[gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

Hello list,

James's recent thread on grub2 with several kernels prompted me to have
another play with grub2.

I followed the grub2 migration guide[1] up to and including where it says "At
this point you should reboot your machine and select GRUB2 Chainload." I did
that and found I was offered only one kernel, and something about advanced
options, which I couldn't make head nor tail of. That one kernel did boot ok,
but when I rebooted again into grub legacy and booted the same kernel my
volume groups had not started. One more reboot fixed that.

Now, my question is how to have grub2 offer me a choice of kernels from all
those that are present in /boot (a separate ext2 partition). Not only that,
but pass different softlevel selectors to them. Here's my grub.conf to
illustrate what I mean:

#
# Boot menu configuration file - Grub-legacy
#

root (hd0,0)
timeout 10
default 1
fallback 4
color white/blue black/light-gray
splashimage /grub/splash.xpm.gz

title GRUB2 Chainload
        kernel /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img
        boot

title=Gentoo Linux 3.10.25
        kernel /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.25-gentoo root=/dev/md5 net.ifnames=0

title=Gentoo Linux 3.10.25, no X
        kernel /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.25-gentoo root=/dev/md5 softlevel=no-x net.ifnames=0

title=Gentoo Linux 3.10.25, no network
        kernel /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.25-gentoo root=/dev/md5 softlevel=no-net net.ifnames=0

title=Gentoo Linux 3.10.17
        kernel /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.17-gentoo root=/dev/md5 net.ifnames=0

title=Gentoo Linux 3.10.17, no X
        kernel /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.17-gentoo root=/dev/md5 softlevel=no-x net.ifnames=0

title=Gentoo Linux 3.10.17, no network
        kernel /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.17-gentoo root=/dev/md5 softlevel=no-net net.ifnames=0

title=Memtest86+
        kernel /boot/memtest86plus/memtest86+-4.20.bin

title=Rescue System 3.8.13
        kernel /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.8.13-gentoo-rescue root=/dev/sda8 net.ifnames=0

title=Rescue System 3.10.7-r1
        kernel /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.7-r1-gentoo-rescue root=/dev/sda8 net.ifnames=0

I've been operating this way for years and maintained the kernel versions
manually. That was not a lot of work, with the help of some elementary bash-
ing and copy&pasting, and I don't want the flexibility of boot options thrown 
away by switching to a supposedly better grub.

Any ideas anyone?

[1] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2_Migration

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Tanstaafl]

On 2014-01-25 7:18 AM, Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
> I've been operating this way for years and maintained the kernel versions
> manually. That was not a lot of work, with the help of some elementary bash-
> ing and copy&pasting, and I don't want the flexibility of boot options thrown
> away by switching to a supposedly better grub.
>
> Any ideas anyone?
>
> [1]https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2_Migration

Like you, I've always done this manually, and in fact I prefer it that way.

Personally, if/when I take the plunge, I'll just continue to do it 
manually with Grub2:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2_Quick_Start#Manual_Configuration

[gentoo-user] Re: Grub2 and softlevels

[Martin Vaeth]

Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Now, my question is how to have grub2 offer me a choice of kernels from all
> those that are present in /boot (a separate ext2 partition). Not only that,
> but pass different softlevel selectors to them.

In my opinion you should decide for either manually writing a grub.cfg
or for letting it produce automatically by the scripts:
In the former case you have all the flexibility of legacy a grub
(and much more) while in the latter case you probably have to hack
around with the generating scripts - probably it is simpler to hack
scripts for your particular purpose.

However, there is also a further possibility: Instead of passing the
kernel line directly you can use variables in the kernel line;
you can then set these variables to some defaults and add menu
entries to modify them. This way you need two (or more) clicks when
you want a special kernel with a special command line, but the
total number of entries needed is less (not all combinations for
all kernels have their own entry), and it is probably also easier
to patch the scripts to generate this: Essentially you just have to
force the scripts to generate a kernel line which uses the variables
(I have never looked to the scripts in much detail, but I guess that
this is not so hard), and you need to add the additional code to set
the variables.
An example for a manual setup (i.e. not autogenerating grub.cfg)
using this technique can be found here:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7426932.html#7426932

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[J. Roeleveld]

