[gentoo-user] Re: Is grub2 stable and who uses it?

[Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com>]

Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> writes:

> I've only used it on Ubuntu, and maybe it's just Ubuntu's
> implementation -- but it was both complicated and difficult.  There
> are 10X as many files, and to change anything you edit a whole set of
> configuration files and run a utility that generates _another_ set of
> configuration files.
>
> Compared to "vi /boot/grub/menu.lst; reboot", that's complicated.

100 % agreement here.  I'm running Debian which has moved over to
grub2 in the newest (wheezy) install media.

Here is just a factual count of files to bare out the point.

  sudo mount /boot
  find /boot -type f|wc -l

   225
  
  225 files in boot.  And that isn't all that are involved, there
  are others elsewhere on the file system.

Just for grub users info a real list is inlined at the end. 

In truth, I've only had to make one small edit (It was very esoteric
and hard to find info about).

I wanted to boot to console which required me to change one line in a
file.  /etc/default/grub
 (original line)
  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
 (edited line)
  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet text"

It caused some kind of grief and came up as error on boot messages but
still worked.

To avoid unforeseen problems I put it back to original state and just
took `gdm' out of play (named gdm3 on debian). I then `startx' into
fluxbox.  

However to edit the boot process you make changes to certain files
like the one above and then run `update-grub' which generates the
files in /boot  or at least some of them.

/boot/grub/grub.cfg itself is 111 lines.  Its not the most complex
script going but for me it would take some serious study for an hour
or more to figure out what is happening in it.  But of course you are
not supposed to edit grub.cfg directly.

It is orders of magnitude more complicated in my opinion... I'm not
sure what the advantages are supposed to be.

Also, its not clear how one would install a new kernel.  Where to put
the information and so forth.

