From Windows 10 Refugee to Encrypted Fedora 43 Warrior: My HP OMEN Install Story 🚀

Hey folks,Remember me? The guy who survived Windows ME, Vista, and every registry edit disaster from Pentium 4 days to my trusty Core i7-7700HQ HP OMEN 15. Microsoft pulling the plug on Windows 10 was the final straw – no way was I downgrading to that Windows 11 TPM nagware on my perfectly good 16GB DDR4 rig with 1TB Samsung NVMe + 1TB HDD.

After a bit of live distro-hopping, I finally pulled the trigger on Fedora 43 Workstation. And get this: the installer (Anaconda) auto-magically encrypted both my drives with LUKS, no manual partitioning headache required. 😎 Here’s the exact step-by-step I followed – dead simple, factual, and Windows-refugee friendly.

Why Fedora 43 on HP OMEN? The Perfect Storm ☔

Fedora 43 rocks GNOME 49, Linux 6.17 kernel, and Btrfs by default – buttery smooth on my 7700HQ gaming laptop. HP OMEN laptops play nice with Fedora; Wi-Fi, trackpad, and fans just worked out of the live USB.Best part? Anaconda’s “automatic partitioning + encrypt” option wiped Windows and gave me two full-disk LUKS volumes: NVMe for system, HDD for data. No leftover Windows recovery partitions cluttering my GPT. 🎉

Step 1: Say Goodbye to Windows (Backup First!) 💾

Backup everything: Steam games, docs, browser profiles to external drive. BitLocker? Decrypt first.
BIOS update (optional but smart): Grab latest firmware from HP site while in Windows for better Linux ACPI/fan support.
Download Fedora 43 Workstation ISO from getfedora.org.
Burn to 8GB+ USB with Fedora Media Writer here OR Rufus (GPT/UEFI mode). Eject safely – old Windows habits die hard! 😂

Step 2: OMEN BIOS – Quick UEFI Sanity Check ⚙️

Reboot, spam Esc → F10 for BIOS Setup:

Boot Mode: UEFI only (disable Legacy/CSM).
Secure Boot: Leave on (Fedora 43 supports it) or off if you’re kernel-tinkering later.
Boot order: USB first, or use F9 boot menu.

Save & exit. Plug in USB, reboot via Esc → F9.

Step 3: Live Session – Test the Waters 🏊‍♂️

Pick “Start Fedora-Workstation-Live 43”. GNOME loads fast on your NVMe.

Verify: Wi-Fi (Intel/Realtek supported), trackpad, sound, external displays.
All good? Click “Install to Hard Drive”. 🚀

Step 4: Anaconda Magic – Auto-Encrypt Both Drives 🔒

Language/keyboard/timezone: set it. Installation Destination screen is where it shines:

Tick both drives: 1TB Samsung NVMe + 1TB HDD.
Storage Configuration: Automatic.
Check “Encrypt my data” – boom, LUKS2 for everything.
Click Done. Anaconda proposes:
- Tiny unencrypted EFI partition (for boot firmware).
- Rest of NVMe: LUKS → Btrfs (system root).
- HDD: Full LUKS volume (auto-mounts post-boot).
Accept Changes. Set one strong passphrase when prompted.

No manual partitioning! Anaconda handles GPT, EFI, LUKS, Btrfs subvolumes. Create user (admin privileges), Begin Installation. Coffee break – it copies ~10GB fast on NVMe.

Step 5: First Boot – Double Passphrase, Then Freedom 🆓

Reboot, remove USB.

Prompt 1: Unlock NVMe LUKS (system passphrase).
Prompt 2: Unlock HDD LUKS.
GNOME 49 welcome screen. lsblk shows clean encrypted volumes. /data (or similar) auto-mounts HDD.

Pro tip: sudo dnf upgrade immediately. DNF5 in Fedora 43 is snappy.

Post-Install Reality Check: What `lsblk` Shows Now 📊

| Name           | MAJ:MIN | RM | Size   | RO | Type  | Mountpoint(s)                     |
|----------------|---------|----|--------|----|-------|-----------------------------------|
| loop0          | 7:0     | 0  | 74M    | 1  | loop  | /var/lib/snapd/snap/core22/2163   |
| loop1          | 7:1     | 0  | 3.5M   | 1  | loop  | /var/lib/snapd/snap/dart-sass/171 |
| loop2          | 7:2     | 0  | 50.9M  | 1  | loop  | /var/lib/snapd/snap/snapd/25577   |
| sda            | 8:0     | 0  | 931.5G | 0  | disk  |                                   |
| └─ sda1        | 8:1     | 0  | 931.5G | 0  | part  |                                   |
| └─ luks-cbf    | 252:1   | 0  | 931.5G | 0  | crypt | /home/bitzy/BackupDrive           |
| zram0          | 251:0   | 0  | 15.5G  | 0  | disk  | [SWAP]                            |
| nvme0n1        | 259:0   | 0  | 931.5G | 0  | disk  |                                   |
| ├─ nvme0n1p1   | 259:1   | 0  | 600M   | 0  | part  | /boot/efi                        |
| ├─ nvme0n1p2   | 259:2   | 0  | 2G     | 0  | part  | /boot                            |
| └─ nvme0n1p3   | 259:3   | 0  | 928.9G | 0  | part  |                                   |
| └─ luks-68d    | 252:0   | 0  | 928.9G | 0  | crypt | /home                            |

Your exact view: whole SSD + whole HDD as encrypted volumes. Btrfs snapshots ready for future “oops” rollbacks.

Windows Tweaker Wins on Fedora 🏆

Registry edits? → Edit /etc files, systemctl.
BitLocker? → Open LUKS, no Microsoft account BS.
PowerToys? → GNOME extensions + power-profiles-daemon.

OMEN fans? lm_sensors + tweaks if needed. Gaming? Upcoming article on RPM Fusion/Nvidia via online Bash generator (no “Fedora-only” nonsense).

Next up: Single-passphrase unlock (keyfile on SSD) and one-script gaming setup. Stay tuned, Windows 10 exiles – freedom tastes sweet. 😋

Drop a comment if your OMEN install differed or you hit snags! 👇

My HP OMEN Install Story! 💣🚀