GNU bug report logs - #25248
please, include Legacy Grub in your distro

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Gennadii Kondratiev <gennadii.kondratiev <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: please, include Legacy Grub in your distro
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2016 18:57:17 +0300

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hello!

May I ask you and everybody in GNU organization to again include Legacy
Grub as a normal package in GuixSD and in everything? The reason is that it
is just terrible to install the system and after not to have access to it
or invent something how to boot it. Grub2 is invalide. For what anybody
does need such an entity which cannot install itself on a arbitrary
prtition?  Of course, people use different operating systems, which are on
different partitions. I always install grub on the root partition. But
Grub2 does not work, because you specially cut its ability.

In Nix Grub2 does not work too, but they have Grub1, which is installable
anywhere without any complications.

If you are afraid that people will blame you when they spoil their
computers, you, please, write a warning, that you should use Grub2, etc.

!!!Please, include Legacy Grub in GuixSD!!!

Thank you!

Gennadii.

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #8 received at 25248 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: ludo <at> gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)
To: Gennadii Kondratiev <gennadii.kondratiev <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 25248 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#25248: please, include Legacy Grub in your distro
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2016 22:58:04 +0100

Hello!

Gennadii Kondratiev <gennadii.kondratiev <at> gmail.com> skribis:

> May I ask you and everybody in GNU organization to again include Legacy
> Grub as a normal package in GuixSD and in everything? The reason is that it
> is just terrible to install the system and after not to have access to it
> or invent something how to boot it. Grub2 is invalide. For what anybody
> does need such an entity which cannot install itself on a arbitrary
> prtition?  Of course, people use different operating systems, which are on
> different partitions. I always install grub on the root partition. But
> Grub2 does not work, because you specially cut its ability.

Could you explain how you installed GuixSD and what exactly goes wrong
with GRUB (error messages, etc.)?

> !!!Please, include Legacy Grub in GuixSD!!!

GRUB 1.x is unmaintained AFAIK, and it’s incompatible and has a reduced
feature set.  It’s unlikely that we’ll add it to GuixSD.

However, if you have troubles with GuixSD and GRUB 2.x, then we should
certainly fix them, either in GuixSD or in GRUB!

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Message #11 received at 25248 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Gennadii Kondratiev <gennadii.kondratiev <at> gmail.com>
To: 25248 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! GRUB1 and GRUB2
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2016 20:20:11 +0300

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

#Hello!
#
#Thanks for your kind words and encouragement!
#
#As far as GRUB is concerned, please email 25248 <at> debbugs.gnu.org detailed
#information about what you expected and what you get (wrong behavior,
#error messages, etc.), and how one can reproduce it.  This information
#is crucial in allowing us to debug and fix the problems you experience.
#
#Thanks for your support!
#
#Ludo’.

I wrote to Ludovic Cortes that you should include Legacy Grub into GNU
packages, because it can be installed in any place (e.g., on the root
partition), but Grub 2 has this feature blocked by default (at least, all
people in the Internet say so). Or it would be better to unblock this
feature in Grub2. Even with the powerful Grub people can make less harm to
their conputers than, for example, with fdisk, which you like and include
everywhere.

I installed GuixSD with big difficulties, and at the end I could not boot
it. Of course, I booted via Aptosid Grub, but it is not very nice to use a
bootloader from another OS.

You do very amazing and advanced things and do not worry about some simple
things. A good bootloader is important.

Just, please, recover the ability of Grub 2 to write on the disk. At now
moment it says that it needs to calculate block sizes, something like that.
When people write --force option, it says that everything is ok, but in
reality it does not write on the disk.

Happy New Year!

Gennadii.

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #14 received at 25248 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Tomáš Čech <tcech <at> suse.com>
To: Gennadii Kondratiev <gennadii.kondratiev <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 25248 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#25248: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! GRUB1 and GRUB2
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2016 20:53:55 +0100

On Fri, 30 Dec 2016 18:20:11 +0100,
Gennadii Kondratiev wrote:
> 
> [1  <text/plain; UTF-8 (quoted-printable)>]
> [2  <text/html; UTF-8 (quoted-printable)>]
> #Hello!
> #
> #Thanks for your kind words and encouragement!
> #
> #As far as GRUB is concerned, please email 25248 <at> debbugs.gnu.org detailed
> #information about what you expected and what you get (wrong behavior,
> #error messages, etc.), and how one can reproduce it. This information
> #is crucial in allowing us to debug and fix the problems you experience.
> #
> #Thanks for your support!
> #
> #Ludo’.
> 
> I wrote to Ludovic Cortes that you should include Legacy Grub into GNU packages, because it can be installed in any place (e.g., on the root partition), but
> Grub 2 has this feature blocked by default (at least, all people in the Internet say so). Or it would be better to unblock this feature in Grub2. Even with the
> powerful Grub people can make less harm to their conputers than, for example, with fdisk, which you like and include everywhere. 
>
> I installed GuixSD with big difficulties, and at the end I could not boot it. Of course, I booted via Aptosid Grub, but it is not very nice to use a bootloader from
> another OS.
> 
> You do very amazing and advanced things and do not worry about some simple things. A good bootloader is important.
> 
> Just, please, recover the ability of Grub 2 to write on the disk. At now moment it says that it needs to calculate block sizes, something like that. When people
> write --force option, it says that everything is ok, but in reality it does not write on the disk.

1] If you want to put Grub2 into partition, you can use filesystem, which reserves enough space at the beginning like BtrFs.
2] You can also use calculated block size which is less safe but still works in most of cases

In those cases you can use either `multiboot' to chainload GuixSD's bootloader or just load GuixSD's configuration with `source'.

3] You can use GuixSD's configured Grub2 as your default bootloader in MBR of the disk which is the easiest way to deal with that.

Relying on unmaintained Grub is probably not the right way for anything.

HTH and happy New Year to you too!

S_W

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