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Tanstaafl <tanstaafl@libertytrek.org> wrote:
>On 2014-01-25 7:18 AM, Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>> I've been operating this way for years and maintained the kernel
>versions
>> manually. That was not a lot of work, with the help of some
>elementary bash-
>> ing and copy&pasting, and I don't want the flexibility of boot
>options thrown
>> away by switching to a supposedly better grub.
>>
>> Any ideas anyone?
>>
>> [1]https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2_Migration
>
>Like you, I've always done this manually, and in fact I prefer it that
>way.
>
>Personally, if/when I take the plunge, I'll just continue to do it 
>manually with Grub2:
>
>https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2_Quick_Start#Manual_Configuration

Is there a more comprehensive howto on how to convert grub legacy to grub2?

I use xen and initramfs. And the options in grub legacy don't work with grub2.

Many thanks,

Joost
-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Mike Gilbert]

On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 7:18 AM, Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
> Any ideas anyone?
>

Here's a manually written grub.cfg that should do pretty much what
your old menu.lst did.

root=(hd0,msdos1)
timeout=10
default=0
fallback=3
color_normal=white/blue
color_highlight=black/light-gray

insmod all_video
terminal_output gfxterm

background_image /grub/splash.xpm.gz

menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.25" {
linux /boot/linux-x86_64-3.10.25-gentoo root=/dev/md5 net.ifnames=0
}

menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.25, no X" {
linux /boot/linux-x86_64-3.10.25-gentoo root=/dev/md5 softlevel=no-x
net.ifnames=0
}

menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.25, no network" {
linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.25-gentoo root=/dev/md5
softlevel=no-net net.ifnames=0
}

menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.17" {
linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.17-gentoo root=/dev/md5 net.ifnames=0
}

menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.17, no X" {
linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.17-gentoo root=/dev/md5 softlevel=no-x
net.ifnames=0
}

menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.17, no network" {
linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.17-gentoo root=/dev/md5
softlevel=no-net net.ifnames=0
}

menuentry "Memtest86+" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86plus/memtest86+-4.20.bin
}

menuentry "Rescue System 3.8.13" {
linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.8.13-gentoo-rescue root=/dev/sda8 net.ifnames=0
}

menuentry "Rescue System 3.10.7-r1" {
linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.7-r1-gentoo-rescue root=/dev/sda8 net.ifnames=0
}

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

On Saturday 25 Jan 2014 10:42:52 Mike Gilbert wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 7:18 AM, Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> 
wrote:
> > Any ideas anyone?
> 
> Here's a manually written grub.cfg that should do pretty much what
> your old menu.lst did.

--->8

Well, what a gent! I didn't mean to imply that someone should write it for me, 
but I'm deeply grateful anyway. I'll give it a try in a minute.

Later: works like a charm! I tried a couple of kernels and they just booted.

Maybe it'll become clear over time how to arrange the input to grub2-mkconfig 
to achieve a similar result. Meanwhile I've removed the X bit from it.

Some time ago I found a guide to creating menu.cfg manually, but when I tried 
booting via it grub just stopped, as if waiting for something from me. I 
deduced that I needed some other stuff called in, besides all the kernel 
specifiers, but not knowing what, I just left it pro tem.

Looks like your suggestions "insmod all_video" and "terminal_output gfxterm" 
do the trick. Now all I have to do is (create and?) specify a character set 
that (a) can display all the required characters and (b) is big enough to 
read. Something like the size of the character set in legacy grub would do 
nicely.

Anyway, that can be an exercise for me this wet, windy weekend; then perhaps 
I'll feel confident enough to unmerge grub:0. Many thanks for your hard work, 
Mike.

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

On Saturday 25 Jan 2014 13:51:01 Martin Vaeth wrote:

> An example for a manual setup (i.e. not autogenerating grub.cfg)
> using this technique can be found here:
> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7426932.html#7426932

Good $(DEITY)! I'd have to enlarge my boot partition to cram all that in!

Thanks for the idea though...

