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This 'mandatory' TPM thing worries me… if Windows 11 absolutely wants to use the TPM and takes ownership of it, and secure boot becomes mandatory how could we dual boot to i.e. Linux?

Also, what about if the TPM is already in use (owned) by the other OS?

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    You can sign your kernel/bootloader and add your key to secureboot (for many devices anyways). That will handle secureboot. For the TPM it might be best to disable it/remove it from the other OS, then let Windows use it, or just run Windows in a virtual machine.
    – user
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 18:58
  • I see that many people are actively using the TPM under Linux for LUKS keys, for example. Anybody knows what happens if Windows find a TPM which can't take the ownership of?
    – Lorenzo Marcantonio
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 19:11
  • Windows will probably either throw an error and ask for a TPM administrator password, or if it has permissions clear it out (and render your Linux disks un-decryptable).
    – user
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 19:14
  • In short they (finally) made a PC to be used Windows only (unless you simply don't use Windows at all). Very sad
    – Lorenzo Marcantonio
    Commented Jun 29, 2021 at 6:16
  • Secure boot is not mandatory. It's on by default, but only for new installations. For upgrades, it doesn't need to be enabled, only supported (and there's ways around that too).
    – CBHacking
    Commented Mar 30, 2022 at 7:24

1 Answer 1

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How could we dual boot to i.e. Linux?

You can still dual boot but you need to boot Linux OS from Windows BOOT loader instead of Linux boot loader. (e.g. Grub)

Also, what about if the TPM is already in use (owned) by the other OS?

You will need to clear the TPM to give ownership to Windows OS. So, any keys stored will be destroyed. You can however, create backup of TPM.

Below link will be helpful for TPM related backup info:

TPM Key Backup and Recovery

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  • So you can't make these two coexist if the TPM is already in use by the Linux side, for example. It would be nice if windows simply 'degraded' to tpm-less operation (i.e. you only play games and no security stuff)
    – Lorenzo Marcantonio
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 19:30
  • Its always the case. You cannot utilize TPM with both OS specifically for trusted boot. However, utilizing them programmatically on both OS for other usage is possible but not for trusted boot or Bitlocker. Degrading TPM seems to be not an option until there are some repercussions which is highly unlikely since most of the major companies now uses Windows OS with TPM by default.
    – sau_t
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 19:41
  • (i.e. you only play games and no security stuff) - @LorenzoMarcantonio - the catch is, for 99.9% of users "play games" is required security stuff.
    – Clockwork-Muse
    Commented Jul 30, 2021 at 6:36
  • maybe non 99.9% but I agree for a 90% :D as an engineering user my use case is 99% Linux and 1% Windows for some obscure tool. Virtualization helps a lot (except for those program who says "you can't virtualize because you'll trick our license manager")
    – Lorenzo Marcantonio
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 5:52

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