Re: Grub2 almost does what I want

[Andrey Borzenkov]

В Sat, 02 Feb 2013 16:04:18 -0500
Felix Miata <address@hidden> пишет:

> On 2013-02-02 23:50 (GMT+0400) Andrey Borzenkov composed:
> 
> > If you have ideas how to improve generation of grub.cfg that are generic
> > enough, it is always possible to submit patch (or attract someone to
> > write patch to implement them :) )
> 
> 1-Get rid of the vga= is deprecated message. It has nothing to do with Grub2 
> function.

No quite. From Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt:

                        This is actually a boot loader parameter; the value is
                        passed to the kernel using a special protocol.

>            Some installations still require it, it's still a valid kernel 
> cmdline option, and it still functions as always when KMS is not enabled.
> 

Do you mean it does not work?

> 2-This is the initial  Mageia (3) Cauldron (grub-2.00-16.mga3; 
> os-prober-1.57-3.mga3) grub.cfg file generated yesterday: 
> http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/Mdv/grub.cfg.gx27b-cauldron3-1.txt
> 
> 
> Note the default stanza's vmlinuz-prv & initrd-prv, which are symlinks to the 
> previously installed kernel. One set of the current kernel's symlinks are way 
> down the list in the submenu, vmlinuz-cur & initrd-cur,

Are those links created by default in Mageia? I do not remember them in
Mandrake^H^H^Hiva. Or did you create them manually?

>                                                        while the default 
> set, vmlinuz and initrd also pointing to the latest installed, are not 
> present in any stanza, and other sets are in duplicate stanzas without even 
> considering recovery stanzas.
> 

Well, that's exactly the problem of "generic enough". Every
distribution has own ways of managing kernel updates, own ways of
naming them or creating symlinks for them.

I would tentatively suggest to raise this issue on Mageia list/bugzilla
first. Only Mageia knows which kernel is current and which kernel is
not and how to sort them. It would take a single line patch to call
distribution script to sort kernel entries correctly.

> How mkconfig decided what to create and where to locate are unfathomable. 

It takes list of /boot/vmlinuz-* and lexicographically sorts them.


> Consequently, I have no idea anything specific about how to improve it, only 
> that it needs improvement, with one exception:
> 
> GRUB_MASTER_LOADER=[true,false]
> 
> If true:
> 1:assume GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
> 2:MBR installation.
> 

This two are unrelated. grub-install just takes device where to install
as argument and does not care whether this MBR or not. And it does not
call grub-mkconfig.

> If false:
> 1:assume GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true (only provide stanzas for kernels on the 
> installation target partition; override if not GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true)
> 2:do not write to MBR track.
> 
> Linux installation programs could provide a checkbox so that the big mess and 
> the suspiciously long installation delay on account of mkconfig/os-prober's 
> sloth can be readily avoided from the outset.
> 

What prevents Linux distribution programs from providing this checkbox
now? Or simply not installing os-prober in the first place?

> Annotated partitioning of subject system: 
> http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Dfsee/gx27bL07.txt