-------        ---------       ---=---       ---------      --------

find /boot -type f

/boot/System.map-3.0.0-1-686-pae
/boot/config-3.0.0-1-686-pae
/boot/grub/device.map
/boot/grub/915resolution.mod
/boot/grub/acpi.mod
/boot/grub/affs.mod
/boot/grub/afs.mod
/boot/grub/afs_be.mod
/boot/grub/aout.mod
/boot/grub/at_keyboard.mod
/boot/grub/ata.mod
/boot/grub/ata_pthru.mod
/boot/grub/befs.mod
/boot/grub/befs_be.mod
/boot/grub/biosdisk.mod
/boot/grub/bitmap.mod
/boot/grub/bitmap_scale.mod
/boot/grub/blocklist.mod
/boot/grub/boot.mod
/boot/grub/bsd.mod
/boot/grub/btrfs.mod
/boot/grub/bufio.mod
/boot/grub/cat.mod
/boot/grub/chain.mod
/boot/grub/cmostest.mod
/boot/grub/cmp.mod
/boot/grub/configfile.mod
/boot/grub/cpio.mod
/boot/grub/cpuid.mod
/boot/grub/crypto.mod
/boot/grub/cs5536.mod
/boot/grub/date.mod
/boot/grub/datehook.mod
/boot/grub/datetime.mod
/boot/grub/dm_nv.mod
/boot/grub/drivemap.mod
/boot/grub/echo.mod
/boot/grub/efiemu.mod
/boot/grub/elf.mod
/boot/grub/example_functional_test.mod
/boot/grub/ext2.mod
/boot/grub/extcmd.mod
/boot/grub/fat.mod
/boot/grub/font.mod
/boot/grub/fshelp.mod
/boot/grub/functional_test.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_arcfour.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_blowfish.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_camellia.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_cast5.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_crc.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_des.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_md4.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_md5.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_rfc2268.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_rijndael.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_rmd160.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_seed.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_serpent.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_sha1.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_sha256.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_sha512.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_tiger.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_twofish.mod
/boot/grub/gcry_whirlpool.mod
/boot/grub/gettext.mod
/boot/grub/gfxmenu.mod
/boot/grub/gfxterm.mod
/boot/grub/gptsync.mod
/boot/grub/gzio.mod
/boot/grub/halt.mod
/boot/grub/hashsum.mod
/boot/grub/hdparm.mod
/boot/grub/hello.mod
/boot/grub/help.mod
/boot/grub/hexdump.mod
/boot/grub/hfs.mod
/boot/grub/hfsplus.mod
/boot/grub/iorw.mod
/boot/grub/iso9660.mod
/boot/grub/jfs.mod
/boot/grub/jpeg.mod
/boot/grub/keylayouts.mod
/boot/grub/keystatus.mod
/boot/grub/legacycfg.mod
/boot/grub/linux.mod
/boot/grub/linux16.mod
/boot/grub/loadenv.mod
/boot/grub/loopback.mod
/boot/grub/ls.mod
/boot/grub/lsacpi.mod
/boot/grub/lsapm.mod
/boot/grub/lsmmap.mod
/boot/grub/lspci.mod
/boot/grub/lvm.mod
/boot/grub/mdraid09.mod
/boot/grub/mdraid1x.mod
/boot/grub/memdisk.mod
/boot/grub/memrw.mod
/boot/grub/minicmd.mod
/boot/grub/mmap.mod
/boot/grub/minix.mod
/boot/grub/minix2.mod
/boot/grub/msdospart.mod
/boot/grub/multiboot.mod
/boot/grub/multiboot2.mod
/boot/grub/nilfs2.mod
/boot/grub/normal.mod
/boot/grub/ntfs.mod
/boot/grub/ntfscomp.mod
/boot/grub/ntldr.mod
/boot/grub/ohci.mod
/boot/grub/part_acorn.mod
/boot/grub/part_amiga.mod
/boot/grub/part_apple.mod
/boot/grub/part_bsd.mod
/boot/grub/part_gpt.mod
/boot/grub/part_msdos.mod
/boot/grub/part_sun.mod
/boot/grub/part_sunpc.mod
/boot/grub/parttool.mod
/boot/grub/password.mod
/boot/grub/password_pbkdf2.mod
/boot/grub/pbkdf2.mod
/boot/grub/pci.mod
/boot/grub/play.mod
/boot/grub/png.mod
/boot/grub/probe.mod
/boot/grub/pxe.mod
/boot/grub/pxecmd.mod
/boot/grub/raid.mod
/boot/grub/raid5rec.mod
/boot/grub/raid6rec.mod
/boot/grub/read.mod
/boot/grub/reboot.mod
/boot/grub/regexp.mod
/boot/grub/reiserfs.mod
/boot/grub/relocator.mod
/boot/grub/scsi.mod
/boot/grub/search.mod
/boot/grub/search_fs_file.mod
/boot/grub/search_fs_uuid.mod
/boot/grub/search_label.mod
/boot/grub/sendkey.mod
/boot/grub/serial.mod
/boot/grub/setjmp.mod
/boot/grub/setpci.mod
/boot/grub/sfs.mod
/boot/grub/sleep.mod
/boot/grub/squash4.mod
/boot/grub/tar.mod
/boot/grub/terminal.mod
/boot/grub/terminfo.mod
/boot/grub/test.mod
/boot/grub/test_blockarg.mod
/boot/grub/testload.mod
/boot/grub/tga.mod
/boot/grub/trig.mod
/boot/grub/true.mod
/boot/grub/udf.mod
/boot/grub/ufs1.mod
/boot/grub/ufs2.mod
/boot/grub/uhci.mod
/boot/grub/usb.mod
/boot/grub/usb_keyboard.mod
/boot/grub/usbms.mod
/boot/grub/usbserial_common.mod
/boot/grub/usbserial_ftdi.mod
/boot/grub/usbserial_pl2303.mod
/boot/grub/usbtest.mod
/boot/grub/vbe.mod
/boot/grub/vga.mod
/boot/grub/vga_text.mod
/boot/grub/video.mod
/boot/grub/video_bochs.mod
/boot/grub/video_cirrus.mod
/boot/grub/video_fb.mod
/boot/grub/videoinfo.mod
/boot/grub/videotest.mod
/boot/grub/xfs.mod
/boot/grub/xnu.mod
/boot/grub/xnu_uuid.mod
/boot/grub/xzio.mod
/boot/grub/zfs.mod
/boot/grub/zfsinfo.mod
/boot/grub/command.lst
/boot/grub/crypto.lst
/boot/grub/fs.lst
/boot/grub/moddep.lst
/boot/grub/partmap.lst
/boot/grub/parttool.lst
/boot/grub/terminal.lst
/boot/grub/video.lst
/boot/grub/boot.img
/boot/grub/cdboot.img
/boot/grub/diskboot.img
/boot/grub/g2hdr.img
/boot/grub/grldr.img
/boot/grub/kernel.img
/boot/grub/lnxboot.img
/boot/grub/pxeboot.img
/boot/grub/efiemu32.o
/boot/grub/efiemu64.o
/boot/grub/locale/ast.mo
/boot/grub/locale/ca.mo
/boot/grub/locale/da.mo
/boot/grub/locale/de.mo
/boot/grub/locale/fi.mo
/boot/grub/locale/fr.mo
/boot/grub/locale/hu.mo
/boot/grub/locale/id.mo
/boot/grub/locale/it.mo
/boot/grub/locale/ko.mo
/boot/grub/locale/nl.mo
/boot/grub/locale/pl.mo
/boot/grub/locale/ru.mo
/boot/grub/locale/sv.mo
/boot/grub/locale/uk.mo
/boot/grub/locale/vi.mo
/boot/grub/locale/zh_CN.mo
/boot/grub/core.img
/boot/grub/grubenv
/boot/grub/grub.cfg
/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-1-686-pae
/boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-1-686-pae