I use rEFInd as my boot manager and sometimes I like to dual boot a new linux distro (just to try out) which I install with a live USB. Unfortunately, after installing, GRUB has always taken the reigns and it becomes a slight inconvenience to get back to rEFInd every time.
Is there some trick that can request grub not to install?
[What prompted me to ask was I tried KaOS yesterday, and during installation it asked what bootloader i wanted and included the option for ‘none’.]
That really depends on your distro’s installer, so there’s no simple answer to your question. If you’re using Arch for instance, you have complete control over that process. For other distros, you’ll need to do your homework.
In saying that, one option could be to do a manual partition restore - like install your distro inside a VM (but don’t reboot after the install, just shutdown the VM), and then clone the partition from the VHD to your real drive. After that you can just create an entry in rEFInd. But that’s more effort than simply just changing the default bootloader.