GRUB questions

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Wed, 2023-08-16 at 12:31 -0400, Bill wrote:
> In other words, will adding the Win 10 hard drive to the
> GRUB list leave the Win 10 hard drive totally unchanged?

Hi,

the menu entries added to grub.cfg either manually or by the grub
automation don't have impact on the already written bootloader.
Adding a chainload menu entry for Windows 10 doesn't install a new
bootloader to a partition.

Btw. if you disable grub's automation, it cannot generate broken menu
entries and you can edit manually a lean and human readable grub.cfg
similar to mine [1].

However, if grub's automation, probably this os-prober thingy should
generate a broken menu entry, then only the menu entry is broken, this
isn't harmful, it does not overwrite Windows bootloaders.

I hesitate to say, yes, it does leave the Windows 10 drive totally
unchanged, just because I don't know what "GRUB list" is for.

If "GRUB list" is for /boot/grub/grub.cfg, then yes, it does leave the
Windows 10 drive totally unchanged.

Regrads,
Ralf

[1]
• rocketmouse at archlinux ~ 
$ cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg
play 1920 440 1 0 1 880 2 0 1 880 1 0 1 440 2
set timeout=60
set color_normal=light-gray/black
set color_highlight=white/light-gray
set menu_color_normal=light-gray/black
set menu_color_highlight=white/light-gray
set default="1"
insmod efi_gop

menuentry " -- HAL 9000-m1 -----------------------------------------------------------------" {
        true
}

menuentry "    MemTest86 V10+ Free" {
        search --set=root --no-floppy --fs-uuid 3F5B-F698
        chainloader /EFI/memtest86/memtestx64.efi
}

menuentry " -- Arch Linux ------------------------------------------------------------------" {
        true
}

menuentry "    Arch Linux threadirqs" {
        search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.archlinux
        linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-label/m1.archlinux ro threadirqs ibt=off ipv6.disable=1
        initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux.img
}

menuentry "    Arch Linux" {
        search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.archlinux
        linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-label/m1.archlinux ro ibt=off ipv6.disable=1
        initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux.img
}

menuentry "    Arch Linux Longterm" {
        search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.archlinux
        linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux-lts root=/dev/disk/by-label/m1.archlinux ro ibt=off ipv6.disable=1
        initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux-lts.img
}

menuentry "    Arch Linux Rt" {
        search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.archlinux
        linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux-rt root=/dev/disk/by-label/m1.archlinux ro ibt=off ipv6.disable=1
        initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux-rt.img
}

menuentry " -- Other Linux -----------------------------------------------------------------" {
        true
}

menuentry "    Alpine Linux" {
        search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.alpine
        linux	/boot/vmlinuz-lts root=/dev/disk/by-label/m1.alpine ro modules=ext4
        initrd	/boot/initramfs-lts
}

menuentry "    Xubu 20.04 Linux 6.2.9-custom" {
        search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.xubu20.04
        linux	/boot/vmlinuz-6.2.9-custom root=/dev/disk/by-label/m1.xubu20.04 ro
        initrd	/boot/initrd.img-6.2.9-custom
}

menuentry "    Ubuntu X Moon Studio lowlatency" {
        search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.archlinux
        linux   /.boot/ubuntu_moonstudio/boot/vmlinuz-lowlatency root=/dev/disk/by-label/moonstudio ro
        initrd  /.boot/ubuntu_moonstudio/boot/initrd.img-lowlatency
}

submenu "    *buntu            -- Submenu --" {
    menuentry "    Xubu 20.04 Linux 6.2.9-custom     (recovery mode)" {
            search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.xubu20.04
            linux	/boot/vmlinuz-6.2.9-custom root=/dev/disk/by-label/m1.xubu20.04 ro recovery nomodeset 
            initrd	/boot/initrd.img-6.2.9-custom
    }
    menuentry "    Xubu 20.04 Linux 5.4.0-42-generic" {
            search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.xubu20.04
            linux	/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-42-generic root=/dev/disk/by-label/m1.xubu20.04 ro
            initrd	/boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic
    }
    menuentry "    Xubu 20.04 Linux 5.4.0-42-generic (recovery mode)" {
            search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.xubu20.04
            linux	/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-42-generic root=/dev/disk/by-label/m1.xubu20.04 ro recovery nomodeset 
            initrd	/boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic
    }

    menuentry "    Ubuntu X Moon Studio liquorix threadirqs" {
            search --no-floppy --set=root --label m1.archlinux
            linux   /.boot/ubuntu_moonstudio/boot/vmlinuz-liquorix root=/dev/disk/by-label/moonstudio ro threadirqs
            initrd  /.boot/ubuntu_moonstudio/boot/initrd.img-liquorix
    }
}

menuentry " -- System ----------------------------------------------------------------------" {
        true
}

menuentry "    UEFI Firmware Settings" --id 'uefi-firmware' {
        fwsetup
}

menuentry "    Restart" {
        reboot
}

menuentry "    Shutdown" {
        halt
}

menuentry " --------------------------------------------------------------------------------" {
        true
}