Bootloader

This document covers installing and configuring the two bootloaders available in Alice Linux: Limine and GRUB.

Limine

Limine is a modern, lightweight bootloader supporting BIOS and UEFI.

Install the package:

# apkg -I limine

BIOS

Deploy Limine to the target disk:

# limine bios-install /dev/sdX

UEFI

Copy the Limine EFI executable to the EFI system partition:

# mkdir -p /boot/EFI/BOOT
# cp /usr/share/limine/BOOTX64.EFI /boot/EFI/BOOT

Configuration

Create /boot/limine.conf:

timeout: 5

/Alice Linux
    protocol: linux
    kernel_path: boot():/vmlinuz
    cmdline: root=/dev/sda2 rw loglevel=3 quiet
    module_path: boot():/initrd-linux

Use boot() to reference the partition where /boot resides, or specify the partition directly with uuid() or a path like hd(0,2).

For full configuration options, see the Limine documentation.

GRUB

GRUB is the GNU Grand Unified Bootloader, supporting UEFI on x86_64 only.

Install the package:

# apkg -I grub efibootmgr

Install

Install GRUB for UEFI (requires the EFI system partition mounted at /boot):

# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot

Configuration

Generate the GRUB configuration file:

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

GRUB settings are controlled by /etc/default/grub. Key options:

GRUB_DEFAULT: Default menu entry (default: 0)
GRUB_TIMEOUT: Seconds before booting the default entry (default: 5)
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT: Kernel command line arguments
GRUB_GFXMODE: Framebuffer resolution (default: auto)
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER: Disable probing for other operating systems (default: enabled for security)

After editing /etc/default/grub, regenerate the config:

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

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