Re: [gentoo-user] grub vs grub 2

["mike@trausch.us" <mike@trausch.us>]

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On 02/14/2012 01:40 PM, LK wrote:
> 
> On 120214, at 19:24, mike@trausch.us wrote:
>> On 02/14/2012 01:08 PM, LK wrote:
>>> BTW: So is grub0 still supported by gentoo / maintained by themselves?
>>> Does that matter(it is boot, no network stuff) ?
>> GRUB Legacy (that is, GRUB versions 0.xx) is still the default in
>> Gentoo.  In order to use GRUB 2 (that is, GRUB version 1.99 in Portage)
>> you'll have to unmask sys-boot/grub-1.99-r2.
>
> The thing is, IMO grub0 is better / simplier.
>

I disagree.  GRUB Legacy is not the same in any two distributions
because every single distribution patches it differently because it
hasn't had core functionality updated in a very long time.  It's pretty
much abandoned by upstream, as well.

I'm not saying that it is bad, but I _am_ saying that it has outlived
its usefulness.

GRUB 2 follows an entirely different architecture.

>> GRUB 2 is significantly more convenient and powerful and does not
>> require the nearly 80 patches that the legacy version does in order to
>> work properly on the system.  It can also manage its own configuration
>> file using its new grub-mkconfig (grub2-mkconfig in Gentoo) program,
>> which supports the use of scripts/programs to generate grub.cfg entries
>> for booting the kernel and other operating systems.
>
> As you read above, I prefer grub0.* because it has config files, not
> commands which will automize it. For ubuntu I can understand that,
> but configuring boot is too simple to require automisation. When
> now automatic script fails, is there a way to do it by hand? Ubuntu
> disallows editing it by hand. Now I am confused by the 80 patches
> for legacy grub =( afaik.

Nothing requires you to use the scripts; they simply provide assistance.
 If you want, you can absolutely manage your configuration file by hand.
 Why you'd want to is beyond me, but it's a choice that you do in fact have.

I use them, because it simplifies my life and it means that I can easily
manage systems' boot loader configuration without having to resort to
forcing all the environments to use the same filenames and
layouts---compile kernel, install kernel, run "grub2-mkconfig -o
/boot/grub2/grub.cfg".  Simple.  I have too many systems to worry about
messing with configuration files by hand!

If you need to customize the process, you can add, remove, and re-order
scripts in /etc/grub.d.  They are named like xx-name, where xx is a
number from 00 to 99.

Of course, if for some reason one of those scripts did break, you can
still boot your system by hand as you were able to do in GRUB Legacy,
with the added bonus that the GRUB 2 environment is much easier to work
in.  It also supports partition schemes other than MBR, which is useful
since I use GPT on my systems.  It can also natively boot 64-bit kernels
via Multiboot.

> PS: If you know how to get rid of any background image, could you
> say how?

For GRUB Legacy?  I'm sorry, but it has been long enough since I have
used it that I couldn't help; there is a configuration directive in the
menu.lst file that you should be able to delete that will get rid of it,
but I don't remember what it was called.

> THX + TIA.

	--- Mike

-- 
A man who reasons deliberately, manages it better after studying Logic
than he could before, if he is sincere about it and has common sense.
                                   --- Carveth Read, “Logic”


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