[SOLVED] Choose Systemd-boot over Grub on installation

Andreas Piening

Well-Known Member
Mar 11, 2017
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I noticed that on some Servers we have Systemd-boot installed by the Proxmox installer while on other / older servers we have Grub running.
I would prefer Systemd-boot on my new installation with ZFS as the root filesystem because of issues with grub we had in the past with drive reordering etc.

I took a look at this wiki entry: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Host_Bootloader

I'm still left with the question how I can make sure that Systemd-boot is used as the bootloader by the installer?
Does the installer ask me to choose?
If not: How can I verify that Systemd-boot would be used without having to do the full install and check afterwards?
 
if you boot the installer in UEFI mode and select ZFS as file system, you'll get systemd-boot with PVE 6.x
 
Do you know if there is a way to verify that the installer bootet in UEFI mode from within the installer?

you can disable legacy boot and boot uefi-only.

or you can use the debug mode of the installer and check if /sys/firmware/efi/vars has any files
 
Thanks again,

looking at the boot process of the PVE installer, i noticed the following message:
Code:
EFI boot mode detected, mounting efivars filesystem
This was enough as a confirmation that the installer was booted in UEFI mode.

I then did the install with ZFS as the root filesystem and on the first reboot I was greeted by: Grub!

On another reboot with manual boot device selection, I was able to choose from a long list of boot devices. It looks like grub and Systemd-boot are both installed on the disks.
After modifying the boot order to boot from the UEFI devices first, Systemd-boot was booted and everything worked fine.
 
yes, we always install both so that a fallback is available (sadly, many systems had rather broken EFI setups in the beginning).
 
you can disable legacy boot and boot uefi-only

How? I'd like to do this. I am sure I setup my proxmox install with a zfs mirror in legacy boot mode. I had some errors trying to install it with a UEFI boot. So is there a way to first, check what I have and maybe, change the boot type to uefi ?
 

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