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Mike Gilbert]

On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 12:08 PM, Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
> On Saturday 25 Jan 2014 10:42:52 Mike Gilbert wrote:
>> On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 7:18 AM, Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk>
> wrote:
>> > Any ideas anyone?
>>
>> Here's a manually written grub.cfg that should do pretty much what
>> your old menu.lst did.
>
> --->8
>
> Well, what a gent! I didn't mean to imply that someone should write it for me,
> but I'm deeply grateful anyway. I'll give it a try in a minute.
>
> Later: works like a charm! I tried a couple of kernels and they just booted.
>

Nice!

> Maybe it'll become clear over time how to arrange the input to grub2-mkconfig
> to achieve a similar result. Meanwhile I've removed the X bit from it.
>

grub-mkconfig is nice if you have relatively simple requirements. For
anything fancy (like your setup) I prefer to just write it by hand.

The manual has pretty good documentation on all of the commands and
variables available; it's just a bit difficult to figure out which
ones you need and in what order.

> Looks like your suggestions "insmod all_video" and "terminal_output gfxterm"
> do the trick. Now all I have to do is (create and?) specify a character set
> that (a) can display all the required characters and (b) is big enough to
> read. Something like the size of the character set in legacy grub would do
> nicely.
>

grub2 is able to load any font you like; you just need to convert it
to "pf2" format using the grub-mkfont utility. You may need to enable
the truetype use flag to get that installed.

By default, it provides a font called "unifont", which is a little
ugly but has very good unicode coverage. You can load it by adding
this to your grub.cfg:

loadfont unicode

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Mick]

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On Saturday 25 Jan 2014 17:22:27 Mike Gilbert wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 12:08 PM, Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> 
wrote:
> > On Saturday 25 Jan 2014 10:42:52 Mike Gilbert wrote:

> > Maybe it'll become clear over time how to arrange the input to
> > grub2-mkconfig to achieve a similar result. Meanwhile I've removed the X
> > bit from it.
> 
> grub-mkconfig is nice if you have relatively simple requirements. For
> anything fancy (like your setup) I prefer to just write it by hand.
> 
> The manual has pretty good documentation on all of the commands and
> variables available; it's just a bit difficult to figure out which
> ones you need and in what order.
> 
> > Looks like your suggestions "insmod all_video" and "terminal_output
> > gfxterm" do the trick. Now all I have to do is (create and?) specify a
> > character set that (a) can display all the required characters and (b)
> > is big enough to read. Something like the size of the character set in
> > legacy grub would do nicely.
> 
> grub2 is able to load any font you like; you just need to convert it
> to "pf2" format using the grub-mkfont utility. You may need to enable
> the truetype use flag to get that installed.
> 
> By default, it provides a font called "unifont", which is a little
> ugly but has very good unicode coverage. You can load it by adding
> this to your grub.cfg:
> 
> loadfont unicode


Perhaps I'm getting older or just bored with change, but is there an 
alternative to grub2 that has the simplicity of grub-legacy, for more complex 
than your average Ubuntu-like user requirements?  

I have used grub2 on some Ubuntu and Kubuntu installations which went sideways 
on non-vanilla set ups.  I wasted some hours straightening them up and started 
thinking nostalgically of grub-legacy which I still run on my gentoo systems.

Do I have any other option besides lilo which I left for grub many years ago?

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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[gentoo-user] Re: Grub2 and softlevels

[James]

Mick <michaelkintzios <at> gmail.com> writes:



> Perhaps I'm getting older or just bored with change, but is there an 
> alternative to grub2 that has the simplicity of grub-legacy, for more 
> complex than your average Ubuntu-like user requirements?  

From my research, nothing that is gaining ground. Grub2 is being supported
even my the new myriad of arm64 systems, besides x86 and most other
arches.  EFI (which is far worst imho)... [1]

> I have used grub2 on some Ubuntu and Kubuntu installations which went  
> sideways   on non-vanilla set ups.  I wasted some hours straightening 
> them up and started  thinking nostalgically of grub-legacy which I still 
> run on my gentoo systems.
> Do I have any other option besides lilo which I left for grub many 
> years ago?

I think grub2 will get better as issues are solved and documented,
(gentoo wiki ?). I keep mulitple copies of kernels, .configs and system
files, all in /boot/ just for grins (and recovery efforts).

What we need is some "dumbed_down" documents for the over 50 crowd,
because, like you, I'm tired of fixing things that were solved,
decades ago.  

