Ubuntu Developers Figuring Out Dual-Boot Changes Ahead Of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Developers Figuring Out Dual-Boot Changes Ahead Of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Due to changes with the upstream GRUB 2.06 bootloader, Ubuntu developers are figuring out how they are going to be managing dual-boot/multi-boot scenarios moving forward with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-22.04-Multi-Boot-Changes

[EvilHowl]

I have been using rEFInd for years and I never looked back. You just install it in your EFI partition and you can forget about it. No updates, nothing. It's dynamic.

[scottishduck]

Time to move on from grub

[Quackdoc]

I have been using rEFInd for years and I never looked back. You just install it in your EFI partition and you can forget about it. No updates, nothing. It's dynamic.

ive been looking at alternatives to grub for awhile, but never really saw any point in doing so, especially after dealing with custom kernels and pop_os... rEFInd is still something on my watchlist, but I never got around to actually doing anything with it. any big features besides what you already stated that you particularly enjoy?

[skeevy420]

[b]There are also possibilities like enabling os-prober enabled if upgrading the Ubuntu installation from a prior version, etc.

I have a not a typo.

This has easy solutions.

1. Have it set so GRUB only uses os-prober if it's installed and don't install it by default; make users install it manually.
2. Install it by default but set it to disabled and put a note in your docs somewhere that multi-os users should enable it.
3. Number two, but have a script that detects if another OS is installed (at install time) and enable os-prober
4. Use Clover or Liminie because those work on BIOS and UEFI systems.

[lumks]

I wish they would go for simple and plain systemd-boot and keep GRUB as it is in the repos, effectively leave BIOS support out of new installations. Over the last few years GRUB is more a pain and it's surprisingly hard to switch to something else in Ubuntu in a reliable way (compared to, for example Arch Linux)

[Old Grouch]

ive been looking at alternatives to grub for awhile, but never really saw any point in doing so, especially after dealing with custom kernels and pop_os... rEFInd is still something on my watchlist, but I never got around to actually doing anything with it. any big features besides what you already stated that you particularly enjoy?

Well, in my case, it made a particularly badly behaved Acer notebook PC usable with Linux.
The Acer ES1-132-C974 does not implement the full UEFI boot specification. The firmware looks specifically for the Windows boot manager, does not use the fallback boot location, or save boot variables, so that even if you change the boot location, on restart, it looks for the default Windows boot manager. Furthermore, the EFI is 32-bit. It is a complete mess. You put rEFInd on the machine which replaces the Windows boot manager and it intercepts the borked boot process and allows you to choose other boot managers, such as GRUB.

I think, in principle, you could do the same thing with GRUB alone, but rEFInd made the whole process tractable. It made what could have been a very difficult process into an easy install, so for my use-case it was great. In fact, it made things so easy, I've been able to forget about the UEFI boot process, so it could well be that some of the terms above are not quite right.

My machine is a it of a franken-notebook now. By buying the correct cable as a spare part, I was able to install a large SSD to augment the built-in 32 Gbyte eMMC storage, and I have also added more DRAM up to the maximum supported by the hardware. Nice robust small form-factor, and has a built-in GigE LAN port, which is a 'must-have' for me. I've been looking for a similar device at a similar price with an AMD cpu, but so far, no luck. Firmware updates are a complete pain. I have to boot into Windows PE as Acer do not offer firmware update mechanisms that work from FreeDOS or Linux.

[heavyjoe]

[...] any big features besides what you already stated that you particularly enjoy?

I switched from grub to refind too and it is so easy to style as well (templates on github). would never go back.

[Quackdoc]

Well, in my case, it made a particularly badly behaved Acer notebook PC usable with Linux.
The Acer ES1-132-C974 does not implement the full UEFI boot specification. The firmware looks specifically for the Windows boot manager, does not use the fallback boot location, or save boot variables, so that even if you change the boot location, on restart, it looks for the default Windows boot manager. Furthermore, the EFI is 32-bit. It is a complete mess. You put rEFInd on the machine which replaces the Windows boot manager and it intercepts the borked boot process and allows you to choose other boot managers, such as GRUB.

Interesting, I have an asus transformer, with a similar issue, I just closeted the thing because it was too much of a hassle to work with, maybe I can try this instead.

[Ipkh]

How about some reading comprehension guys. If actually read the Article.
rEFInd only works on EFI/UEFI systems. The problem is os-prober being used for BIOS/MBR systems.
The security issue is bogus on many levels. It requires physical access to the system for exploitation. Plus the Linux lived could just as easily mount the partitions.