Hi there

I want to install Ubuntu 21.10 *without* the installer installing Grub. I currently have Windows 11 on a 2TB SSD and want to install Ubuntu for testing on a 240GB SSD.

I want to be able to select my OS via the BIOS (UEFI) boot selection tool.

I don't want any dramas if I decide to get rid of Ubuntu, which is why no GRUB!

Cheers

You need a bootloader to load the Linux kernel and initrd. If not Grub, what? You think you'd be better off with LILO?

If you put Grub on the 240, it won't stop you from using the UEFI BBS menu to select which SSD to boot from.

OK, didn't know that.

How do I make sure that GRUB is installed on the 240GB drive and not the 2TB with Windows 11?

Thanks

I'm pretty sure the installer asks you where you want to install GRUB to.

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I think you can do it without a bootloader but it's fiddly. You would need to build your own kernel with efistubs and either a built-in filesystem driver (so that you wouldn't need an initrd) or a built-in initramfs image. I think distribution kernels already have efistubs but not the other stuff obviously. But you could do it. If you then stored that kernel on the ESP as a .efi file, it would boot directly from the firmware.

Context matters. A newbie who doesn't know what Grub is for doesn't need to see this edge case.

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create and format the partitions on the drive before installing, select "something else" at the partitioning stage, select the the efi partition prevously created on the 240gb drive to mount to /boot/efi.

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You need to disconnect the windows drive or disable it in the BIOS if you can. If you don't do this, the Ubiquity installer of Ubuntu will install the EFI files for Ubuntu on the windows drive if it sees it. This has nothing to do with Grub, it is the Ubuntu installer which does this on Ubuntu. A discussion of this problem is at the link below. Note that it goes back to Ubuntu version 14.04. THere are workarounds but but new users won't know they need a workaround until it is too late. THis doesn't affect most other Linux instasllations.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...y/+bug/1396379

Neither of these are a possibility for me, unfortunately. The Windows SSD is an NVME and I'm not comfortable removing it. Also, there is no firmware setting to disable it. I think I will give up installing it directly, and just use Vmware Workstation as I am now. I plan to switch to Linux when a bunch of Windows apps I rely on are workable on Linux via wine. It's not there yet, but maybe in a year or two.

Cheers!

Simply install Linux to wherever you want. It will add a directory (folder) to the filesystem on your Win11 EFI partition, and make it the default boot option. You can always change the default later in need.

Your concerns are bourne of BIOS systems using MBR - that is no longer relevant.

And in my many experiences with it, will ignore your choice if the drive chosen is not the first one in the system. To guarantee the choice will be respected you need to leave it no choice at all by having only one drive to install it to, with all others disconnected for the install. Once installed the UUIDs are set in the configuration files and updates that re-install GRUB will not mess with the system as they are installed to those UUIDs. Who knows perhaps they have fixed that years long mess with the latest version but it has been present so long I doubt it.

The OP would need to install Grub with Ubuntu (or some bootloader) with efi files on the current EFI partition. For the purposes mentioned by the OP, simply deleting the directory (folder) created by Ubuntu on the EFI partition would be enough. And obviously, formatting the partition Ubuntu was installed to using some windows filesystem. So for the purposes the OP wants, it is not that complicated.

Not installing Grub isn't an option without using another bootloader. My focus was on the Ubuntu installer and the not installing Grub part of the OP's initial post. Although the problems discussed in the link I posted are ongoing and have been for years, they don't really apply in this case as all that is needed it to removed the Ubuntu diectory from the EFI partition as suggested above in post 12 and formatting the Ubuntu partition for use with windows.

Changing the boot order in the BIOS generally isn't that difficult but I would suggest reading and obtaining the information on how to do this with your specific hardware before proceeding.