[bug #61522] Expose a command to set the UEFI variable BootNext

[David Ward]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?61522>

                 Summary: Expose a command to set the UEFI variable BootNext
                 Project: GNU GRUB
            Submitted by: dpward
            Submitted on: Mon 22 Nov 2021 04:12:47 AM UTC
                Category: Booting
                Severity: Major
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Feature Request
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: David Ward
        Originator Email: david.ward@ll.mit.edu
             Open/Closed: Open
                 Release: 
                 Release: Git master
         Discussion Lock: Any
         Reproducibility: None
         Planned Release: None

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Details:

It is documented
<https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html#UEFI-secure-boot-and-shim>
that the 'chainloader' command does not work with UEFI Secure Boot. In
particular, this affects booting Windows with a BitLocker-encrypted partition.
os-prober will detect the Windows installation and create a GRUB menu entry
for it using 'chainloader'; but the user will be prompted for the BitLocker
recovery key when choosing this entry.

As an alternative to chainloading, GRUB should provide a way to set the UEFI
variable _BootNext_ to a specific UEFI boot entry (such as the Windows Boot
Manager). Then GRUB can reboot the system, and this entry will be selected
automatically during the next boot. This would avoid the issue with BitLocker
described above.

This could either be exposed as a new GRUB command, or as an optional
parameter to the 'reboot' command on EFI systems. The existing function
grub_efi_set_variable() can be used to achieve this.




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