Closely intertwined with grub2 issues are UUIDs, (U)EFI, fstab stratigies,
gpt formating, drives over 2T and file systems; these new bios can
can be issues to how these mechanisms interact. For now, I only use
grub2 with all of these other things being of legacy in nature. My 
next goal is the add gpt formatting and BTRFS (which is rapidly stabalizing
imho).  After all of that, I'll try some 4-gig (4+?) gig drives
as seting those up most aggressively, is still a black-art, imho.

PS, your not alone is frustration and less than ideal (er_shit)
configuration experiences.....


hth,
James



[1] http://askubuntu.com/questions/313627/uefi-bootloader-alternative-to-grub

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Mike Gilbert]

On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 1:29 PM, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> Perhaps I'm getting older or just bored with change, but is there an
> alternative to grub2 that has the simplicity of grub-legacy, for more complex
> than your average Ubuntu-like user requirements?
>
> I have used grub2 on some Ubuntu and Kubuntu installations which went sideways
> on non-vanilla set ups.  I wasted some hours straightening them up and started
> thinking nostalgically of grub-legacy which I still run on my gentoo systems.
>
> Do I have any other option besides lilo which I left for grub many years ago?
>

I have heard good things about extlinux.

http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/EXTLINUX

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Grub2 and softlevels

[Mick]

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On Saturday 25 Jan 2014 19:32:16 James wrote:

> What we need is some "dumbed_down" documents for the over 50 crowd,
> because, like you, I'm tired of fixing things that were solved,
> decades ago.

 :-))


> Closely intertwined with grub2 issues are UUIDs, (U)EFI, fstab stratigies,
> gpt formating, drives over 2T and file systems; these new bios can
> can be issues to how these mechanisms interact. For now, I only use
> grub2 with all of these other things being of legacy in nature. My
> next goal is the add gpt formatting and BTRFS (which is rapidly stabalizing
> imho).  After all of that, I'll try some 4-gig (4+?) gig drives
> as seting those up most aggressively, is still a black-art, imho.
> 
> PS, your not alone is frustration and less than ideal (er_shit)
> configuration experiences.....

There was some frustration when grub2 would complain when I tried to install 
it in a partition boot record, rather than the MBR that *buntu wanted.  I do 
understand though that we can't stay with BIOS for ever.  My new rig will have 
UEFI and SSD because that's where the market it going, but it will definitely  
*not* have MSWindows 8!

Thanks for the link below.  I see that there are some alternatives to GRUB and 
ELILO which I will try out when the time comes.


> [1]
> http://askubuntu.com/questions/313627/uefi-bootloader-alternative-to-grub

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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[gentoo-user] Re: Grub2 and softlevels

[James]

Mick <michaelkintzios <at> gmail.com> writes:


> > PS, your not alone is frustration and less than ideal (er_shit)
> > configuration experiences.....

> There was some frustration when grub2 would complain when I tried to 
> install it in a partition boot record, rather than the MBR that
> *buntu wanted. 

The handbook has been recently updated on setting up drives. I have been
working with the doc team on ideas of how to migrate the handbook,
related to these issue.

Now SSD and conventional HD are coming out that are "hybrids of
SSD and mechanical HD(many vendors do not even tell you any details) 
so we may have new issues related to booting, grub, disk geometry
and HD parameters.....( fun fun fun).

I have been playing around with gptfdisk (gdisk) and encouraging the
handbook/doc devs to replace their "fdisk" examples with more
relevant gptfdisk (gdisk) documentation. Jury is still out. YMMV.
gdisk is on the minimal install iso discs, so those devs think
highly of it, for a CLI tool.


>  I do  understand though that we can't stay with BIOS for  
> ever.  My new rig will have UEFI and SSD because that's where the market 
> it going, but it will definitely   *not* have MSWindows 8!

If you have that choice, avoiding *doz is always a brilliant idea, imho.
But, as a community, we have to be realistic and realize that folks
may avoid winbloz8, but not *doz.....

> Thanks for the link below.  I see that there are some alternatives to  
> GRUB and ELILO which I will try out when the time comes.

