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Re: Is grub perfect? (was Re: Does LXDE really require lightdm?)



On Fri 27 Jun 2014 at 23:14:26 -0400, slitt wrote:

> On Sat, 28 Jun 2014 09:33:57 +0900
> Joel Rees <joel.rees@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, Jun 28, 2014 at 7:48 AM, [...]
> > > Grub is a *boot loader*.
> > 
> > Lately (last few years), it seems to be trying to do a lot more.
> > 
> > > What do you expect it to do? Mind read?
> > 
> > I'd almost say that's one of the things the devs are trying to make
> > it do.
> > 
> 
> I have a feeling that a lot of this thread got procmailed to
> my /dev/null, but for the person who asked what I wanted it to do,

You'll miss an awfully lot of good stuff doing that. Plus the chance to
help other users.

> that's simple: Boot the damn computer with a menu to choose predefined
> kernel/initrd/disk combinations, and nothing else. And for gosh sakes,
> keep it in one file. If a config option is about "pretty", leave that
> feature out.

The simplest possible grub.cfg would contain

   menuentry "DescriptiveMenuItem {
   linux (hd0,msdos1)/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1
   initrd (hd0,msdos1)/initrd.gz
   }

This assumes a machine with a single disk and the root file system
(essentially where /sbin/init resides) on the first partition of the
same disk.

There we are, a predefined kernel/initrd/disk combination. Four lines in
a single file. Problem solved.

"No it's not!" will be the cry, "update-grub will overwite my grub.cfg."
Correct; so use dpkg-divert on /usr/sbin/update-grub and those nasty,
prettifying files in /etc/default/grub and /etc/grub.d will languish
unused. The problem is now well and truly solved.

> In other words, grub1.

Why use abandoned software (grub legacy) when the power of grub and
Debian can be leveraged?


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