On Wed, 2011-07-20 at 07:39 -0400, Stephen Powell wrote: > On Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:52:59 -0400 (EDT), Ben Hutchings wrote: > > > > Boot loaders *should not* maintain symbolic links, since that means > > duplicating logic (and there are probably cases where multiple boot > > loaders are installed and they may trip over each other). > > I agree that if it's going to be done it would be best to do it > in one place (i.e. avoid duplicating logic). > > > > Hook scripts will just perpetuate the use of the undocumented > > /etc/kernel-img.conf. > > Hmm. I don't follow that logic. If symbolic links are maintained > in hook scripts, then it makes sense to me that the user would set > "do_symlinks = no" in /etc/kernel-img.conf to avoid duplication > of effort. If the hook scripts are in some common package then they would need to be configured somehow. [...] > > I would like to see these 'traditional' boot loaders provide the option > > to update their configuration automatically. This should be done with > > the aid of the new 'linux-version' command from linux-base. > > I guess my working definition of "traditional" boot loaders means anything > other than grub (either version). But keep in mind that on some > architectures a "traditional" boot loader is all that is available. > zipl is all there is for s390, for example. > > That's a nice idea, but there are implementation problems > that come to mind. I don't know about zipl, I'll check; but I do know that > lilo, for example, is limited to 15-character names in it's labels. The > traditional labels, used with the symbolic links, are something like > "Linux" and "LinuxOLD", which are well within the 15-character limit. > But if one attempts to auto-generate labels based on the name of the > kernel, I can easily see a problem with guaranteeing uniqueness while > still remaining within the 15-character limit. The version list could then be truncated, e.g.: #!/bin/bash generate_entry() { ... } { read new_version; read old_version; } < <(linux-version list | linux-version sort --reverse) [ -z "new_version" ] || generate_entry Linux "$new_version" [ -z "old_version" ] || generate_entry LinuxOLD "$old_version" > Also, since each boot > loader has its own unique configuration file format, similar logic will > need to be invented multiple times. [...] I'm not convinced it's that complicated. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings Absolutum obsoletum. (If it works, it's out of date.) - Stafford Beer
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