Re: Proposed release goal: Switch to GRUB2
Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org> writes:
> Frans already asked most of the questions that I had. A few others:
>
> Is anybody else using grub2 as a default bootloader today?
Not yet.
> 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)?
No but since we'll be offering grub as alternative for a while it
could be sorted out.
>> 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 :).
hehe it has been much improved and added some neat features. :-)
>> 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.
I also agree but I don't think we should decide it until we have it as
default for a while. After that we can decide if we drop or not grub1.
>> 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?
Yes, it's incompatible but until the user run grub-install he would
still being using the previous release.
> 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.
Well yes and no. I and Robert will upload the new packages with
update-grub2 and the last fixes in few days (maybe next week?) and
after we have it all sorted out we could change it while keeping grub1
as an option.
>> >> 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.
We hope it's but we won't be sure until we do that change since we
wouldn't get the needed group of testers. :(
--
O T A V I O S A L V A D O R
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E-mail: otavio@debian.org UIN: 5906116
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