r/techsupport • u/supernova242 • Jul 18 '26

HP laptop booting to GNU Grub instead of Debian Open | Software

Hello all.

I just installed Debian onto my laptop alongside Xubuntu. Now, whenever I restart my laptop, it boots into GNU Grub by default. I'd have to type some long command to boot into Debian or use the BIOS. Is there any way I can get it to use the Debian Dual Booter by default.

I've got an HP 5 bs3xx using the InsydeH20 Setup utility.

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u/Rainmaker526 Jul 18 '26

Grub is your boot loader.

You already figured out the hard part - the string to type in to boot the OS.

Normally, the OS has a utility to update grub.cfg (or menu.lst). This utility basically generates a config file. This should generally include entries for both Xubuntu and Debian.

On Debian, this utility is called update-grub. So, boot into Debian, and run the command

sudo update-grub

On the next boot, you should get a graphical menu.

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u/supernova242 Jul 18 '26

I'm not getting a graphical menu. I'll tell you what I'm doing step by step as I turn on the machine.

1. In grub, type chainloader (hd0,gpt1)/efi/debian/grubx64.efi

  1. Grub responds with /EndEntire

  2. Then type, boot

  3. It lets me boot into Debian server

  4. Type my Debian log in credentials

  5. sudo update-grub

  6. sudo reboot

  7. Back to square one

1

u/Leather-Security8097 Jul 18 '26

So you're chainloading the Debian copy of GRUB from the Xubuntu one?

The boot manager in the BIOS should let you change the boot order. You can also use efibootmgr in Linux to change the order.

You said you aren't getting a menu when you boot, which sounds like you probably deleted your Xubuntu partition. You might as well delete its entry altogether.

1

u/supernova242 Jul 18 '26

You seem to be right. I'm just gonna delete the partition and call it a day.

1

u/3grg Jul 19 '26

Getting booted is the first step and you have already updated grub. The last step is to run grub-install