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’.]
Easy, replace it with
systemd-boot: https://blog.bofh.it/debian/id_465systemd-boot is simpler to configure and keep up to date. On my PC I only needed to create 5 lines of config for my Linux drive, and it automatically configures the boot option for my Windows drive.
Pop Os uses SystemD and not GRUB
Debian installer in expert mode definitely asks you whether, and howz you want to install grub.
Archinstall let me choose systemd-boot and i like it a lot better than Grub2
I use arch btw. So you choose what boot loader to install and if you even want one. I’ve stopped using grub for decades because it has always been such a mess. Used refind for some time. Nowadays I just use systemd-boot.
Another option is to avoid the installer entirely and install from a live environment using chroot and whatever your distro’s installation bootstrap tool is. I started using this method to install Debian on ZFS root using this method for a while and it’s become my go-to method for installing most distros as it gives you the most control over the resulting OS. It will also often take some distro-specific knowledge but is also a valuable learning opportunity.
I was trying to avoid making it more complicated, but I might actually look into this anyway. It seems it might be a more tidy way to install them all together. Thanks 👍
— Thank you to everyone for replying. I’m pretty satisfied now that there is no trick to prevent grub installing unless an option is given during installation. Maybe in future, more distros will have the option 🤷♂️
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