Coming from a microprocessor background, it hard for me to limit
the discussion of "bootloaders" to those offered by the 
industry conglomerates and the big ones, like grub, lilo etc.
If you have a microprocesor, you have to "bootstrap" the chip
to get it "up" or at the monitor stage so you can begin to develop
a system (microcodes) to build on. When we run multiuser OS
general processor systems, by the billions,it makes send to 
resue codes for bootstrapping devices.

Problem is folks (big semiconductor and computing companies) have
always jockied for ownership, and thus legal and financial control
of that patented space of "*boot*".

With the plunging sales of "personal PCs" you are going to get
a plethora of contaminated boot processes where folks with billions
of dollars, use the latest technologies to manipulate, control
and own all aspects of the "bootstrapping" process. Even AMD is moving
to SOC (System On a Chip) where the processor (x86*, arm, gpu, simd,
memory, NSA*) are all hidden from even the companies designing products.
This horizon, looks nasty and scary for me, as a christian( basically
one who recognizes my own shortcomings and sins), a recluse,
a solitary monk, just trying to pay the bills. 

Android is perfect example of a bastardized commercial effort. If google had
folks best interest at heart, why not just add all of Android to the 
open licenses associated with linux, bsd and the open source efforts?
Android* is a bastardized stepchild of *nix, cause google wants control.
And folks think moving data from the NSA to the corporations is
going to benefit the average citizen? (laughing attack leaves me
gasping, ultimately crying for those youths among us old farts)......


Clear, concise, example rich doumentation, is the 
only problem with grub2. Although Grub2 is suppose to be a "unifying"
technology, what I've experienced is each distro has "hacked" grub2
with little accurated documentation for the masses. Those most bright among
us figure things out and move on, leaving little in the way of well prepared
documentation to this critical resource. 

Think about it for a second: well education, experienced
professionals are doing amazing things at the microcode level, yet their
is an inability to create useful documents for the masses of dependants?
I think this is a prime reason for the rise of ArchLinux.
Take a look at their documents.  United we have a very slim chance. Dilution
into a myriad of differing boot semanctics and codes will only feed
the proprietary deamons amongst us, imho.

"info grub" or "info grub2" might be a good place to focus your eyeballs?

So, the conclusion: WE all need to band together, and make GRUB2
all it can be as it is our best chance for maintaining control
over our systems.


peace, and good hunting!
James

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sat, 25 Jan 2014 16:42:21 -0500, Mike Gilbert wrote:

> I have heard good things about extlinux.
> 
> http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/EXTLINUX

Ah yes, the bootloader for people that hate reading docs. I battled with
syslinux n DVDs for quite a while, but ended up switching to using GRUB2
to boot them. If is different from legacy GRUB, but not that different
and, as you mentioned elsewhere, it is pretty well documented.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Run with scissors. Remove mattress tags. Top post. Be a rebel.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

On Saturday 25 Jan 2014 12:22:27 Mike Gilbert wrote:

> grub2 is able to load any font you like; you just need to convert it
> to "pf2" format using the grub-mkfont utility. You may need to enable
> the truetype use flag to get that installed.
> 
> By default, it provides a font called "unifont", which is a little
> ugly but has very good unicode coverage. You can load it by adding
> this to your grub.cfg:
> 
> loadfont unicode

Yes, that does enable all the line-drawing characters to be displayed 
properly; now all I need to do is make grub use the plain old 80x25 line 
display instead of the frame buffer.

Thanks again Mike.

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 20:08:49 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:

> Yes, that does enable all the line-drawing characters to be displayed 
> properly; now all I need to do is make grub use the plain old 80x25
> line display instead of the frame buffer.

Uncomment this line in /etc/default/grub

#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

The variables you can set in here are documented in the info pages.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

In 1750 Issac Newton became discouraged when he fell up a flight of
stairs.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 20:13:58 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 20:08:49 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > Yes, that does enable all the line-drawing characters to be displayed
> > properly; now all I need to do is make grub use the plain old 80x25
> > line display instead of the frame buffer.
> 
> Uncomment this line in /etc/default/grub
> 
> #GRUB_TERMINAL=console

Thanks, but I'm using a manually written grub.cfg, so I need to find out what 
that definition translates to. I'm searching now...

> The variables you can set in here are documented in the info pages.

Also, and much easier to read, in an HTML file downloaded from the grub site.

