How can I install EOS without touching the current EFI partition or installing a bootloader, and just use the BIOS menu instead?

General system EndeavourOS installation
1

Hello,

I have a single SSD using GPT/UEFI where Windows 11 is installed. It has its 100mb system partition that I assume is where its EFI stuff is. I don’t know anything about EFI, to be honest, and I don’t want to touch that partition because I know I’m just going to break stuff.

The other partitions on the drive are my main partition (around 1TB) and a 712MB “Recovery Partition”, whatever that is. My BIOS (on an ASUS motherboard) has the option to press F8 to select which system to boot, and I want to use that instead of GRUB or Windows’ boot manager.

Ideally, here’s what I’d like to do:

  • Shrink my main partition by 200GB to open up space for EOS’ partitions (I know how to do this)
  • Install EOS, selecting “no bootloader” when it asks, on the available space
  • ???
  • Press F8 when the computer starts to select a partition to boot into.

How can I achieve this? I heard suggestions of creating another EFI partition on the same drive, and that the F8 menu would pick that up. That sounds great, because if EOS doesn’t work for me, I can just nuke those partitions away and take the space back into my main partition.

Do I need bootd-loader? How do I go about creating another EFI partition? Is that as safe and reversible as I think it is? Every guide I find tells me to do something completely different, and I’ve been looking around for a few days, only getting more confused as I do. Please try to keep it simple if possible. Thanks!

2

If you select “No bootloader” then there will be nothing for the BIOS to boot into.

It is actually very simple to achieve. If you select “systemd-boot” as your bootloader, the existing EFI partition will be too small and it will automatically create a new EFI partition. If you use replace partition or install alongside it will all happen automatically.

3

Thank you for the information.

  • How can I be 100% certain it will not touch my current EFI partition?
  • If it creates a separate one like that, does that mean that deleting both that EFI partition and the EOS partition will nuke EOS away completely?
4

Before the installer starts working you should see a summary screen. It lists out all the partitions it is creating or re-using. You should see it creating a new EFI partition.

Yes. Although, you may also want to delete the extra entry from your BIOS.

It won’t hurt anything to keep it but it is good housekeeping.

5

Thanks for the information. I might give it a go later, then. I appreciate the help!

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