bugGNU GRUB - Bugs: bug #30761, standardized, open and independent...

 
 

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bug #30761: standardized, open and independent configuration

Submitter:  John Hall <esotericbyte>
Submitted:  Thu 12 Aug 2010 04:31:20 PM UTC
   
 
Category:  Configuration Severity:  Major
Priority:  5 - Normal Item Group:  Feature Request
Status:  Wont Fix Privacy:  Public
Assigned to:  None Originator Name: 
Open/Closed:  Closed Release:  other
Release:  Reproducibility:  None
Planned Release:  None

Thu 12 Aug 2010 05:31:18 PM UTC, comment #1: 

GRUB doesn't write anything on the disk besides grubenv and this
is by design since writing always has an inherent risk of getting
it wrong and corrupting user data. The possible benefits of
saving the configuration or permanent GRUB recovery (as opposed
to one-shot boot) isn't of sufficient value when it's compared to
the risk of losing user data.

Vladimir Serbinenko <phcoder>
Group administrator
Thu 12 Aug 2010 04:31:20 PM UTC, original submission:  

Operating systems that include GRUB can not conform fully to the sprit of grub.

I beleive that the operating system /distrobutions adopting grub should detect grub and then register itself and conform to a standard to incorporate it's configuration rather than take over the configuration of grub which should be up to the user or administrator of the system.

At least one major distribution that has adopted grub2 early stores pre-configuration files in it's own settings folder and notes that the grub.cfg file is not to be directly modified by users.

This seems to me to be backward but necessary. I believe it is because the faculties and a common method for solving some basic installation and boot problems are not provided by grub and are left to the operating systems adopting it. This limits it's independence and usefulness to people that wish to use it to actually create a multiboot system.

The problems are actually few and solvable in an open way. A boot loader must exist for an operating system and it must be able to update the bootloader when it's kernel changes. It must also make some effort to leave all other installed operating systems bootable.

To accomplish this I propose modules for commands that allow users to manage the configuration file within grub itself and prehaps even to upgrade grub.

Source code for an executable that can load and use the configuration and upgrade modules would allow adopting operating systems to reproduce exactly the standard configuration management within their own contexts allowing operating systems to register themselves and updates in a standardized, open and independent way.

Additional features that might attract adoption of a standard open configuration and registration method would be to allow for multilevel menus and the incorporation of branding after OS selection without clobbering the user's top level personalization.


John Hall <esotericbyte>

 

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    Follow 2 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2010-08-12 phcoder StatusNone Wont Fix
        Open/ClosedOpen Closed

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