GRUB 2.12 Planned For Release This Year, Continues Improving Boot Security

[markus40]

Used to use grub because it was less hassle than the other one, I forgot the name of. But I use systemd-boot since more than 8 years now. Simply works for me.

[skeevy420]

Windows has its own "smash F8 during the boot to access failsafe mode". I think it is safe assumption that Linux users are mostly tinkerers and developers who often contribute to codebase so it would be reasonable to make switching kernels etc. easy out of the box.

The Windows method is just ret...that word that gets posts flagged. When "smash F8 doesn't work" the official method is literally "hard reset during bootup 4x in a row". I shit you not.

4 hard resets just to get to a boot menu with one OS option
or
Access GRUB by default with options for any installed OS

Hmm. Because I really enjoy hard resetting my system and potentially FUBARing my hard drives, I totally lo...l-word that causes flags...the Windows method.

[skeevy420]

Used to use grub because it was less hassle than the other one, I forgot the name of. But I use systemd-boot since more than 8 years now. Simply works for me.

I've only had an EFI capable system for about a year now. I used my old BIOS workstation until it didn't work and was forced to upgrade. I still use GRUB because I find it the easiest to use with multiple kernels installed at once -- no matter what I run current stable and LTS just in case stable updates faster than ZFS.

I need to look around and see what's available while my primary Linux SSD is just sitting there empty waiting on Steam OS.

[SyXbiT]

I switched to systemd-boot, and it's been much better/easier to maintain with zero breakage.

[baka0815]

Used to use grub because it was less hassle than the other one, I forgot the name of. But I use systemd-boot since more than 8 years now. Simply works for me.

"The other one" was probably LILO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LILO_%28boot_loader%29).

[shmerl]

If you need fast LUKS decryption of the root drive, you can boot the Linux kernel directly. It's how systemd-boot works.

Thanks for the pointer, I'll take a look.

Hoes does it work without boot partition with fully encrypted root? I.e. what goes into the EFI partition that can decrypt root?

[keit99]

Well as someone who doesn't use systemd, systemd-boot isn't exactly available. But I can recommend reFind. No need to fuck around with the config, looks nice and supports dual-boot systems out of the box.

[binarybanana]

Grub allows one to have both the kernel and initrd on the LUKS-encrypted partition. No other bootloader has this afaik. It can also read many filesystems to load kernel/initrd from, ootb.

Yes, it's the only way to have a fully encrypted disk and boot off it. Technically it's less secure than Secure Boot with your own keys enrolled, though. If you can accept that ugly EFI partition a workable option is embedding the initrd into the kernel image, or even building a signed grub efi exicutable with embedded kernel+initrd payload. As long as there is no LUKS/LVM driver for UEFI not having GRUB is always going to be a pain when things turn sour.

[caligula]

Thanks for the pointer, I'll take a look.

Hoes does it work without boot partition with fully encrypted root? I.e. what goes into the EFI partition that can decrypt root?

Initramfs? You can even embed initramfs in the bzImage.

[CochainComplex]

The Windows method is just ret...that word that gets posts flagged. When "smash F8 doesn't work" the official method is literally "hard reset during bootup 4x in a row". I shit you not.

Amen.

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