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Re: modify existing menu.lst instead of creating a new one



Hi Frans,

thanks for the detailed answer.

|--==> Frans Pop writes:

  FP> On Wednesday 28 March 2007 11:31, Free Ekanayaka wrote:
  >>That was always fine for me, but  recently I was  asked by a couple of
  >>users if it  is possible to  make  the d-i  detect if a  GRUB instance
  >>already  exists, and  possibly add    an entry  for  the system  being
  >>installed  to the relevant  existing  menu.lst, without generating its
  >>own instance.

  FP> It seems to me that this would be a lot more complex and thus fragile than 
  FP> the current method. It would also require D-I making changes in a 
  FP> partition that is "owned" by another operating system, and I'm not sure 
  FP> we should do that.

Yeah, and it that is basically the answer I gave them as well.

  FP> Even if you would make a copy of the existing menu.lst, you'd have to do 
  FP> extensive checks that its format is compatible with debian and add the 
  FP> support for automatically updating it when new kernels are installed.

  FP> My first reaction is that if people have such a complex setup that a newly 
  FP> generated menu.lst does not fit their needs, they will probably have also 
  FP> the skills to either:
  FP> - make their old grub configuration active again and add the new debian
  FP>   system in that (although they should probably have selected the "don't
  FP>   install a boot loader" option in that case anyway
  FP> - copy their old grub configuration and adapt that
  FP> - adapt the new grub configuration

Fairly complex indeed..

  FP> However, patches are welcome and will be considered. Note that we will 
  FP> likely switch to grub2 sometime for lenny which AFAICT uses a different 
  FP> file with slightly different syntax.

Ciao,

Free



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