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

["Robin H. Johnson" <robbat2@gentoo.org>]

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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
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GnuPG FP : 7D0B3CEB E9B85B1F 825BCECF EE05E6F6 A48F6136

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