I’ll show how I installed Linux (EndeavourOS, i.e., Arch) on a Dell Pro Max Tower T2.

This is quite a powerful computer! Here are a few screenshots taken from Windows 11:

Before installing Linux on this computer, I had to change the SSD SATA mode from RAID to AHCI, as documented in a previous blog post. Otherwise, Linux will not detect any SSD.

Prepare the disk with “Disk Management”.

Current situation:

I will not wipe the whole disk because I want to use Windows as well. I won’t touch the other recovery and health partitions either.

Right-click on “C:” and choose “Shrink Volume…”. About 200Gb should be enough for Windows on this computer. Unfortunately, the UI of this dialog is not the best one: you have to compute how much space to remove from the current partition and check whether the “Total size after shrink” is what you want.

I’m also deleting the “D:” volume (I’ll use it for additional partitions both on Linux and maybe on Windows).

Here’s the final result:

Let’s reboot the computer and turn off secure boot. Press F2 when the computer is turning on to enter the BIOS.

Very nice looking:

NOTE: You can use the mouse to navigate the BIOS. In my case, the computer is connected to a KVM switch for keyboard and mouse. When in the BIOS, the mouse just moves vertically. I had to plug the mouse directly into the USB port of the computer to use it inside the BIOS.

Select “Boot Configuration” where you see the “Boot Sequence” (that’s useful in the future to change the boot order or delete old entries). Scroll down til you get to secure boot and disable it:

Let’s apply changes and exit.

I downloaded the EndeavourOS ISO Mercury Neo 2025.03.19, put it into a Ventoy USB stick.

It looks like this PC can boot from USB only from the first port from the bottom (at least in the front: I haven’t tried the ports on the back):

When the computer starts, press F12 for the temporary boot menu. Select the USB stick. Then you get the Ventoy menu where you select the EndeavourOS distribution. I’ll use grub2 mode.

The installation is the typical one for EndeavourOS, which I have already blogged about.

After several weeks, I can confirm that Linux works like a charm on this powerful computer! 🙂