openSUSE Tumbleweed Is Finding Success Moving From GRUB To systemd-boot

[DrYak]

There was some talk about resurrecting the UEFI emulator for BIOS systems called DUET (or one of its various forks) in order to simplify the entire boot process. I don't think anyone has stepped up to do the work.

Yup. I too strongly suspect that intersection between:
- New installations on machines including the boot manager
And:
- Stuff that require GRUB to boot, but somehow currently GRUB cannot boot because it needs adaptations/bugfixes/etc.
Isn't very big.

Legacy system just work fine with GRUB, you could still install GRUB as an alternative option (YaST supports multiple boot manager. OpenSuse has merely switched which is the default one).
Modern system nearly universally support EFI (including as I mentioned U-Boot based ones, as long as the optional EFI support is compiled in) and thus should be fine with systemd-boot.

The only exception I see is that if a legacy system needs to update the kernel (e.g.: vulnerability fix), and the newer kernel introduce a bug with GRUB, e.g., making it unbootable. Then there will be less resource to diagnose the problem and do the necessary maintenance and fixes in GRUB.
But that is probably going to be very rare.

[roughl]

I've been using systemd-boot since around 4 years and found it much simpler to configure than grub.

[caligula]

As I understand it, systemd-boot is simpler and less flexible than GRUB.

This is advantageous when your use-case is covered by systemd-boot's capabilities. Simpler is better. Fewer things to misconfigure and go wrong. However, if you need the extra flexibility that GRUB provides, you are our of luck with systemd-boot.

I would not be surprised if the majority of users' needs are covered by systemd-boot, which is not good for those that need GRUB's additional capabilities, as there will be fewer resources devoted to fault-finding and developing GRUB.

What? I thought most users want sound support in their boot menu.

[caligula]

I've been using systemd-boot since around 4 years and found it much simpler to configure than grub.

Grub2 is over complicated piece of shit technology, but at least you receive the seal of approval from toenail eating socialists.

[cjcox]

As long as you're "this", "this" and "not this"... systemd-boot should work fine. I love it when when someone "takes control" over how things "have to be done" (that is "doing things the only 'right way'").

[alexvoda]

And it likely never will. However, while legacy BIOS support is important to some, it has become far less important in the ecosystem at large.

There was some talk about resurrecting the UEFI emulator for BIOS systems called DUET (or one of its various forks) in order to simplify the entire boot process. I don't think anyone has stepped up to do the work.

Clover able to do that, it can emulate UEFI on legacy BIOS systems. And according to the Arch Wiki it is even able to chainload systemd-boot if you need a bootloader for BIOS systems that follows the Boot Loader Specification.

I wonder why Clover and REFInd, the only graphical options, are such isolated projects?

I have never seen a distro shipping either of them, not even as an option instead of GRUB, let alone by default.

[Anux]

As long as you're "this", "this" and "not this"... systemd-boot should work fine. I love it when when someone "takes control" over how things "have to be done" (that is "doing things the only 'right way'").

What are you talking about, it doesn't support old BIOS boot, that's it. No one forces you to do anything.

[dragon321]

It's a good thing that distros are providing alternatives for GRUB but a bad thing that almost none of them are providing rEFInd as alternative. Not only it looks much better than systemd-boot and can be easily themed but also can use EFI file system drivers to load things from partition with different file systems (like ext4, btrfs, xfs etc.). I get why distros are using GRUB despite the fact it should be dead in UEFI world but I don't get why nobody provides rEFInd as alternative. Sure you can install it by yourself just fine (which is what I did on my every Linux machine) but it would be nice to get official support from distribution.

[energyman]

If you only need a simple boot 'manager' - why even bother? Just use efibootmgr and be done.

I do not see a reason for this. Complex stuff: grub, syslinux, lilo. Simple: syslinux, lilo. Extra simple uefi: efiboot.

Why systemd-boot?

[woddy]

After reading this post, I opened Yast-bootloader and saw that it is possible to change it even with the system installed. In fact I did it and I must say that it works well, when you select it some packages will be installed and then the automatic configuration starts.
I love openSUSE making things easy for everyone with Yast.
Obviously you will be warned that it is an experimental option.