GRUB 2.04 Bootloader Released With RISC-V Support, Native UEFI Secure Boot, Btrfs RAID

[phoronix]

Phoronix: GRUB 2.04 Bootloader Released With RISC-V Support, Native UEFI Secure Boot, Btrfs RAID

It's been two years since the release of GRUB 2.02 while today it's finally been replaced by the long-awaited GRUB 2.04 bootloader release...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GRUB-2.04-Released

[skeevy420]

While I'm really happy about seeing all of that, especially F2FS, I was really hoping for some more ZFS features to be supported.

I'm not the biggest Ubuntu fan, but I'm hoping they plan on doing something about GRUB's limited ZFS support since they plan on offering ZFS on root. I've been a ZFS user since the 0.6.x days and ZFS cannot be considered ready for regular users (for root) until that's done. People like us at Phoronix can deal with the various ZFS/GRUB quirks...most of us anyways ...but not the average user.

[ms178]

Is Zstd also supported for initrd images?

[rene]

Is Zstd also supported for initrd images?

zstd initrd does not necessarily need boot loader support, and is usually entirely a kernel thing. Using it for over a year on various platforms, incl. SPARC, PowerPC, MIPS

[rene]

heh, was just testing the ~rc the other day; while doing some more Apple EFI magic fiddling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjqLa6gJ5xo

[9Strike]

Nice to finally see the release. I hope the Debian guys add support for F2FS boot installations in Sid.

[Guest]

Well, it's time for me to flash coreboot onto my laptop again, and convert all file systems on it to f2fs.

[UNIcodeX]

skeevy420

You're not the only one, brother. I was excited when I read this headline only to find out that the ZoL support doesn't even seem to be on the radar.

I read some stuff about systemd-boot supporting it with an option but I'm not sure about encrypted datasets. What might you know on that? Know any reading material for installing, say Arch to native ZFS encrypted root?

[OneTimeShot]

skeevy420
You're not the only one, brother. I was excited when I read this headline only to find out that the ZoL support doesn't even seem to be on the radar.

GRUB is under the GPL v3, so the usual ZFS uncertainties apply. Until Oracle say something... which they continue not to.

[skeevy420]

skeevy420

You're not the only one, brother. I was excited when I read this headline only to find out that the ZoL support doesn't even seem to be on the radar.

I read some stuff about systemd-boot supporting it with an option but I'm not sure about encrypted datasets. What might you know on that? Know any reading material for installing, say Arch to native ZFS encrypted root?

Very bottom of the page, but basically do everything like a normal Arch ZFS install only encrypt it with a passphrase and it'll prompt you on boot or when you mount it if it isn't root. Also works with GRUB as long as you keep /boot on its own partition. My system is one generation too old for UEFI so I've really never look to deeply into systemd-boot.

There's also a method to use a keyfile, like on a USB drive or /boot if using GRUB on a separate partition, and have it automatically unlock on boot with that, but I've only done it once for on non-root volume when testing and it's been awhile so I've forgotten the exact steps. Should be easy enough to find on Google if that's something you're interested in doing; though the keyfile is only worth doing if you're going to unlock something else encrypted first (like /boot) or if you're going to save your boot stick in a safe.

The keyfile is the method I plan on doing so I only get nagged once every boot...but that's only due to system limitations. I'll have /boot on an internal USB drive using a passphrased LUKS with ZFS on top of that with the restricted GRUB settings and keyfile on /boot to unlock root and lock up /boot unless necessary.