Merge pull request #182829 from symphorien/bootloader-doc

rephrase nixos installation doc

nixos/doc/manual/from_md/installation/installing.chapter.xml

@@ -426,7 +426,9 @@ OK
             </term>
             <listitem>
               <para>
-                You <emphasis>must</emphasis> set the option
+                You must select a boot-loader, either system-boot or
+                GRUB. The recommended option is systemd-boot: set the
+                option
                 <xref linkend="opt-boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable" />
                 to <literal>true</literal>.
                 <literal>nixos-generate-config</literal> should do this
@@ -440,6 +442,23 @@ OK
                 <link linkend="opt-boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable"><literal>boot.loader.systemd-boot</literal></link>
                 as well.
               </para>
+              <para>
+                If you want to use GRUB, set
+                <xref linkend="opt-boot.loader.grub.device" /> to
+                <literal>nodev</literal> and
+                <xref linkend="opt-boot.loader.grub.efiSupport" /> to
+                <literal>true</literal>.
+              </para>
+              <para>
+                With system-boot, you should not need any special
+                configuration to detect other installed systems. With
+                GRUB, set
+                <xref linkend="opt-boot.loader.grub.useOSProber" /> to
+                <literal>true</literal>, but this will only detect
+                windows partitions, not other linux distributions. If
+                you dual boot another linux distribution, use
+                system-boot instead.
+              </para>
             </listitem>
           </varlistentry>
         </variablelist>

nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing.chapter.md

@@ -303,7 +303,8 @@ Use the following commands:
 
     UEFI systems
 
-    :   You *must* set the option [](#opt-boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable)
+    :   You must select a boot-loader, either system-boot or GRUB. The recommended
+        option is systemd-boot: set the option [](#opt-boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable)
         to `true`. `nixos-generate-config` should do this automatically
         for new configurations when booted in UEFI mode.
 
@@ -312,6 +313,15 @@ Use the following commands:
         [`boot.loader.systemd-boot`](#opt-boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable)
         as well.
 
+    :   If you want to use GRUB, set [](#opt-boot.loader.grub.device) to `nodev` and
+        [](#opt-boot.loader.grub.efiSupport) to `true`.
+
+    :   With system-boot, you should not need any special configuration to detect
+        other installed systems. With GRUB, set [](#opt-boot.loader.grub.useOSProber)
+        to `true`, but this will only detect windows partitions, not other linux
+        distributions. If you dual boot another linux distribution, use system-boot
+        instead.
+
     If you need to configure networking for your machine the
     configuration options are described in [](#sec-networking). In
     particular, while wifi is supported on the installation image, it is