Triple-booting Windows 10, Manjaro, and Arch

I want to triple-boot those three on the same drive with UEFI and I was wondering if there are any steps I should take/avoid during the Arch installation process. Currently, what I am planning on doing is installing Windows 10, Manjaro with manual partitioning (EFI and root partitions), and Arch with EFI and root partitions and no extra steps.

Should I skip creating an EFI partition for Arch?

I have heard that it’s better to install Manjaro after Arch because Arch doesn’t detect Windows partitions by default whereas Manjaro does and installing them in this order will make Manjaro’s GRUB config override Arch’s. Should I do it this way?

Thanks!

The EFI partition shall contain the boot scripts for all systems. If you already have one from Windows, there is no need to create new ones.


The actual issue is that Manjaro can only boot from its own Grub.

Arch can be installed after Manjaro, but you will need to:

  • skip Arch’s Grub installation, or install it on Arch’s partition as not to override Manjaro’s in EFI
  • update Manjaro’s Grub afterwards, in order to add Arch’s entry

I had a single EFI partition for Windows 10 x64 Pro 21H1 and Manjaro.
On every boot of Windows, the Manjaro entry in EFI was removed.

So I created a second EFI patition for Manjaro and now both Windows and Manjaro boots fine.

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Went throught that route first, Windoze updated and grazed the Manjaro efi entries :joy:.
Separate efi partitions since then.

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I have already tried installing the three OS’s before and I ended up with three EFI partitions. Windows 10 creates its own automatically so I would have to manually delete it during installation. Manjaro allows me to manually partition my drive and I create an EFI and a root partition. Other users have said that relying solely on Windows 10’s EFI partition is risky and that I should make another one for Manjaro.

If I go that route, should I skip creating an EFI partition and installing GRUB on Arch? I believe I then will have to configure Manjaro’s GRUB to detect Arch.

Doing that, the order in which I install my Linux OS’s shouldn’t matter, right? Or will Manjaro automatically detect Arch if it is installed after it, even if Arch doesn’t have a GRUB or EFI partition? There’s no difference between doing “Windows 10 > Manjaro > Arch > Update Manjaro’s Grub” and “Windows 10 > Arch > Manjaro > Update Manjaro’s GRUB (?)”

Taking into account the previous comments,
You can create an EFI partition with whichever Manjaro or Arch you install first, and make so the second use that same one.

What makes update-grub detect other systems (through os-prober) is those systems’ bootloaders. Grub (and EFI) entries are generated from those.

What I have ended up doing is installing Windows 10 normally (it creates its own EFI partition), installing Arch without creating an EFI partition or setting up GRUB, and installing Manjaro with an EFI partition created during install via manual partitioning. I have taken no extra steps but Manjaro has been able to not only detect Windows 10 and add it to the GRUB boot menu but also Arch. It’s all working perfectly.

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