[gentoo-dev] [RFC] sys-boot/grub:0 (GRUB legacy) sunset planning

[gentoo-dev] [RFC] sys-boot/grub:0 (GRUB legacy) sunset planning

[Robin H. Johnson]

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Hi,

The base-system project would like to put forward a plan to sunset GRUB
Legacy, sys-boot/grub:0 (grub-0.97).

What does this cover?
---------------------
- sys-boot/grub:0
- sys-boot/grub-static

What does this NOT cover?
-------------------------
- sys-boot/grub:2
- app-emulation/xen-pvgrub [1] 
- app-emulation/grub-xen-host [1]

Why should it go? 
-----------------
- No longer supported by upstream
- no upstream fixes at all for 5+ years
- very fragile to toolchain changes.

Why does it need to stay at all? 
--------------------------------
- grub:0 is still used by legacy systems where the upgrade is
  non-trivial (eg.  re-partitioning), or not supported (eg. vendor
  clouds)
- grub-static was heavily used in specific profiles [2] where the build
  system produced a grub that didn't work properly. I think (but would
  like confirmation) that the grub-static use cases are no longer in
  use.

What are other distributions doing? 
-----------------------------------
- Ubuntu shipped both versions of grub for Xenial, but dropped them
  entirely for Zesty & Artful.
- Debian: still offers grub-legacy, but defaults to grub-2.
- Fedora: hasn't shipped grub-0 in years.
- CentOS: 6 ships grub-0.97 only, 7 ships grub2 only.

The plan:
---------
- To the extent possible, no new installs should use grub:0.
- package.mask grub:0
- Last-rite grub-static if not needed.
- No new functionality will be accepted
- Outstanding feature patches/bugs will be closed (e.g. btrfs, tpm)
- Fixes to keep it building correctly will be accepted (e.g. gcc-6)
- base-system, as a project, will only maintain grub:2 from this point
  forward.
- metadata.xml will mark base-system as maintaining grub:2 only.
- metadata.xml will list explicit grub:0 maintainers.
- This is only available while there is sufficient skilled
  manpower/maintainers.

Open questions:
--------------
- Are there more maintainers willing to put their name in the hat?
- Are there existing use cases that I've missed, where migration to
  grub-2 CANNOT be done?
- Are there other use cases that need grub-static?

[1] app-emulation/xen-pvgrub & app-emulation/grub-xen-host are
maintained by the Xen project. app-emulation/xen-pvgrub is the grub:0
part, and probably also deserving of sunset. app-emulation/grub-xen-host
depends on grub:2 and builds a specific config.
[2] hardened, no-multilib, mixed 64-bit kernel/32-ul systems.

-- 
Robin Hugh Johnson
Gentoo Linux: Dev, Infra Lead, Foundation Asst. Treasurer
E-Mail   : robbat2@gentoo.org
GnuPG FP : 11ACBA4F 4778E3F6 E4EDF38E B27B944E 34884E85
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Re: [gentoo-dev] [RFC] sys-boot/grub:0 (GRUB legacy) sunset planning

[Hanno Böck]

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Hi,

On Sat, 2 Sep 2017 15:56:04 +0000
"Robin H. Johnson" <robbat2@gentoo.org> wrote:

> - Are there other use cases that need grub-static?

I have used grub-static to boot Gentoo Systems built with Address
Sanitizer.

I have to check whether it's feasible to replace that with grub2, but
it will probably be complicated. The problem is that you can't build
full grub with asan, but you also cannot build the parts that require
external libraries (notably ncurses) without asan.

If grub-static gets last-rited from main gentoo I'll probably just keep
a copy of it in the asantoo overlay.

-- 
Hanno Böck
https://hboeck.de/

mail/jabber: hanno@hboeck.de
GPG: FE73757FA60E4E21B937579FA5880072BBB51E42

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Re: [gentoo-dev] [RFC] sys-boot/grub:0 (GRUB legacy) sunset planning

[Robin H. Johnson]

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On Sun, Sep 03, 2017 at 10:44:20PM +0200, Hanno Böck wrote:
> I have to check whether it's feasible to replace that with grub2, but
> it will probably be complicated. The problem is that you can't build
> full grub with asan, but you also cannot build the parts that require
> external libraries (notably ncurses) without asan.
Grub2 doesn't build with ASAN, or did you just mean Grub-legacy doesn't
build with ASAN?

-- 
Robin Hugh Johnson
Gentoo Linux: Dev, Infra Lead, Foundation Asst. Treasurer
E-Mail   : robbat2@gentoo.org
GnuPG FP : 11ACBA4F 4778E3F6 E4EDF38E B27B944E 34884E85
GnuPG FP : 7D0B3CEB E9B85B1F 825BCECF EE05E6F6 A48F6136

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Re: [gentoo-dev] [RFC] sys-boot/grub:0 (GRUB legacy) sunset planning

[William L. Thomson Jr.]

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On Sat, 2 Sep 2017 15:56:04 +0000
"Robin H. Johnson" <robbat2@gentoo.org> wrote:

> Open questions:
> --------------
> - Are there existing use cases that I've missed, where migration to
>   grub-2 CANNOT be done?

I left grub sometime ago for syslinux/pxelinux/extlinux. I run that on
everything now even UEFI. I much prefer it to grub. That maybe an
option for grub:0 users, who cannot or do not want to use grub:2.

I had issues with grub pxe hardware support. Given that you tend to
use syslinux on like usb and  iso's. I just stick to one for all.

-- 
William L. Thomson Jr.

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