Debian developer Luca Boccassi has begun working on [1]systemd-boot support for using it as an alternative to the GRUB bootloader.

With pending patches for the Debian Installer, when using the "expert" mode for the installation there would be the optional ability to use systemd-boot for booting the Debian Linux installation rather than relying on GRUB.

For now though the systemd-boot support in the Debian Installer is limited to the expert mode. But with time it may be expanded to show by default, after sufficient testing as well as getting the UEFI Secure Boot integration ironed out. The plan though is for GRUB to remain the default bootloader of Debian.

Those interested in using systemd-boot with Debian can see [2]this debian-boot mailing list thread started today over the merge requests providing this initial support. It will be interesting to see how far along the systemd-boot integration is by the time of the next Debian release, Debian 13 "Trixie", that will likely see its stable debut in 2025.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/search/systemd-boot

[2] https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2024/06/msg00013.html