GRUB 2.02 Is Ready To Boot Your System

[nanonyme]

By the way, I would be happy to do so, but there seems like no automation around this booting concept - last time I checked there was no packages that automate kernel registration in firmware loaders list and update initrd/vmlinuz files on EFI partition after kernel upgrade. This is sad, because for ARM such package is exist: https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/flash-kernel

I've seen enough UEFI implementations that just simply eat your attempts to configure it and silently revert to factory defaults that I've lost all hope any tooling can work in generic for UEFI.

[gotwig]

UEFI is a bitch for sure. one time i had two entries with the same name on my asus notebook. i tried to delete one of them trough the bios of the notebook. then the notebook crashed and was unable to do anything, no light at all or any blinking. I sent it in to the manufacturer. He told me the EFI issue ACTUALLY damaged the MOTHERBOARD, and the motherboard had to be completly replaced.

Very good asus gave me the money back so I could buy a newer model (from a different manufacturer)

[cj.wijtmans]

UEFI is a bitch for sure. one time i had two entries with the same name on my asus notebook. i tried to delete one of them trough the bios of the notebook. then the notebook crashed and was unable to do anything, no light at all or any blinking. I sent it in to the manufacturer. He told me the EFI issue ACTUALLY damaged the MOTHERBOARD, and the motherboard had to be completly replaced.

Very good asus gave me the money back so I could buy a newer model (from a different manufacturer)

And this is the fault of UEFI?

[TheBlackCat]

And this is the fault of UEFI?

If it is causing permanent, irreparable damage to solid-state components then yes, I would say it is at fault.

[waxhead]

Y'know, most PCs have a GUI nowadays. Text mode looks like ass, especially when even the UEFI firwmare has a proper GUI.

An example of rEFInd boot (manager) with a GUI (and my favourite theme, http://munlik.deviantart.com/art/rEFInd-theme-512091944 )

This is shown at the screen's native resolution on my laptop (and on a 1024x768 resolution on my desktop's screen that is actually better than that, it uses what the UEFI firmware is capable of doing)
Each distro or OS has its own icon (and there are generic icons for "unknown linux" or "unknown"), pressing F2 when the icon is selected allows me to get in the advanced booting selection for that distro (to choose a different kernel or different kernel command line)
on the second row you find tools, memtest, efi shell, reboot to UEFI settings, reboot, shutdown, and whatever.

Navigation happens by arrow keys. Return key to select, esc key to go back or, if you can't go back, to rescan for new bootable stuff.

Are you talking about morse code function of GRUB, right?

Besides, you could have made the same argument against most of the GRUB features on EFI, as on EFI it's pretty much redundant anyway. You place your kernel in the EFI partition, set stuff with efibootmgr, and you can do without a multi-fs/RAID/Volume/self aware boot loader alltogether.

Not buying it. rEFInd reads what is in the usb and shows bootable stuff on it and if it is some kind of boot loader it can usually just start it up and it goes on as normal.
Actually, scanning everything on boot is its main mode of operation. I only leave a text file with kernel command line in the same folder as the kernel (if there is none, it assumes sane defaults).

By default it selects the last booted system, so I can boot with whatever key in it and will not screw up my booting. (Also Grub has an option to remember last booted system, usually not enabled by default for unknown reasons)

So no, I don't see how that could be bad unless someone screwed up.

That would be a step in the right direction. Keeping GRUB operational in a multi-boot environment is a pain in the ass.[/QUOTE]

1. Well I do not care about GUI mode for a bootloader. I prefer to read in clear text and just select whatever I want. Different oppinions here I guess, but I look at it purely from a practical point of view.

2. GRUB morse code: No, I was not talking about that. But I can imagine that it could be useful sometimes. You can diagnose a bad boot without having to turn on the screen. Can be handy for some.

3. EFI: Sorry I don't know much about it. All I know is that it (probably) require a permanent partition which I don't like. No RAID redundancy stuff there without having a hardware RAID1/10/5/6 or something. Anyway I do know too little about it to comment further.

4. Boot to last booted system is a good idea. If there is no (or low) risk of identifying the wrong OS and booting it accidentally I totally agree with the auto-scan stuff as long as it is something the user could disable if he/she/it wanted

[indepe]

If it is causing permanent, irreparable damage to solid-state components then yes, I would say it is at fault.

Not the fault of a very unlikely BIOS bug that perhaps left the NV RAM in a state the BIOS couldn"t recover from?

[RussianNeuroMancer]

also cj.wijtmans wanted that.

Again I don't see why you couldn't just make a script that does this, flash-kernel is just a script that automates flashing of kernel/initramfs/uimage in a flash partition.

You can recycle the efibootmanager manipulation parts from rEFInd's installer script, for example https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/cod...refind-install
or just write your own by looking at efibootmanager docs/tutorials.

Then, for bonus points, you only need to find a good way to trigger this after a new kernel has been installed/removed so it runs automatically.

Benefits of removing GRUB2 is not enough (for me) to write this scripts.

[rene]

As the release tarball appeared, updated: https://t2-project.org/packages/grub2.html
while I'm doing 9.0 release and sparc64 testing, also updated SILO while at it: https://t2-project.org/packages/silo.html

[pjezek]

Why so many guys cry at the wrong grave arguing grub cannot detect OSes and add them in boot menu? No info about using os-prober with grub?

[indepe]

Y'know, most PCs have a GUI nowadays. Text mode looks like ass, especially when even the UEFI firwmare has a proper GUI.

An example of rEFInd boot (manager) with a GUI (and my favourite theme, http://munlik.deviantart.com/art/rEFInd-theme-512091944 )

.....

Thanks for the pointer, now using this theme as well, with a background png that I paintbrushed with GIMP.

Also figured out how to remove the boot icons I wasn't using. While Ubuntu works just with the dynamic facilities, Fedora seemed to require adding a refind_linux.conf file in its kernel directory, but that is also a simple way to add boot options and needs to be done only once, not for each new kernel or so.