OS: BOOT: Bootloader commands

Multi Booting

Multi Booting across various OS with mostly ease is documented here

BSD BootLoader

?

Linux Bootloaders

GRUB : Get rid of the LARGE AND UGLY FONT on Linux

* this is often blamed on Nvidia but is entirely up to the distro maintainers

 edit: /etc/default/grub
 insert: (yeah, that's all, if GRUB_GFXMODE has a descent resolution configured)
      GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
 optional is to rewrite the GRUB_GFXMODE to the below or other resolution of choice
      GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080

* this is specific to grub2, grub used vga=0x034d to set to 1920x1080x24

MSWxx Bootloader

For Microsoft Windows 7/8/10 the bootloader configuration command to know is bcdedit,

this command must be run as administrator from a CMD prompt.

MSWx Bootloader command cheatsheet

Display documentation for bcdedit

bcdedit /?

Display documentation specific to a command

bcdedit /? default

bcdedit /? bootsequence

Display a summary of documentation topics

bcdedit /? TOPICS

MSW Bootloader configuration

Display the bootloader configuration

bcdedit

or

bcdedit /v

Set the NTLDR (Microsoft Windows) bootloader as the default

bcdedit /default {ntldr}  

This is easy to recover the bootloader configuration if you are in doubt ( reboot to make sure ?)

Configure to prefer a non-Microsoft boot manager

a multi-boot configuration guide can be found here

bcdedit /set '{bootmgr} path \EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi'  

This will trigger BitLocker to require the recovery keys if BitLocker is active on the boot drive

hint: UEFI/EFI friendly bios will allow you to byapss the new preferred boot manager and aleviate the requirement for BitLocker keys.

Configure a new default boot menu option for the current bootmanager (always Microsoft with bcdedit)

bcdedit /set '{mybootmgr}' <unfinished> ....