[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
bug#44898: [wishlist] Make the GRUB installation procedure smarter
From: |
guixuser6392 |
Subject: |
bug#44898: [wishlist] Make the GRUB installation procedure smarter |
Date: |
Thu, 26 Nov 2020 23:15:58 +0000 |
Every time the operating system is instantiated the GRUB boot-loader is
inexplicitly re-installed. This behaviour leads to unsolicited changes to the
user's boot configuration on UEFI systems; and leads to unnecessary write
operations on the ESP, and/or the MBR, which, in case they are abruptly aborted
during the building of the install-bootloader derivation, can leave the system
in an unbootable state. Futhermore, frequent writes to the platform's NV-RAM
may negatively impact its lifespan.
NixOS stores the GRUB derivation as well as boot parameters in a state file,
and only re-installs the boot-loader if the computed state is different from
the stored state:
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/grub/install-grub.pl#L626.
However, unless I am mistaken, that alone will not prevent GRUB from altering
the user's boot configuration in a scenario, in which we want GRUB to be
re-installed because it has received an update.
To summarize, I think that consecutive grub-install invocations should not be
allowed to modify the user's boot configuration on UEFI systems, and that we
should teach Guix to only re-install the boot-loader if the boot parameters has
been changed and/or the GRUB package has been upgraded.
Although other boot-loaders are not in the scope of this wish, brining their
installation procedures to the same high standard would be beneficial, too.
- bug#44898: [wishlist] Make the GRUB installation procedure smarter,
guixuser6392 <=