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Version: 2.1

Reboot to Another OS

Dux Shell

Reboot to Another OS

On a UEFI machine with more than one OS, DMS can reboot straight into another one from the power menu. It sets the firmware's one-time BootNext entry, so the boot after that follows your usual order. It needs efibootmgr.

Using it​

Add entries under Settings → Power & Sleep → Reboot to another OS. Each one shows up in the power menu and the launcher as Reboot to followed by its name. In the power menu, keys 1 to 9 pick them in the order you added them.

DMS asks for your password before it reboots, since only root can set BootNext. If a toast says the boot entry changed, your firmware renumbered its entries. Remove the entry and add it again.

Skipping the password​

Save this as /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/50-dms-bootnext.rules:

polkit.addRule(function (action, subject) {
    if (action.id !== "org.freedesktop.policykit.exec" || !subject.local || !subject.active)
        return polkit.Result.NOT_HANDLED;
    var program = action.lookup("program");
    if (program !== "/usr/bin/efibootmgr" && program !== "/usr/sbin/efibootmgr")
        return polkit.Result.NOT_HANDLED;
    if (!new RegExp("^" + program + " --bootnext [0-9A-F]{4}$").test(action.lookup("command_line")))
        return polkit.Result.NOT_HANDLED;
    return polkit.Result.YES;
});

Any program running as you can then pick your next boot entry without a password, including the PXE and USB entries your firmware lists.