How to recover grub after installing Clear Linux OS?

In my workstation, I had window 10 and Ubuntu 18.04. To install Clear Linux OS I deleted ubuntu partition in clear Linux live session and installed in the same partition. After successful installation, the boot loader is going to grub and not loading any os. Please help me rescue bootloader.

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Clear Linux OS doesn’t use grub, so it will be a remnant of your Ubuntu install. You will need to go to your UEFI settings to select the boot device as the newly installed boot loader.

Installation doesn’t remove boot loaders as it is impossible to tell which ones are still wanted it not and UEFI supports multiple boot loaders, in fact you should probably have one boot loader per OS installed.

without grub How can I install both os?
Do I have to change my UEFI settings every time I boot?

without grub How can I install both os?
Do I have to change my UEFI settings every time I boot?

You need to add a systemd-boot config entry.

  1. mount your boot partition on CL with sudo systemctl start boot.mount
  2. create a file called ubuntu.conf with the following content
title Ubuntu
efi /EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi

  1. copy that file to /boot/loader/entries with sudo cp /path/to/ubuntu.conf /boot/loader/entries
  2. add timeout to boot menu, let’s say 10 seconds with sudo clr-boot-manager set-timeout 10
  3. update the boot entries with sudo clr-boot-manager update
  4. reboot.

The same is possible for fedora:

$ cat fedora.conf 
title Fedora
efi /EFI/fedora/shimx64.efi

I have a platform with Clear Linux, Fedora, and Ubuntu :wink:

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Thanks for the suggestion,
But the issue I have is I had ububtu (I dont need it now) I had windows 10 (I need it), I installed Clear Linux (removing Ubuntu) , then installed windows 10, followed “Multi-boot Clear Linux* OS with other operating systems”, But there is no OS selection screen even after recovering efi in clear Linux live disk.
Do I have to go to uefi setting every time to switch to windows? is there any solution like you mentioned for Ubuntu?

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Add the timeout, and you should see the windows entry.

Sorry I am confused. Addtime out where? in windows boot settings? or in clear Linux settings? system directly boots into clear linux now.
Can you help me with the command?

Thanks a lot.

  1. add timeout to boot menu, let’s say 10 seconds with sudo clr-boot-manager set-timeout 10
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And

  1. update the boot entries with sudo clr-boot-manager update
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Wow.
Thanks a lot setting timeout and updating worked perfectly, now I have multi boot option. I guess adding this solution in “Multi-boot Clear Linux* OS with other operating systems" would be helpful.

Thanks again. :smiley:

Tagging @bun.k.tan …

Step 16 of “Multi-boot Clear Linux* OS with other operating systems” does say to add a timeout. :slight_smile:

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Then what does it use? How does it work? Just curious.

Clear Linux uses systemd-boot.

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after reading initial steps I directly navigated to " Detailed procedures" section > “Install Windows*” and was stuck in the detailed procedure section what to do next. The issue is resolved now. Thanks

Argh. I needlessly lost my windows on a months old because this concept was clear as mud everywhere but on this thread. :frowning:

Seriously, find a developer who cares and please please get a multi OS install sorted out. EVERYone has a laptop that has to have windblows. The same everyone wants a reliable and fast linux to be the usual boot up for their wincraptop. I am one of those people.

My windows is gone because I’m a fanatic and by coincidence, right now I don’t have a CAD or Adobe project requiring me to run windows because my income depends on it. I am an engineer and understand being focused on what you need to be doing and “they’ll figure it out”. I am among the they who normally figures it out.

Once people like me don’t have to put their crappy windows at risk to try Clear, more people will try. Once people like me KNOW it is safe, we can evangelize this distro and a real alternative to the apt-get universe.

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If you have Windows installed first.
You can either A: Use BIOS to boot to the OS you want. or B: boot into Ubuntu Live USB, add the PPA for “boot-repair”(PPA:yannubuntu/boot-repair) install boot-repair, run boot-repair, then it will add the Clear Linux OS to the Grub menu. You will also need to download Grub-customizer because the repair will add several useless entries for Ubuntu and Clear Linux, so Grub-customizer will let you remove all the un-needed entries. You’ll be able to select what OS you want from Grub during boot.

You can also make a USB stick running boot-repair on it’s own.
I’m not sure if this works with Windows/Clear only in dual boot. But my system runs Windows and Ubuntu, then I installed Clear to play with it. So the Ubuntu install had Grub2 so the boot-repair tool was able to set everything up properly. Worst case is you install Windows, and then install the very minimal Ubuntu install simply to have Grub2 working properly, then run the boot-repair tool.