TPM
>>>>> (Dell calls it something else), and I don't have secure boot set.
>>>>> It's UEFI and GPT so everything seems to be capable of a test.
>>>>>
>>>>> I dual boot Mint and Windows 10 and I surely don't want to mess up
>>>>> my Mint by switching things, but turning on the TPM and secure
>>>>> boot, will they hurt my Mint?   Even if it doesn't work or boot,
>>>>> at least if I can just rest the settings, will I not hurt the
>>>>> installs?
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm sure there's someone techie enough to know.
>>>>>
>>>>> Al
>>>>
>>>> What is TPM?
>>>>
>>>>
>>> It's a needed motherboard component for Windows 11.
>>>
>>> My first idea for a response was "I don't know, some f**king thing
>>> Microsoft wants for Windows 11", but decided to use the nicer
>>> response. ... still I really don't know what it is but it's needed.
>>>
>>> Al
>>
>> You have to get over to your addiction to that virus infected disease
>> from your dealings with anything m$.
>>
>> Linux does it all.
>>
> Yep I know, it's my daily bread.   But I need Windows once a month for
> a bit and just to keep abreast of things. (my wife uses it and I have
> to be tech support quite a while).

I send you my best regards.

To You and your Wife in Heavenly Matrimony.

And our daily bread.

On 3/12/2022 5:08 PM, Nic wrote:
> On 3/12/22 4:56 PM, Big Al wrote:
>> On 3/12/22 14:35, this is what Nic wrote:
>>> On 3/12/22 2:01 PM, Big Al wrote:
>>>> I'm a curious George and I have a laptop that is 8th gen Intel cpu and looking at my bios I see that I do have what looks like TPM (Dell calls it something else), and I don't have secure boot set. It's UEFI and GPT so everything seems to be capable of a test.
>>>>
>>>> I dual boot Mint and Windows 10 and I surely don't want to mess up my Mint by switching things, but turning on the TPM and secure boot, will they hurt my Mint?   Even if it doesn't work or boot, at least if I can just rest the settings, will I not hurt the installs?
>>>>
>>>> I'm sure there's someone techie enough to know.
>>>>
>>>> Al
>>>
>>> What is TPM?
>>>
>>>
>> It's a needed motherboard component for Windows 11.
>>
>> My first idea for a response was "I don't know, some f**king thing Microsoft wants for Windows 11", but decided to use the nicer response. ... still I really don't know what it is but it's needed.
>>
>> Al
>
> You have to get over to your addiction to that virus infected disease from your dealings with anything m$.
>
> Linux does it all.

Life is like a box of chocolates.

I used to work at a company, where IT supported Unix, PC, and Mac (Mac II).

The result is, I can use anything.

If any environment has something I need to use, then I'll use it.

I would not be silly enough to cut off a leg and enter
a road race using one leg.

To get two OSes on my Sparc at work, we used this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftPC # Softwindows

That's how long I've been using virtual machines. I bought my own copy of
Connectix software after that, so my home Mac could also have other
OSes. And on Mac, I used Fink to bring in FOSS software. At
work, we had an X11R4 tree maintained by employees, for use
on the Sparcs. The IT department didn't give us chocolates, we had
to get our own tools. In fact, to get my first browser, I had to build
the fucking thing from source. That meant I had to compile the JPEG
lib first. The TIF library next. The entire tree of dependencies,
downloaded and build, one at a time, by hand.

*******

Part of the OPs question has to do with infrastructure.

I don't know if an MSDOS disk partition would work. Maybe you
need GPT partitioning and an ESP ?

As an explorer, you can take the 2.5" drive out of the laptop and
put in a scratch drive and practice installing the two OSes in
their UEFI mode with the TPM turned on. What you will end up with,
at least partially, is a dual boot disk with all of the partitions
and files, of a compliant installation. Then, you can compare to
the original disk.

