From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 19E7715802C for ; Wed, 18 Dec 2024 12:14:12 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 40EDCE07E1; Wed, 18 Dec 2024 12:14:04 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.muc.de (mail.muc.de [193.149.48.3]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256) (No client certificate requested) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0CEF2E07C9 for ; Wed, 18 Dec 2024 12:14:02 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 83537 invoked by uid 3782); 18 Dec 2024 13:14:00 +0100 Received: from muc.de (p4fe15d31.dip0.t-ipconnect.de [79.225.93.49]) (using STARTTLS) by colin.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Wed, 18 Dec 2024 13:14:00 +0100 Received: (qmail 8124 invoked by uid 1000); 18 Dec 2024 12:13:59 -0000 Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2024 12:13:59 +0000 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: [gentoo-user] Fun with systemd-boot Message-ID: Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org X-Auto-Response-Suppress: DR, RN, NRN, OOF, AutoReply MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline X-Submission-Agent: TMDA/1.3.x (Ph3nix) From: Alan Mackenzie X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de X-Archives-Salt: 52909dbf-a00c-4f60-93d4-21d78bdd7620 X-Archives-Hash: 441ebeb95a489fdcd73ea7ca62dc037f Hello, Gentoo. I've been having fun with systemd-boot. On my new (2024-08) machine, on Friday 2024-12-06, I suddenly noticed that my /boot partition was empty, I can't remember why I looked at it. I am quite sure I didn't empty it myself. There then followed a couple of hours where I restored the boot manager, kernels, and the boot configuration. Thankfully, it booted again the next time I tried. On my old machine, I've been noticing over the past weeks that only two older kernels have been offered for booting, despite me installing later kernels to /boot/EFI/gentoo, and configuring them in /boot/loader. It all became clear yesterday and today. bootctl install had installed itself to /dev/nvme1n1p1 rather than /boot (which I have mounted on /dev/nvme0n1p1). Both of these partitions are EFI system partitions. It also clogged up my UEFI boot sequence with lots of extra entries, leaving nvme1 rather than nvme0 the prime EFI system partition for booting with. I've had a look at the manual page for bootctrl. It doesn't mention any way of specifying which EFI partition will get written to, and doesn't seem to mention that it changes the UEFI BIOS settings. Or maybe it does. It's a vague, poor quality manual. I don't need all this. Booting should not be fun. It should be boring, boring, boring. Boring and dependable. Could somebody perhaps suggest a better boot loader to me? I need to be able to chose between several kernels at booting time, but I certainly don't want something "refined" like grub - I just need what I thought systemd-boot actually was before yesterday. Thanks in advance! -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).