Syslinux instead of grub?

Hello there,

Is it possible to use/install syslinux instead of GRUB on my nixOS install? GRUB is in my opinion an OS on itself !!

What about encrypted partitions? Is it easy to configure?

Another thing: Can we limit the amount of snapshots/entries in the boot loader and on the system (generated by rebuild command) to avoid a huge amount of snapshots and entries in the boot loader?

I’m trying to figure out how “simple” things (KISS) can be made on nixOS.

Thanks.

Is it possible to use/install syslinux instead of GRUB on my
nixOS install?

Yes, please implement this as a NixOS module. Last I looked our Syslinux is
built without EFI modules, if it matters.

Just to answer this part of your question:

NixOS makes ZFS very easy, and ZFS makes encrypted partitions very easy (and NixOS knows how to ask for a ZFS password on boot).

Fixed as of a09878c2056.

1 Like

If your firmware is good enough, you can just use EFI (I’ve played around it with very recently and it does make things really simple).

I don’t know why it’s not in the main nixpkgs repo anymore but if you see here- https://github.com/nbp/nixos/blob/bd4050cad3a4fd194823e55fbe1d1f745b646c00/modules/installer/efi-boot-stub/efi-boot-stub.nix you’ll find that it generates the entire nix grub menu for you in efi boot manager essentially rendering grub and syslinux useless.

That said, I do like having a well functioning boot loader.

Syslinux and bootctl are functioning boot loaders :D. GRUB is ofc functioning but looks like a whole OS on itself !!