this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
42 points (88.9% liked)

Linux

47361 readers
1065 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I use rEFInd as my boot manager and sometimes I like to dual boot a new linux distro (just to try out) which I install with a live USB. Unfortunately, after installing, GRUB has always taken the reigns and it becomes a slight inconvenience to get back to rEFInd every time.

Is there some trick that can request grub not to install?

[What prompted me to ask was I tried KaOS yesterday, and during installation it asked what bootloader i wanted and included the option for 'none'.]

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 28 points 6 months ago (2 children)

That's going to be specific to each distro whether it's possible or not. It's usually hidden in advanced partitioning, if available at all. It's like every new distro has to be completely turnkey to appeal to gamers.

I don't get why GRUB is so popular, GRUB 2 is so incredibly bloated and convoluted when it really doesn't need to be, and it's not even nice like rEFInd and other graphical bootloaders. When they started shipping GRUB 2 by default I switched to syslinux, then systemd-boot/efistub.

[–] aleph@lemm.ee 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Same. GRUB might offer wider compatibility and support legacy BIOS, but it's a cantankerous, wheezy dinosaur compared to systemd-boot. I don't know why more distros don't at least offer the latter as an option during installation.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 8 points 6 months ago

GRUB 2 is so incredibly bloated and convoluted when it really doesn't need to be

Heh. Because back when LILO was the standard bootloader people wanted something modern that could boot off everything and could support new tech indefinitely. And then it kind of got out of hand. Ironically, Grub still can't boot into a generic ISO without loading all of it in RAM.

Grub is the systemd of bootloaders... it's large and complex and can do anything but occasionally someone will say "I don't need it to do everything, how about something smaller that only does this and this".