Subject: [bug#26339] "extlinux", "extlinux" gpt, bootloader-configuration without package nor installer

From: Mathieu Othacehe <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2017 11:58:31 +0200

Hi Danny,

I must admin the disctinction between syslinux and extlinux is a bit
unclear to me.

Reading this page :

http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=EXTLINUX

"EXTLINUX is a Syslinux variant which boots from a Linux filesystem."

Which means that extlinux is a bootloader per-se and the current naming
in gnu/bootloader/extlinux.scm makes sense.

The wikipedia page of syslinux, also explains that syslinux is a "suite
of bootloaders" including :

- syslinux (the original one used for booting from fat and ntfs)
- extlinux
- pxelinux
- memdist

However, I must admit there's something strange here :

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(define u-boot-bootloader
  (bootloader
   (inherit extlinux-bootloader)
   (package #f)
   (name 'u-boot)
   (installer install-u-boot)
   (configuration-file "/boot/extlinux.conf")))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

The fact that u-boot-bootloader inherits from extlinux-bootloader seems
strange, even if u-boot is configured with a file following extlinux
syntax.

Maybe we could write :

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(define u-boot-bootloader
  (bootloader
   (package #f)
   (name 'u-boot)
   (installer install-u-boot)
   (configuration-file "/boot/extlinux.conf")
   (configuration-file-generator extlinux-configuration-file)))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

where extlinux-configuration-file is exported from extlinux.scm ?

Thanks,

Mathieu