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My question in short:

My BIOS gives me boot options to old Linux distros that dosen't exist anymore. How can I remove them?

The longer version:

I'm running a UEFI multiboot PC with the following setup: Compatibility Support Module enabled, and Secure Boot disabled.

  • dev/sda1: Boot partition (/boot/efi)
  • dev/sda2: Swap
  • dev/sda3: Ubuntu
  • dev/sda4: KDE Neon
  • dev/sda5: Kali
  • dev/sda6: LUKS data partition

I've had several (re)installs of various distros and always left sda1 intact (no format). When I removed my old Manjaro install I also deleted the folder: /boot/efi/EFI/Manjaro

Manjaro dosen't show up in the GRUB bootloader, but it still shows up in my BIOS (or is it called UEFI?) boot options. How can this be? How do I remove them?

To complicate things it seems that I get a new GRUB every time a install a new distro which messes my configuration up. So updating GRUB config on my oldest and primary distro (KDE Neon) dosen't work because it seems another distros version of GRUB (Kali) is in charge. I've tried reinstalling GRUB from KDE Neon with no effect.

How do I choose which GRUB (configuration) is in charge?

My /boot-partition:

  • /boot [a lot of files - kernels?]
  • /boot/grub
  • /boot/efi/EFI
  • /boot/efi/EFI/boot
  • /boot/efi/EFI/kali
  • /boot/efi/EFI/neon
  • /boot/efi/EFI/tools
  • /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu
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  • 1
    You can use the efibootmgr command to manipulate the entries in your UEFI.
    – davidgo
    Commented Jun 17, 2018 at 21:19
  • Or Grub Customizer, a nice GUI, with the caveat that I've found on occasion it crashes if saving more than a few changes. ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2016/04/…
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Jun 17, 2018 at 22:57

1 Answer 1

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I've found the holy grail concerning boot related stuff. And to answer my own questions :

  1. The boot options are located in the NVRAM. They are added by OS during installing, that is GRUB.

    • It's possible to edit the boot options and order using efibootmgr, as proposed by davidgo. In Windows you can use EasyEFI. Also It's possible from an EFI shell.

  2. GRUB2 is a Boot Loader and can be installed along with configuration files and modules to the ESP partition alone which mitigates some problems in a multiboot system.

    • Ubuntu (and other distros) places only the GRUB2 EFI binary in the ESP partiton in a subfolder (like "ubuntu"), registers it in the NVRAM.

    • This binary will then access the configuration from files on your Linux root (/). This way each distro will have its own configuration files (which might be useful).

Thanks all for your input.

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