Re: Support for howmany option in grub2

[Vladimir 'phcoder' Serbinenko]

Michal Suchanek wrote:
> 2009/10/3 Vladimir 'phcoder' Serbinenko <address@hidden>:
>   
>> Robert Millan wrote:
>>     
>>> On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 08:04:51PM +0200, address@hidden wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Hello,
>>>> I am using Debian GNU/Linux as my primary system. As a loader I am using 
>>>> GRUB.
>>>> Actually I have upgraded to GRUB2. I don't know, if it was feature of 
>>>> original
>>>> (legacy) GRUB or it was functionality provided by debian scripts 
>>>> (update-grub),
>>>> for generating menu.lst. There was feature - howmany. This option specifies
>>>> number of kernels, that user wants to have in boot menu. Script, that 
>>>> modifies
>>>> menu.lst, use this variable. I like this feature, because I have usually 
>>>> more
>>>> kernels, but I want to see only last two versions in GRUB menu. I have 
>>>> created
>>>> patch, that add support for this to /etc/grub.d/10_linux. I have created 
>>>> this
>>>> patch against version shipped with Debian (1.97~beta3-1) - I don't know if
>>>> there are some Debian specific modifications. Also there should be variable
>>>> GRUB_HOW_MANY propagated from /etc/default/grub (my patch don't do
>>>> this).
>>>> Kernel and it's rescue variant is counted as one kernel.
>>>>
>>>> I have already reported this bug to Debian BTS:
>>>> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=548600
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Does anyone else think we want an option for this?  It seems like "feature
>>> creep".
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> Many kernels encumber view and may make menu difficult to navigate (I
>> have to scroll through a lot of linux kernels before I get to FreeBSD).
>> But choosing kernels would involve heuristics which are likely to fail
>> if e.g. user is in the middle of git bisect
>> But the core issue is a bad menu organisation. I think we need two-level
>> menu. It seems Bean is already working on issue but I haven't followed
>> that thread closely
>>
>>     
>
> I guess it should be possible one way or another once the new menu
> system is ready.
>
> It should be possible to sort the non-linux extra boot options into a
> separate list and thus make them easier to reach, for example.
>
>   
I would prefer two level OS/kernel choice. E.g. I first choose that I
want linux from hdX,Y and then I choose the exact kernel. Perhaps normal
keypress enter in first-level menu would boot most recent kernel and
e.g. hitting F6 will offer kernel choice
> Thanks
>
> Michal
>
>
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>   


-- 
Regards
Vladimir 'phcoder' Serbinenko
Personal git repository: http://repo.or.cz/w/grub2/phcoder.git