This seems quite complicated as I’ve used EndeavourOS without any problems.
When booting Artix from USB-flash drive stick installer no UEFI boot option was available.
So I disabled Secure Boot to enable (Legacy + UEFI) option on motherboard.
Artix is installed on a dedicated SSD while Windows is installed on a spinning mechanical hard drive.
Artix is installed (legacy) GPT/BIOS with bios_grub flag enabled.
Windows is installed with GPT/EFI boot enabled.
Questions: How can I get grub to play friendly with this setup?
Currently when I boot computer it immediately starts Windows without grub OS menu appearing.
I have to press F11 key to choose my Samsung SSD on boot to access my Artix Linux system.
I’d like to have the grub-OS-menu appear on boot where I can select either Linux or Windows boot
Grub cannot obviously pick up on systems that are installed in different modes.
Perhaps rEFInd can be configured to do that but I have no experience of it.
Maybe @freebird54, @ricklinux or other forummembers using rEFInd could give some suggestions.
I’m not sure what you’re getting at, but rEFInd has some tricks for picking Windows regardless of install modes and settings. Beyond that, it needs drivers for reading boot partitions (often /) and expects a few only (like ext4 and VFAT). A typical UEFI install of Linux, and a whatever of Windows will be fine together. In addition, if there is some reason to use grub anyway, rEFInd can hand control to that instead of direct boot if desired - I use that capability for booting Garuda, which is fairly attached to grub and btrfs and snapshots
Nope AFAIK. rEFInd is intended for UEFI use, and only Windows is a special case (we all know it is ‘special’, right?). Picking up Artix from legacy…? I can’t see how…
Pressing a Key at boot isn’t such a big deal anyways. I just thought I’d give Artix a test drive.
Perhaps if I burn an Artix DVD … would possibly get UEFI option at boot screen.
Thanks @freebird54
I can think of several possibilities, but none of them are remotely “safe”. Have you got spare drive space at hand?
If an empty partition existed, you could do a minimal install to that empty space (in UEFI mode, of course), with a separate /boot partition - and then arch-chroot into the ‘old’ one and change its fstab to mount /boot in the UEFI… nahh - too much unknown by me in terms of how things get redirected. Regardless of your tolerance for uncertainty, COMPLETE backups required to even think of trying this!
It all comes down to space - you could do a fresh install, then rsync all your goodies from the old to the new…
There is always a way, but there may not be a GOOD way!
Yeah - but I’m not too sure that the scanfor options do much any more on more modern machines. It COULD be tried (if CSM is turned on etc etc) - but I’ve only experienced it catching legacy Windows successfully. If I wanted to chance it with an old laptop I have an Archway ™ install in legacy on that - but Windows is legacy too on that, and I don’t think that rEFInd could even install itself!
Space is too tight there… and I have no install media if I kill Windows (I need it once every 2 years or so to check external hardware) so - not checking!
As others already explained, this is not possible with grub.
You may keep your installations as they are and choose OS with UEFI/BIOS quick boot menu.
It is possible to convert Artix to UEFI and if it was myself, I might do it just for the fun.
Else, it is not worth (if you are not just experimenting to acquire more knowledge) the trouble. It is a new installation, so it’s easier to re-install in UEFI. Just select the proper boot option (UEFI USB, not plain/Legacy).
Converting Artix to UEFI should be very easy. Boot in UEFI mode with secure boot disabled, create a FAT32 EFI system partition, arch-chroot, reinstall GRUB (grub-install) and regenerate GRUB config file (grub-mkconfig). GRUB should pick Windowsas well.
