I am trying to figure out what I should do. I have a laptop and I created a partition on windows 10 that is half of my harddrive for linux.

I know that may seem a bit overkill for what I want to do, but what shall I do next?

Note: any linux distro I try to load through a CD won't work on my laptop and I will need that fixed unless there are better methods you have.

I am using a Sager Laptop w/ Intel I7-6700 & NVIDIA GTX 980. Really wish I can remember the model number, but I bought it in Dec 2015.

Sorry if this post seems confusing, I just want to figure out how to dual-boot linux with windows 10. Also, I want to set the partition I have on the HDD as a boot setting once I can fix this problem where distros won't load.

Don't create a partition for Linux, just leave the space unallocated.What do you mean ?. Does the CD boot into Linux ok ?. Does the install appear to work if you try from the liveCD environment ?. Is it not rebooting into Linux ?.

My space is unallocated, I just have it ready for when I want to install a distro.
The problem with the linux cd's are, they will load up the menu to try the linux distro, but after that, it just goes to a black screen with a flickering line and nothing happens.
I tried testing with Launch CSM on/off w/ Legacy, UEFI and both, and all end up the same.

Guess it's that video card then - try this as a test. At the selection screen on a Linux liveCD, get to the "add options" (could be simply hit the <tab> key) then add this to the end of the lineSee if that boots.
You'll probably need to get the proprietary driver installed, but I'll leave that to an nvidia user to advise.

bodhi update: so expansive dvd drive is labeled a different name when launch csm is off and its showing graphics, but still loads forever, I didnt put on the command because I noticed it was doing something different.
sabayon update: It took longer than it would on my main pc. shows that black screen with flickering line. It autobooted before I could even type the command.
sabayon update 2: typed the command, seeing how its gonna work. (STILL NOTHING)

haven't tried with xubuntu in a while.

should I try to launch CSM with UEFI & LEGACY, or not?

Try burning the ISO CD image to a USB stick and boot the stick in UEFI mode with secure boot off in BIOS settings, providing the distribution you chose supports it, I'm sure most do. It could just be a low end DVD drive or a low grade DVD or poor image burning software.

My MSI laptop has GTX970m graphics and there was no problem installing Debian testing off a USB stick, but to boot the new installation I had to add syg00's suggestion to the kernel boot option which I did via editing the /etc/default/grub file from rescue mode of the USB installer to have it boot to a desktop every boot till I got the Nvidia drivers installed.

From a linux system, be it a live system or installed, burn the ISO to USB with dd as such, replacing the path and the device in this command to reflect your setup:
Also, many live versions of linux distributions will boot to a desktop with that hardware to which you can initialize an installation from within the live session.

Thanks man, I'll try it after my christmas party.

If you haven't made a System Recovery set (DVD or USB) for your Windows 10 yet, now would be a good time. Backing up any important files would be a good idea too.

Even distros that are UEFI-friendly do not always work easily because every manufacturer does UEFI differently. If setting UEFI boot works, use it. If not, use CSM (Legacy) boot.

You will also probably need to turn off Secure Boot and Fast Boot in the UEFI settings.

Save yourself a lot of trouble and get VirtualBox. (It's free, and backed by Oracle Corporation.) Use this virtual-machine monitor, on your existing host OS, to run whatever other operating system(s) you wish, on virtual machines.

No dual-booting, no de-stabilizing of your existing host OS (whatever it may be). Due to the presence of hardware support for virtualization in modern chips, there is essentially no speed penalty. (Modern OSes, including both Windows and Linux, can detect that they are running in virtual machines and adjust their behavior accordingly.)

Nearly everything on the Internet these days is running "in the cloud," and that probably means in a virtual machine.

1 members found this post helpful.

YEA for VBox! Might I add: OSboxes (JS tho) for PRE-installed! [.7z via GoogleDrive] .vdi's
?@sundialsvcs: my host is Atom N270 (no VT-x). Does that still have "essentially no speed penalty"?

NOT!

If the laptop is booting windows 10 with UEFI and you do a second install in legacy mode it likely will also kill the windows install. I think this also applies should you do a second install in UEFI when the original was installed in legacy mode. This behavior is due to the major differences in the drive boot sector between the two modes (UEFI vs BIOS).

My advice, FWIW, is to allow the pc to boot and install as it was originally configured by the manufacturer. Change things at that level at your own risk.

Seems an awful waste of that NVIDIA 980 though. No modern gaming for starters.

Alrighty, I will take your advice with that because I'm not the most intelligent with this stuff.
Maybe if I can somehow get it booting, I could create a partition and have linux as a dual-booting option on my laptop.
Should I install an OS to my USB stick and put it in my laptop to see if I can find it on the boot menu?

Yes, you can put the iso file on the usb stick as has previously been suggested then boot from that and do the install. A text mode install will avoid the video driver issue and the driver can then be fixed after the install is complete.

You should follow the earlier suggestions from syg00 and Brains to deal with the blank screen that was part of your original problem. You really need to find out exactly which video card is in that laptop so you can get and use the proper video driver for it.

Alrighty, Thanks, I will look at this forum post through and try some suggestions out.