You can use the popup boot menu on the laptop, to select the
UEFI entry for the media you are about to boot and install.
If the laptop has CSM support, then the popup boot has an entry
for UEFI boot and an entry for non-UEFI boot. And both OSes "trigger"
the install type, based on the mode you boot the media. You must
boot the linux stick in UEFI mode, so the Linux OS will know
you want UEFI and all the trimmings.

Linux has a shim, with some key signed by Microsoft, that allows
the same key structure to be used for both. I don't know any more
about the TPM side than that. If you were to mix Windows 7 into
this mess, I don't know if that would work (secure boot setting ON).

To examine the ESP, you can dd transfer /dev/sda1 to some.img file
and loopback mount it.

sudo mount -t vfat -o loop some.img /mnt/somemountpoint

and then you can use nemo or thunar and have a look at the
files in the loopback mounted partition. Then it's easy to
examine a grub file, .efi files or whatever. Partition
type EF00 would not normally mount, but if you take a snapshot
of it, and loopback mount it, you can look inside.

It's better to have some idea, now, as to how it is lashed
together, then have to do this later when something breaks.

Windows has an MBR2GPT.EXE routine, right in the OS, but it has
a lot of conditions that must be met, before it can be used.
It's not exactly "Partition Magic" :-/ But considering
the complexity of changing a disk setup, neither should the
exercise be particularly trivial. It would be like repaving
your city, in a single day, lots and lots of partition
operations and (knowing most users) no backups. There is a
web page listing the limitations of the converter.

I've considered the idea of trying this, but it's not a high
priority on my list.

Windows has a TPM status page, so you can see whether
Windows thinks the TPM is workable (whether it's fTPM or
a physical TPM). I use a physical TPM, which is why my
AMD 5600G setup is unaffected by the recent "stuttering" bug.
I was shocked, when picking up a motherboard, I asked the
clerk if they had the TPM, and he said "I have a ton of them".
It would appear MSI shipped enough TPMs to put one on each
motherboard, which is why the store had some (all the TPMs
have custom keying, so mine only fits an MSI board).

Paul

On Sat, 12 Mar 2022 17:08:28 -0500, Nic wrote:

Amen to that Winblows has sucked since the end of XP.
--
Linux Mint is not just for the eggheads, I am proof of that.
Registered Linux user 547626

On 3/12/22 22:56, Big Al wrote:
> On 3/12/22 14:35, this is what Nic wrote:
>> On 3/12/22 2:01 PM, Big Al wrote:
>>> I'm a curious George and I have a laptop that is 8th gen Intel cpu
>>> and looking at my bios I see that I do have what looks like TPM (Dell
>>> calls it something else), and I don't have secure boot set.  It's
>>> UEFI and GPT so everything seems to be capable of a test.
>>>
>>> I dual boot Mint and Windows 10 and I surely don't want to mess up my
>>> Mint by switching things, but turning on the TPM and secure boot,
>>> will they hurt my Mint?   Even if it doesn't work or boot, at least
>>> if I can just rest the settings, will I not hurt the installs?
>>>
>>> I'm sure there's someone techie enough to know.
>>>
>>> Al
>>
>> What is TPM?
>>
>>
> It's a needed motherboard component for Windows 11.
>
> My first idea for a response was "I don't know, some f**king thing
> Microsoft wants for Windows 11", but decided to use the nicer response.
> ... still I really don't know what it is but it's needed.
>
> Al

Billy wants to render perfectly good hardware unusable so he can sell
more hardware.

Never mind there are several ways to bypass that shit.

--
“The further a society drift from the truth,
the more it will hate those who speak it”

George Orwell

Big Al <Bears@invalid.com>:
> > Linux does it all.

> Yep I know, it's my daily bread. But I need Windows once a month
> for a bit and just to keep abreast of things.
> (my wife uses it and I have to be tech support quite a while).

Get a new wife, one in Mint condition ;-)

Yrrah