I am working on windows 10 currently. I was wondering if MX Linux could be installed directly from online. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

  • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    The answer is no, because you’d need windows to allow your Linux installer to take over top runtime privilege and modify live partitions while mounted and in use. While i guess it’s technically possible, it’s so much of a hassle i wouldn’t even want to start considering it.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      7 hours ago

      Theoretically it could be done. Microsoft SCCM has allowed in-place full reimaging for a long time. It downloads a WinPE boot image (which loads everything into a RAM disk), reboots into that, and launches all of the rest from there. Even wiping and repartitioning the drive.

      I don’t see why that WinPE image couldn’t be replaced by a small Linux image, or that you could install Linux from WinPE. I’ve just never seen it.

      That said, no browser should ever have that level of permissions, ever, under any circumstances. The security problems would be staggering.

      • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world
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        27 minutes ago

        Well this way you’re writing a boot image to the bootloader right? I mean you’re replacing the usb stick with extra steps but it’s not like you’re running from the installed windows. You are rebooting into something else.

    • zorro@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I think you are right. A little bit of research seems to show that windows doesnt allow such things.

      On Linux you could make a ramdisk with like BusyBox and your new image (or new image on some other drive) pivot_root then overwrite the entire boot disk to some other disk image.

      It would be a bit hairy, but could be done

    • zorro@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I wouldn’t consider this a real option in any way, but it is a fun experiment to theorycraft.

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      There’s WebUSB on Chromium browsers, a JS API for all kinds of peripherals. I think formatting mass storage is allowed, as long as it’s connected by USB

      • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world
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        26 minutes ago

        It is, and the whole permission is being used by Grapheneos to perform the coolest and easiest mobile flashing I’ve ever done. It’s all done through a webpage installer.