BIOS (non-UEFI) hardware: How to move from grub to limine

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1

I already have a working NixOS on a BIOS-only machine (X8DAi Supermicro mainboard) installed with grub:

boot.loader.grub.enable = true;
boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/disk/by-id/ ...";

Seeing the discussion on promoting limine to be the default for BIOS installs [1], would like to know if anyone has tried to replace grub with limine, presumably by substituting

boot.loader.limine.enable = true;
boot.loader.limine.biosDevice = "/dev/disk/by-id/ ...";

for the above grub entries. If I just go ahead and just test this, do I run the risk of ending up with an unbootable machine? Thanks in advance.

[1] Documentation: Add Limine as boot option · Issue #333655 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub

2

Hey, I am using limine in my system just one time config in my nixos configuration. And for the other boot entries I had windows in my friend’s pc. So I initially thought it’ll auto detect, but we have to manually enter the boot menu(it’s simple though).
And for your question. yes until u set things right u cant’t boot into the other extra boot entries but you can enter into NixOS easily. Here’s my config for your reference. Source: my repo (ksvnixospcconfigs/configuration.nix at 1a406a92247811b36b94d6bc360c6d59cfb21057 · vivekanandan-ks/ksvnixospcconfigs · GitHub)

  # Bootloader.
  # systemd-boot
  #boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
  boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;

  #limine boot
  boot.loader = {
    limine = {
      enable = true;
      style.wallpapers = lib.filesystem.listFilesRecursive ./nixosResources/limine-images; # list of wallpaper paths
      #style.wallpaperStyle = "centered";
      /*extraEntries = ''
        /Windows
          protocol: efi
          path: uuid(1c135138-506a-45ed-8352-6455f45e9fea):/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
      '';*/
      extraConfig = ''
        remember_last_entry: yes
      '';
    };
  };

I did some search online to see the right uuid, forgot the steps now. Btw I have commented that config coz in my system I don’t have windows anymore, so when I move to my friend’s system I can have things easy setup

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3

Hey @ksvivek, thanks very much for your reply! Excuse my tardy response, I had given up and thought that this wouldn’t be on anyone’s radar. Will give your code a shot and post back. Thanks again —

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