-- 
Regards
Peter

[gentoo-user] Re: Grub2 and softlevels

[Martin Vaeth]

Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>> > properly; now all I need to do is make grub use the plain old 80x25
>
> Thanks, but I'm using a manually written grub.cfg

Then it is completely trivial: Just do *not* insert code
which sets graphics like insmod {vga,vbe,gfxterm},
loadfont unicode, terminal_output gfxterm, etc.

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 I wrote:
> On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 20:13:58 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> > Uncomment this line in /etc/default/grub
> > 
> > #GRUB_TERMINAL=console
> 
> Thanks, but I'm using a manually written grub.cfg, so I need to find out
> what that definition translates to. I'm searching now...

It was easier than I expected (I hope). I just had to add two lines to 
grub.cfg:
	terminal_input console
	terminal_output console

Mike G had suggested gfxterm for terminal_output, so I just changed it and 
added terminal_input. I'll test it next time I boot.

Thanks again Neil.

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:

> > The variables you can set in here are documented in the info pages.  
> 
> Also, and much easier to read, in an HTML file downloaded from the grub
> site.

Not if you use KDE :P


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Top Oxymorons Number 43: Genuine imitation

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Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:

> > Uncomment this line in /etc/default/grub
> > 
> > #GRUB_TERMINAL=console  
> 
> Thanks, but I'm using a manually written grub.cfg, so I need to find
> out what that definition translates to. I'm searching now...

Just run grob-mkconfig with and without that set and diff the output.
Apart from the actual menu entries, most of the grub configuration is
done at the top of grub.cfg, so it is easy to modify this to suit your
needs.

Personally, I prefer to use grub-mkconfig combined with manually written
entries in /etc/grub.d.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

On Monday 27 Jan 2014 09:38:32 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > > The variables you can set in here are documented in the info pages.
> > 
> > Also, and much easier to read, in an HTML file downloaded from the grub
> > site.
> 
> Not if you use KDE :P

I do. Why, does it have its own info reader? Personally I've never had to bite 
the bullet and had to learn how to use info.

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 21:42:54 Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 I wrote:
> > On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 20:13:58 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> > > Uncomment this line in /etc/default/grub
> > > 
> > > #GRUB_TERMINAL=console
> > 
> > Thanks, but I'm using a manually written grub.cfg, so I need to find out
> > what that definition translates to. I'm searching now...
> 
> It was easier than I expected (I hope). I just had to add two lines to
> grub.cfg:
> 	terminal_input console
> 	terminal_output console
> 
> Mike G had suggested gfxterm for terminal_output, so I just changed it and
> added terminal_input. I'll test it next time I boot.

Nope. Now I'm back to @ signs in place of the border, with the text still at 
the original size needing a magnifying glass (well, I do these days).

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

On Monday 27 Jan 2014 09:40:44 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > > Uncomment this line in /etc/default/grub
> > > 
> > > #GRUB_TERMINAL=console
> > 
> > Thanks, but I'm using a manually written grub.cfg, so I need to find
> > out what that definition translates to. I'm searching now...
> 
> Just run grob-mkconfig with and without that set and diff the output.

Yes, that's what I did.

> Personally, I prefer to use grub-mkconfig combined with manually written
> entries in /etc/grub.d.

Looks like I'll be doing the same. Meanwhile I've removed the X bit from 
grub2-mkfonfig to make sure I don't run it by accident. Yes, I know the next 
update will put it back again. Never mind.

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Alan McKinnon]

On 27/01/2014 18:00, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Monday 27 Jan 2014 09:38:32 Neil Bothwick wrote:
>> On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:
>>>> The variables you can set in here are documented in the info pages.
>>>
>>> Also, and much easier to read, in an HTML file downloaded from the grub
>>> site.
>>
>> Not if you use KDE :P
> 
> I do. Why, does it have its own info reader? Personally I've never had to bite 
> the bullet and had to learn how to use info.
> 


yes, it's a standard kio part installed by kdebase-kioslaves.

