Re: Proposed release goal: Switch to GRUB2
On Wed, Apr 25, 2007 at 09:59:51AM -0300, Otavio Salvador wrote:
> We, the GRUB team, want to swtich to GRUB2 due many reasons, basicaly:
> - easier to maintain;
> - better codebase;
> - multi-arch support;
"support for multiple architectures" :)
> Our current plan is to finish the update-grub2 merging on upstream
> side (being handled by Robert) and then upload a new package to
> Debian. This package after moving to lenny ought be set as default
> boot-loader in grub-installer (while we still offer grub as an option
> during the test cicle).
Frans already asked most of the questions that I had. A few others:
Is anybody else using grub2 as a default bootloader today?
Has testing of grub2 explicitly included testing on older x86 systems, given
that we've found that i486 was effectively not tested at all thoroughly
before the etch release (the distro in general, not grub in particular)?
> The upgrade from grub to grub2 will be transparent since menu.list can
> be automaticaly converted to the new format and this will be in place
> when we start the default boot-loader change.
Hrm. What was wrong with the existing format? :/ Those are the kinds of
upstream changes that are most aggravating for administrators (or at least
for this administrator here :).
> After doing it, we intend to drop grub from archive since it's a bunch
> of patches difficult to maintain and hard to follow.
If the intent really is to drop grub1, I agree that grub2 should be renamed
to 'grub' to ensure a smooth upgrade path.
> The migration path, as for i386 too, could be the installation of the
> package with a debconf note asking for the installation of the
> boot-loader using grub-installer and the removal of previous
> boot-loader.
> I wouldn't like to get my boot-loader replaced without any notice.
At least in the case of x86, I'm not sure how that's any different from what
happens with any other upgrade of the bootloader. I guess the grub1 boot
sector is incompatible with grub2, and this is what has to be rewritten on
upgrade?
On Wed, Apr 25, 2007 at 02:02:18PM -0300, Otavio Salvador wrote:
> > Has grub2 been checked for obvious past issues we've had in grub (like
> > /dev/cciss/c0d0 support)?
> It should support. Is difficult to test it without hardware access.
Well, those are the kinds of things that I think should be checked before
asking the installer team to commit to using it by default.
> >> After doing it, we intend to drop grub from archive since it's a bunch
> >> of patches difficult to maintain and hard to follow.
> > If you really mean to deprecate grub in favor of grub2, then you should
> > probably rename grub2 to grub at some point before the release of Lenny.
> Yes. It's still being dicussed if we'll or not do it. It's mostly
> depend of how stable grub2 proves to be.
Again, if grub2 isn't stable enough to be called 'grub', then I really think
it's not stable enough to be made the default in d-i either.
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org http://www.debian.org/
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