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Re: No more GRUB legacy at install time since wheezy?



On Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:19:15 -0400, Tom H wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 6:52 AM, Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, 26 Jun 2011 16:27:18 -0400, Tom H wrote:
>>> On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 1:34 PM, Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>>>> For grub2, there's also just one file to tweak, "/etc/default/grub",
>>>>> and the CLI tools are more powerful.
>>>>
>>>> Are your sure?
>>>
>>> Yes, for the great majority of users.
>>
>> Ah, that's explains all. But I'd say a great percentage of Debian users
>> do not search for what majority of users seek.
> 
> I'd include the majority of Debian users too in my statement.

That looks to be a bit optimistic :-)
 
> Changing the files in "/etc/grub.d/" 

Hey, hey... we were talking about what can be done by editing "one" file, 
that is, "/etc/default/grub". Of course, if we start by editing all the 
stuff at /etc/grub.d/* we can make whatever we want but that was not my 
point nor my complain ;-)

> (1) changes the order of your grub menu entries (for example, by
> renumbering the files), (2) changes the text displayed in those entries
> (by editing the naming parts of the scripts; for example getting rid of
> the superfluous "GNU/Linux"in the menu entries), (3) adds custom menu
> entries (like the guy who added runlevels 3-5 earlier in this thread).

And I will add that all of the above is not what all common users do.
 
> "/etc/default/grub" controls the options of the "linux" line, the
> default entry, the menu timeout, the screen resolution, the creation of
> "recovery" or "os-prober" entries, and the fonts and graphics (if you
> have/want them).

I, personally, only use to change the kernel line stanza and set some 
default options to prevail after updates (in GRUB's legacy parlance, that 
was "kopt=" value).

>>> You can edit the files in "/etc/grub.d/" - or rename them or add to
>>> them - but the canonical way of changing grub settings is through
>>> "/etc/default/grub".
>>
>> Yep, but not all the available options are available from there, or so
>> says the docs.
> 
> Which options?

I mean, for instance, "GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER". It is not documented in 
the same file, but there are others. For those, you have to run "info -f 
grub -n 'Simple configuration'" to have access to all of the tweakable 
variables.

>>> I used to edit 10_linux, 30_os-prober, and "/usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig"
>>> in order to customize grub2 to my liking but I've given up.
>>
>> You see? There will be ocassions where the user have to jump from
>> "/etc/ default/grub" to /etc/grub.d and find out what file in there to
>> modify. With GRUB legacy there were only 1 or 2 files, less error
>> prone, IMO.
> 
> See above regarding the use of "/etc/grub.d/".

Yes, but that involves more than one file.
 
> Again, for the majority of users, in grub1 you edit
> "/boot/grub/menu.lst" and in grub2 you edit "/etc/default/grub". 

Mmm... for editing the kernel line you will have to jump to /etc/grub.d/* 
and is one of the most performed actions...

> The latter's more logical from a design perspective. When I first used
> Debian, I thought "what's all this rubbish in "menu.lst"? Having the
> options governing a section of a file included in that file is nicely
> recursive but pretty weird. Furthermore, having active options preceded
> by one "#" and comments by two "##" in the automagic kernel section is
> smart but just as weird.

I also found Debian's GRUB legacy "menu.lst" to be very verbose but I 
liked that way. I also found additional options that were not present in 
another distributions which it finally turned out to be very helpful.

>>> It'll come if it isn't already out. The grub1/grub2 developers are
>>> probably keeping grub1 around to ease the Lenny-Squeeze transition but
>>> they're going to say at some point that they no longer want to
>>> maintain grub1.
>>
>> It is still available for install, just the installer does not present
>> the option.
> 
> If I were the grub maintainer, my first step in dropping grub1 in Debian
> would be to make it unavailable from d-i...

Ha, how nice! >:-)

But the package is still available and thus, it can be installed and 
thus, it has to be maintained (at least until wheezy becomes unsupported).

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón


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