Entering info:// as a URL in konqueror gives a page with all info ages
on the system listed.

info:/<some_info_page> opens that one directly



-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

On Monday 27 Jan 2014 18:07:40 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On 27/01/2014 18:00, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > On Monday 27 Jan 2014 09:38:32 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> >> On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> >>>> The variables you can set in here are documented in the info pages.
> >>> 
> >>> Also, and much easier to read, in an HTML file downloaded from the grub
> >>> site.
> >> 
> >> Not if you use KDE :P
> > 
> > I do. Why, does it have its own info reader? Personally I've never had to
> > bite the bullet and had to learn how to use info.
> 
> yes, it's a standard kio part installed by kdebase-kioslaves.
> 
> Entering info:// as a URL in konqueror gives a page with all info ages
> on the system listed.
> 
> info:/<some_info_page> opens that one directly

That explains it then. I can't remember the last time I used Konqueror for 
anything. And of course, by the time I do want to I'll have forgotten what you 
said.  :-)

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Mike Gilbert]

On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 4:42 PM, Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
> On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 I wrote:
>> On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 20:13:58 Neil Bothwick wrote:
>> > Uncomment this line in /etc/default/grub
>> >
>> > #GRUB_TERMINAL=console
>>
>> Thanks, but I'm using a manually written grub.cfg, so I need to find out
>> what that definition translates to. I'm searching now...
>
> It was easier than I expected (I hope). I just had to add two lines to
> grub.cfg:
>         terminal_input console
>         terminal_output console
>
> Mike G had suggested gfxterm for terminal_output, so I just changed it and
> added terminal_input. I'll test it next time I boot.
>
> Thanks again Neil.
>

Yeah, both of those settings default to "console", so you should be
able to just comment/remove them.

I only suggested gfxterm because you had a background image in your
original config for grub legacy. I'm not sure if that will work from
the VGA text console.

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Alan McKinnon]

On 27/01/2014 18:19, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Monday 27 Jan 2014 18:07:40 Alan McKinnon wrote:
>> On 27/01/2014 18:00, Peter Humphrey wrote:
>>> On Monday 27 Jan 2014 09:38:32 Neil Bothwick wrote:
>>>> On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:
>>>>>> The variables you can set in here are documented in the info pages.
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, and much easier to read, in an HTML file downloaded from the grub
>>>>> site.
>>>>
>>>> Not if you use KDE :P
>>>
>>> I do. Why, does it have its own info reader? Personally I've never had to
>>> bite the bullet and had to learn how to use info.
>>
>> yes, it's a standard kio part installed by kdebase-kioslaves.
>>
>> Entering info:// as a URL in konqueror gives a page with all info ages
>> on the system listed.
>>
>> info:/<some_info_page> opens that one directly
> 
> That explains it then. I can't remember the last time I used Konqueror for 
> anything. And of course, by the time I do want to I'll have forgotten what you 
> said.  :-)
> 


And teh google will find an on-line version for you faster than both of
those things combined :-)

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Mon, 27 Jan 2014 16:19:53 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:

> > Entering info:// as a URL in konqueror gives a page with all info ages
> > on the system listed.
> > 
> > info:/<some_info_page> opens that one directly  
> 
> That explains it then. I can't remember the last time I used Konqueror
> for anything. And of course, by the time I do want to I'll have
> forgotten what you said.  :-)

You can do it in Krunner too

alt-F2 followed by info:/grub2, man:/grub2 or #grub2

Info pages work a lot better when converted to HTML, they actually become
intuitive to use.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels [SOLVED]

[Peter Humphrey]

On Monday 27 Jan 2014 16:04:44 I wrote:
> On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 21:42:54 Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 21:28:55 I wrote:
> > > On Sunday 26 Jan 2014 20:13:58 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> > > > Uncomment this line in /etc/default/grub
> > > > 
> > > > #GRUB_TERMINAL=console
> > > 
> > > Thanks, but I'm using a manually written grub.cfg, so I need to find out
> > > what that definition translates to. I'm searching now...
> > 
> > It was easier than I expected (I hope). I just had to add two lines to
> > 
> > grub.cfg:
> > 	terminal_input console
> > 	terminal_output console
> > 
> > Mike G had suggested gfxterm for terminal_output, so I just changed it and
> > added terminal_input. I'll test it next time I boot.
> 
> Nope. Now I'm back to @ signs in place of the border, with the text still at
> the original size needing a magnifying glass (well, I do these days).

I had to remove the line "insmod all_video" from grub.cfg as well. Now I get the
good old-fashioned 80x24 line VGA console and I can read the list of boot images.

