I was under the impression that installing to the preformated OpenBSD
area bypassed OpenBSD installing an EFI Boot option. Does OpenBSD
installboot overwrite a previous Linux Grub install?
In any event, the changes you describe should make Grub a more viable
option which is not how faq4 reads.
On May 16, 2026: 16:27, Peter Hessler wrote:
Yes this is somewhat recent change, started happening in 7.7 (October
2024). Thankfully you don't need to rename anything, so updating OpenBSD
and/or Linux shouldn't have any negative effect on this.
On amd64 and arm64 installboot also tries to install an EFI Boot Option
(also 7.7, Feb 2025) to directly boot OpenBSD, without needing to modify
Grub (or Windows bootloaders, etc).
-peter
On 2026 May 16 (Sat) at 06:59:39 -0700 (-0700), Heppler, J. Scott wrote:
:Hi Peter,
:
:Installboot installing /boot/efi/openbsd/BOOTX64.EFI would also work
:with Fedora derivatives. Is /boot/efi/BOOTX64.EFI ->
:/boot/efi/openbsd/BOOTX64.EFI a recent change? Previouly, I attempted
:to rename BOOTX64.EFI to BSD_BOOTX64.EFI and it resulted in the failure
:of kernel relinking (KARL).
:
:Reference this forum thread:
:https://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=12219
:
:
:On May 16, 2026: 09:24, Peter Hessler wrote:
:> as long as the EFI partition is large enough (which I assume Linux/grub
:> will create), installboot is supposed to install
/boot/efi/openbsd/BOOTX64.EFI.
:> Nicely up to date, won't be stomped on by other bootloaders, etc.
:>
:> I don't think you would even need to manually copy or edit that
:> partition.
:>
:>
:> On 2026 May 15 (Fri) at 12:31:34 -0700 (-0700), Heppler, J. Scott wrote:
:> :Re: GRUB is reported to usually fail.
:> :
:> :This is misleading at best.
:> :
:> :OpenBSD can easily and reliably be booted from Grub installed on a Debian,
:> :Debian Derivative or Arch Linux using Grub installed per the wiki.
:> :
:> :Essentially, the EFI partition is used in common with both Operating
systems.
:> :
:> :The most time efficient way to install to a single disk is to install Linux
:> :first and manually partition:
:> :Partition1 = EFI
:> :Partition2 = Linux /
:> :Partition3 = Linux swap
:> :Partition4 = allocated to OpenBSD
:> :
:> :After the linux install, use the native partition manager in Linux, fdisk or
:> :gparted, to set Partition4 to type OpenBSD(data).
:> :
:> :Install OpenBSD to the OpenBSD area.
:> :
:> :Next boot back into Linux and download the OpenBSD "BOOTX64.EFi" file and
:> :install to /boot/efi/.
:> :
:> :Edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom to:
:> :
:> :#!/bin/sh
:> :exec tail -n +3 $0
:> :# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type
the
:> :# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
:> :# the 'exec tail' line above.
:> :menuentry 'OpenBSD 7.8' {
:> : chainloader (hd0,gpt1)/BOOTX64.EFI
:> :}
:> :
:> :and run /sbin/update-grub.
:> :
:> :Your next boot should have a Grub menu entry for OpenBSD 7.8.
:> :
:> :Fedora/RedHat uses a conflicting /boot/efi/BOOTX64.EFI
:> :
:> :I'll work with the FAQ maintainers to correct.
:> :
:> :
:> :--
:> :J. Scott Heppler
:> :
:
:--
:J. Scott Heppler
:
:Penguin Innovations
--
J. Scott Heppler
Penguin Innovations
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