Re: UEFI multiboot
On 21/08/2024 11:25, Felix Miata wrote:
Max Nikulin composed on 2024-08-21 10:54 (UTC+0700):
I was experimenting trying to get 2
entries from the same vendor in the UEFI (firmware) boot menu and found
it tricky and inconvenient.
How so? I found it quite simple to edit /etc/default/grub and replace the default
value of GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR= to some unique string, e.g. "trixie" or "debian12",
then update Grub before doing second installation. What else did you find necessary?
Have I missed something or GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR affects *grub* menu, but not
*UEFI* boot menu?
printf "GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=%s\n" mydeb \
>/etc/default/grub.d/distributor.cfg
update-grub
grep --count mydeb /boot/grub/grub.cfg
8
So the added option has been applied. However I have not noticed any
effect related to UEFI configuration
efibootmgr -v | grep --count mydeb
0
iconv -f UCS-2 /boot/efi/EFI/debian/BOOTX64.CSV
shimx64.efi,debian,,This is the boot entry for debian
/boot/efi/EFI/debian remained as it was earlier.
My expectations for "UEFI/GPT were designed to support multi-boot" in
the context of discussion of 2 Debian installations are the following:
- It is possible to create either EFI/mydeb or EFI/debian/mydeb on the
ESP partition so that grubx64.efi from this directory may load grub.cfg
from the *same* directory (path relative to the .efi binary). Currently
.cfg path is a compile-time setting (EFI/debian/grubx64.cfg) for the
sake of secure boot.
- boot menu entry with customized name is created (efibootmgr)
- name in BOOTX64.CSV is changed accordingly. This file is used by
fallback fbx64.efi to create EFI boot variable when it is missed during
boot. Currently it is not a configuration file and copied from
/usr/lib/shim/BOOTX64.CSV (shim-unsigned).
I have not tried to dispute that it is possible to configure grub for 2
Debian systems. I do not mind that UEFI allows to put boot files for
different architectures and (besides removable media EFI/BOOT path) from
different vendors. I still suspect it is a UEFI+SecureBoot design
shortcoming that it is not possible to install the same loader (the same
vendor) on the same ESP twice with different configurations.
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