Re: lilo removal in squeeze (or, "please test grub2")
On 20100529_223556, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
> thib put forth on 5/28/2010 9:44 PM:
>
> > * If yes, should it still be presented as an "expert" option in d-i?
> > Why not, I guess. If not, should extlinux be extensively tested to be
> > provided as an alternative choice in d-i? I really don't know how much
> > work would be needed for this.
>
> I'm far more concerned at this point with distribution upgrades than new
> installs. I've a number of production Lenny servers all using LILO. What
> will happen to the bootloader config on these machines when I perform a dist
> upgrade after Squeeze becomes Stable? These machines all use custom rolled
> kernels from kernel.org source (installed the Debian way), if that makes any
> difference. Also, the kernel images are in /boot, not in / with the
> traditional symlinks.
>
> My gut instinct is that due to the above reasons and possibly others, the next
> dist upgrade is going to hose all my production servers whilst trying to
> forcibly convert them to Grub2. Is my instinct correct?
Yes, but ...
I don't have anything as difficult to manage as you. But I am also far
less adept. Long ago I gave up on dist-upgrade as a thing I wanted to
do. I think I stopped using it even before it was renamed to
dist-upgrade. Instead, I devote a few GB of hard disk to multiple
partitions on which I can install successively newer releases of
Debian, but only the parts that change in the new release. Thanks to
HFS it is easy to determine which those are. I make a new clean
install in a newly formatted partion. If it doesn't work, I can reboot
back into what I had been running minutes before. It took me a while
to work out all the kinks, but it is well worth the trouble. As an
added benefit of this way, I mount the older root partition under a
special non-standard mount point in the new installation. If(When) I get
into trouble, I can refer to that partition to see how things were set up
before I started mucking about.
I know this is a waste of disk space, but it is impossible to buy a HD
so small that it cannot hold several full installations of
Debian/GNU/Linux.
I suggest you rearrange your disks to make room for additional base-installs.
Practice doing Lenny to Lenny transitions to make sure you have your plan
fully worked out. And then, wait for Squeeze with the sure knowledge that
you can reboot back into your existing software.
I cannot believe Grub2 will remain in its current state of disarray
when release of Squeeze finally happens. The module that finds
pre-existing installs and adds them to the boot menu seems to work but
when you do reboot at the end of the install process, the
installations that were listed as having been found are not there in
the boot menu. Just issue update-grub and reboot again. It is fixed.
Does this post give you warm fuzzies about the coming release?
--
Paul E Condon
pecondon@mesanetworks.net
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