[pve-devel] [RFC pve-kernel-meta 0/5] unify boot-mode config

[Stoiko Ivanov]

On Wed, 2 Feb 2022 10:03:05 +0100
Thomas Lamprecht <t.lamprecht at proxmox.com> wrote:

> On 01.02.22 23:03, Stoiko Ivanov wrote:
> > patch 3 drops systemd-boot and uses grub for both boot-modes, hopefully
> > unifying the boot-experience and causing less confusion (currently I suggest
> > to look at the screen while booting to find out which boot-loader is used)
> > 
> > (Sadly systemd-boot (which I would prefer, justifiably)
> > won't get support for legacy boot)
> >   
> The thing is, non-uefi systems will become more rare anyhow, so why
> bother with that? The simplicity of systemd-boot is worth the few (?)
> confusion - I mean what exactly is there confusing anyway, if most relevant
> actions can be handled through our tool anyway?
> 
> I'm not definitive yet, but currently rather tending to NACK that.
Thanks for the feedback!

Hmm - I do see your point - motivation was that it felt like a logical
next step after adapting the config of systemd-boot to get the images
from where grub needs them to have the system bootable in both modes -
and having a single place to configure the boot-loader (kernel cmdline,
pinning) seemed sensible (and less code in p-b-t should correlate with
less bugs in p-b-t).

Add to that my biased view (a few forum-threads where people did not know
which boot loader they used - e.g. [0,1,2] vs. the silent majority, who
either does not need it, or knows it) that most users expect
/etc/default/grub to be the place for editing the kernel commandline
(following the blog/forum/website posts only mentioning this)

But OTOH I was a bit hesitant as well (since it would mean that the
blog/forum/website posts of the past 2 years would now become 'wrong' and
cause even more confusion). Also (quite biased as well) - there are quite
a few threads with grub failing to boot vs. none that I'm aware of, where
systemd-boot fails.

So - no hard feelings from my side either - I was curios if it would work
as a POC

On a side-note - I just learned that grub in efi-mode works fine (without
explicit configuration) over a serial terminal (a use-case I need for
myself ;)


[0]
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/amd-core-display-pass-through-install-win10-does-not-start.103651/post-447007
[1]
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/unable-to-boot-after-pve-efiboot-tool-refresh.103149/
[2]
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/no-iommu-detected-please-activate-it.102119/