Arch Linux

deafJam06749

Member

Registered: 2025-10-25

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] Deinstalling Grub after installing rEFInd

Dear Forum,

I have installed Refined and want to get rid of Grub without messing up Dual Boot
It's booting straight to Boot entry 16 Refind, then I have the option Windows (boot13) & Arch (boot14)

question concerning efibootmgr

It seems like that boot entry 14 Arch is needed for booting the Arch_x64 system and it states grubx64.efi, so booting depends still on Grub?
Can I delete this entry and Dual Booting to Arch & Windows will work?

How can I reorder the boot entries again wizhout getting into any boot trouble?
I deleted an old not needed boot entry 15 and want to close the gap.

Then I would deinstalling
esp/EFI/grub and /boot/grub directories

like mentioned here
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#GRUB_removal

BootOrder: 000C,0016,0007,0008,000A,0014,0013,0000,0001,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,000D,000B,000E,000F,0010,0011,0012,0009
Boot0000  Setup   
Boot0001  Boot Menu   
Boot0002  Diagnostic Splash Screen
Boot0003  Lenovo Diagnostics   
Boot0004  Startup Interrupt Menu   
Boot0005  Rescue and Recovery   
Boot0006  MEBx Hot Key   
Boot0007  USB CD    VenMsg
Boot0008  USB FDD   
Boot0009  ATA HDD0   
Boot000A  ATA HDD1   
Boot000B  ATA HDD2   
Boot000C* USB HDD   
Boot000D  PCI LAN   
Boot000E* IDER BOOT CDROM   
Boot000F* IDER BOOT Floppy   
Boot0010* ATA HDD   
Boot0011* ATAPI CD   
Boot0012* PCI LAN   
Boot0013  Windows Boot Manager    HD(2,GPT,..
Boot0014  arch    HD(2,GPT,...)/\EFI\arch\grubx64.efi
Boot0016* rEFInd Boot Manager    HD(2,GPT,...)/\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi

Best wishes

Last edited by deafJam06749 (2025-10-25 14:06:41)

unixman

Member

Registered: 2015-03-12

Posts: 182

Re: [SOLVED] Deinstalling Grub after installing rEFInd

it seems removing grub make arch unbootable.
(i assumed that ../arch/grub64.efi removed then)

Grub has no real function there. it puts him there as middle of the man.

to safely remove grub you have to add another arch boot entry via refind, efibootmgr or efishell.

Make sure test your new entry before removing grub.

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,026

Re: [SOLVED] Deinstalling Grub after installing rEFInd

it seems removing grub make arch unbootable.
(i assumed that ../arch/grub64.efi removed then)

Grub has no real function there. it puts him there as middle of the man.

to safely remove grub you have to add another arch boot entry via refind, efibootmgr or efishell.

Make sure test your new entry before removing grub.

I usually don't full quote and until now have kept silent - but, dude ... most of your posts are complete garbage full of wrong or at least outdated information

@OP
"arch" is just the "bootloader-id" (a name) you gave it when you installed grub - without --bootloader-id it defaults to just "GRUB"
the more important question is: when you select refind can you properly boot into arch?
if so then there's nothing holding you back to remove grub and rely on refind
if refind struggles to boot arch properly because its config doesn't have required options like for raid or luks then you have to fix that first
as for fual booting: that highly depends on windows as it has a habit of destroying dual-boot setups - i prefer to have grub as main bootloader and chain windows from it - but using the firmwares own boot selector is how uefi is designed

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,637

Re: [SOLVED] Deinstalling Grub after installing rEFInd

@OP
"arch" is just the "bootloader-id" (a name) you gave it when you installed grub - without --bootloader-id it defaults to just "GRUB"

It's the GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR setting in /etc/default/grub, which defaults to "Arch" in ArchLinux (and is then lowercased to "arch" by grub-install).

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,026

Re: [SOLVED] Deinstalling Grub after installing rEFInd

@OP
"arch" is just the "bootloader-id" (a name) you gave it when you installed grub - without --bootloader-id it defaults to just "GRUB"

It's the GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR setting in /etc/default/grub, which defaults to "Arch" in ArchLinux (and is then lowercased to "arch" by grub-install).

hm, ok - fair point - can't really remember but I have a faint memory of have read the default being "GRUB" (in upper case) at least somewhere - but didn't know it's overwritten by the default config

unixman

Member

Registered: 2015-03-12

Posts: 182

Re: [SOLVED] Deinstalling Grub after installing rEFInd

Boot0014  arch    HD(2,GPT,...)

How about corresponding path of that "arch" title?
I was asumed that "/\EFI\arch\grubx64.efi" is owned by grub package.
Maybe that assumption wrong, but please kindly.

deafJam06749

Member

Registered: 2025-10-25

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Deinstalling Grub after installing rEFInd

Thank you for your assistance!

/boot/refind_linux.conf has everything in it for booting Arch

I  could remove the Grub folders in /boot/subfolders and refind is now Dual booting like a pro

Also found an easy solution for not seeing the Arch icon
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/REFInd#Troubleshooting
Another way to get the Arch Logo instead of Tux, is to copy the Arch Logo image file next to your kernel (e.g. vmlinuz-linux) and give the image file the same name as your kernel.
# cp /usr/share/refind/icons/os_arch.png /boot/vmlinuz-linux.png

Best wishes

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,026

Re: [SOLVED] Deinstalling Grub after installing rEFInd

I was asumed that "/\EFI\arch\grubx64.efi" is owned by grub package.
Maybe that assumption wrong, but please kindly.

it's just a name - in fact: it can be (mostly) ANY name - it is what the user gives by --bootloader-id= parameter (or as antifreeze mentioned: when not given whatever the default is) - it is not owned by the grub package as it's a path supposed to not owned by any package
one can also use an arch (or any) install media (or live system) to install grub (or any other boot loader) and can use that live system to configure it without the actual system ever have knowledge about it
if you want you can also have multiple bootloaders chain in circles - and by introducing some randomness (yes, that's possible) one can setup a multi-boot system which boots one of many os at random each time

tl;dr: it just does not matter ... it is just a random identifier which by default matches the name of the distribution