Edit: Removed, as it will cause more harm than good.
3 Likes
rEFInd
- not really an app, but my new & only boot-mgr!
Used grub for many years, BUT each time I install (or update) another Linux on my machine(s) I get some new boot-problems, most in the other Linux-systems.
(Have Linux only)
You can drive each sys independent from all the others, no overwriting as with grub.
De-select grub at install-time and rEFInd will still find and start your new system.
And you may play configuring for weeks or months, but no must, if you keep all simple…
Well documented, Arch has a excellent webpage https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/REFInd , too.
I am running Systemd-boot on an EOS
Systemd-boot vs rEFInd?
What is your choice?
Is there an advantage for rFEInd? Or, is it just preference?
By quickly reading: https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/
And the summary from Co-pilot
My current user case:
I use the UEFI to dual-boot and switch between Win 7 Ultimate and EOS, both are stored in separate bootable SSD/NVMe drives. Note: I have to change manually the OS security features as well, since Win7/Linux do not use the same protocol.
Once booting into Linux NVMe, systemd-boot loader will take over, providing a menu to select which kernel to use for the boot session.
I run my EOS on EXT4 with timeshift and auto-snap to backtrack any updates that would cripple my EOS
I guess, rEFInd will manage both the dual-boot business and selecting Linux Kernel selection.
rEFInd should support Arch distros too.
rEFInd:
Bonus: Beautiful Graphical UI
Edit 2:
Installed rEFInd, it did not detect Windows 7 boot driver since it was installed as legacy-BIOS partition. I tried to enable HDbios but it resulted in a blank eEFInd screen. There is path convert the Win7 from legacy BIOS to EFI partition, but it is not worth the effort.
I unisalled the reEFInd and clean up its traces, then let Systemd-boot as the defaut UEFI boot. If I have to boot into Win7, I will reboot into the UEFI firmware and force select boot the Win7 partition
Danger, Will Robinson.
Might want to re-un-discover that.
Grub-customizer is veritable garbage.
Its not a question of if it will muck up your boot .. its a question of when and how much.
It also affords no extra configuration options.
Grub configuration is a single text file with easily intelligible lines.
5 Likes
Never tried systemd-boot, grub only (on x86…).
As long as you use only 1x Win & 1x *ix I see no big problem, except the grub-handling is crap, imho.
Here often are >3x very different *ix running (booting!) on one machine, and then grub will produce much stress… (and this together with some buggy UEFI’s)
That’s the reason for my loving rEFInd.
Rod described some of the typical problems in the doc’s.
Edit:
If I remember right, Rod describes some solutions for combining Win-Secure-boot & Linux with shim. But, AFAIK Arch (and EOS) does not support any secure boot?
Here my little knowledge ends - RTFM, or someone else?
You still use a Windows 7 install, I hope you don’t have internet access on that install because Windows 7 being end of life?
1 Like
What ever method you use sometimes things just break.
I’m using dracut. And maybe that’s causing some problems for me. Seems like I have to manually regenerate initramfs or the system won’t boot correctly after updates.
If you install, say 3 different systems (1 Debian, 1 EOS, 1 Manjaro for ex.), you get 3 different grub’s, each writing over the other…
And then do some updates ;-(
No grub - no stress.
I use win7U for one app that crashes when I run it under Wine and trying to print. The app request the current paper size from CUPS and no paper size is returned. It crashes.
Otherwise, I forget when was the last time I boot it into win7U
App: Gordon Reloading Tools
1 Like
Thats exactly what I thought might have been happening ..
The thing is thats not how it should be handled.
Grub should be administered from one ‘master’ system or from otherwise comparable ones that use the same grub versions. Manjaro for example uses a modified version of grub and plasters information everywhere about how when multibooting with manjaro you should let manjaro handle the grub or else expect issues.
That you were mixing various grubs willy-nilly and hoping for the best .. well .. thats why the problems. If you booted up some Ubuntu spin from 2016 with some old/patched version of refind and ‘updated’/overwrote your current refind files with that .. you would similarly have issues.
I use grub on multiboot USBs containing almost a dozen different systems as well as on bare-metal without any problems related to it.
I use Systemd-boot for many years now. When I was dual-booting I opted for rEFInd but that is something I stopped doing many years ago. If I want to test something I’ll use VMs.
Thanks for the info @cscs . I’m not aware of this.
Edit: Found a way to do the cleanup
I think, we are sliding OT more and more…
My only goal was to point you to my new & interesting toy 
Everybody is free to use whatever he/she wants - that’s FOSS.
1 Like
I just responded to @cscs advice on “do not use grub customizer” 
.
back to cheese for me because webcamoid got glitchey and buggy 
it’s all good though cuz cheese isn’t experiencing issues thus so far…
1 Like
grub-customizer
EDIT: it sucks shouldn’t have used it like others mentioned on here
Yes bro, I uninstalled grub-customizer and restored the default GRUB configuration. Then, I installed the GRUB theme using the script provided by the theme’s creator.
1 Like
thanks!!!
Not really recently (been using it 4 years, happy to have found it in the AUR), but rediscovered: Thorium Reader (AUR; Website) – EPUB3 and Audio Ebooks done right. Great for the visually impaired, too.
- Can import from OPDS catalogues (like from Standard Ebooks or my Jellyfin server).
- Plays EPUB3 Audio Ebooks (EPUBs with real narrator voices).
- Can display PDF.
- Can use LCP DRM protected EPUB.
- Works nicely with Speech Dispatcher and Piper TTS voices.
- Automatic language selection (if you have SPD voices defined for the language).
- Continues reading where you left off.
- Based on the Readium engine.
Examples shown:
- F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (English; EPUB3 Audio Ebook, contains narrator audio)
- Matthias C. Hormann - Freiland (German; SPD & Piper TTS)
- Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (British English; SPD & Piper TTS)
Wish Foliate was that good…
2 Likes