For posterity, here's my /boot/grub/grub.cfg:

root=(hd0,msdos1)
timeout=10
default=0
fallback=3
color_normal=white/blue
color_highlight=black/light-gray
background_image /grub/splash.xpm.gz

menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.25" {
        linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.25-gentoo root=/dev/md5 net.ifnames=0
}
menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.25, no X" {
        linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.25-gentoo root=/dev/md5 softlevel=no-x net.ifnames=0
}
menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.25, no network" {
        linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.25-gentoo root=/dev/md5 softlevel=no-net net.ifnames=0
}
menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.17" {
        linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.17-gentoo root=/dev/md5 net.ifnames=0
}
menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.17, no X" {
        linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.17-gentoo root=/dev/md5 softlevel=no-x net.ifnames=0
}
menuentry "Gentoo Linux 3.10.17, no network" {
        linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.17-gentoo root=/dev/md5 softlevel=no-net net.ifnames=0
}
menuentry "Memtest86+" {
        linux16 /boot/memtest86plus/memtest86+-4.20.bin
}
menuentry "Rescue System 3.10.7-r1" {
        linux /boot/kernel-x86_64-3.10.7-r1-gentoo-rescue root=/dev/sda8 net.ifnames=0
}
------------------------------------------------

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Thomas Mueller]

> I do. Why, does it have its own info reader? Personally I've never had to bite
> the bullet and had to learn how to use info.
        
> Regards
> Peter

I tried to learn info and never did well, always lost my place and had to hit q to get out.

Reading the info file as plain text worked better.

When I had Slackware with KDE 3.x, Konqueror had a good info reader, but I couldn't find my way in KDE after it went to 4.1.

Best I can think of in the absence of KDE is pinfo.

Why can't they get rid of info in favor of HTML, or even straight ASCII text?

Tom

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Alan McKinnon]

On 28/01/2014 13:38, Thomas Mueller wrote:
>> I do. Why, does it have its own info reader? Personally I've never had to bite
>> the bullet and had to learn how to use info.
>         
>> Regards
>> Peter
> 
> I tried to learn info and never did well, always lost my place and had to hit q to get out.
> 
> Reading the info file as plain text worked better.
> 
> When I had Slackware with KDE 3.x, Konqueror had a good info reader, but I couldn't find my way in KDE after it went to 4.1.
> 
> Best I can think of in the absence of KDE is pinfo.
> 
> Why can't they get rid of info in favor of HTML, or even straight ASCII text?


The GNU foundation will deprecate info files immediately after they stop
insisting distros call themselves GNU\Linux.

Ain't gonna happen, Stallman has a thing about info and won't let go.

There's a plethora of tools and sites out there to deliver info in a
browser and convert info<->html. The two map really well as they are
both hyperlinked presentation markup.

You could even go so far as to auto-convert all info pages yourself at
emerge time by hooking a custom script into portage's phase hooks. Then
view it locally in a browser; the info in info pages is actually very
good (far better than in man for gnu projects).

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Peter Humphrey]

On Tuesday 28 Jan 2014 14:26:43 Alan McKinnon wrote:

> You could even go so far as to auto-convert all info pages yourself at
> emerge time by hooking a custom script into portage's phase hooks. Then
> view it locally in a browser; the info in info pages is actually very
> good (far better than in man for gnu projects).

Hey, what a good idea! Any volunteers? My coding days are 25 years in the past 
I'm afraid, including various assemblers and all the way up to - wait for it - 
FORTRAN 66!

-- 
Regards
Peter

Re: [gentoo-user] Grub2 and softlevels

[Alan McKinnon]

On 28/01/2014 14:54, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Tuesday 28 Jan 2014 14:26:43 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> 
>> You could even go so far as to auto-convert all info pages yourself at
>> emerge time by hooking a custom script into portage's phase hooks. Then
>> view it locally in a browser; the info in info pages is actually very
>> good (far better than in man for gnu projects).
> 
> Hey, what a good idea! Any volunteers? My coding days are 25 years in the past 
> I'm afraid, including various assemblers and all the way up to - wait for it - 
> FORTRAN 66!
> 


Well, you beat me for sure. My earliest was BBC Basic...

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com