[Mageia-dev] Grub2 vs. Grub Legacy in M3

Sat Feb 2 07:54:24 CET 2013

On 2013-02-02 00:48 (GMT-0500) Felix Miata composed:
+
+> 	# urpmi --no-suggests grub2
+
+> which installed only grub2 and os-prober, and took several minutes to
+> complete (which the known lethargic os-prober is obviously responsible for).
+
+> I added a stanza to my master bootloader to load /boot/grub2/i386-pc/core.img
+> and rebooted, selecting the /boot/grub2/i386-pc/core.img stanza. Results:
+
+> Good start:
+> 1-/boot/grub2/i386-pc/core.img in a Grub Legacy stanza succeeds
+
+> Not good from then on:
+> 1-Grub2 error message due to not finding some png file
+
+> 2-25 item Grub 2.00 menu (grub.cfg:
+> 	http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/Mdv/grub.cfg.gx27b-cauldron3-1.txt ). After
+> selecting a selection from a master bootloader, there's no good reason to see
+> similar selections as in the previous menu unrelated to the chosen selection.
+> IOW, when not a master bootloader (i.e. "chainloaded" via core.img, only
+> Mageia entries attributable to selected filesystem hosting core.img should be
+> in this menu.
+
+> 3-Grub2 menu uses same awful spindly-looking font responsible in large part
+> for my distaste for *buntu
+
+> 4-default menu selection for Cauldron causes this cmdline:
+
+> 	BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-prv root=UUID=bbe8a402-5fb1-4247-b372-5bb6cff4e18c
+> ro splash
+
+> which is nothing like the default Grub Legacy menu stanza's cmdline result:
+
+> 	root=LABEL=22cauldrn splash=verbose noresume video=1152x864 vga=794 3
+
+> obviously caused by Grub2 installation disregarding content of pre-existing
+> menu.lst, which means
+
+> 5-semi-legible blue on black graphical progress bar instead of normal
+> complement of startup messages when splash=verbose
+
+> 6-post ESC, startup messages are inappropriately tiny
+
+> 7-tty text is too tiny to use (same as startup messages; screen's preferred
+> mode 1600x1200 used instead of legible mode 1152x864)
+
+> 8-KDM is on tty2, the location I reserve for certain class of recurring
+> activities, instead of where expected on tty7
+
+> 9-preferred initial runlevel as evidenced by menu.lst cmdline options was not
+> specified
+
+> 10-tty1 cleared before displaying login prompt (even after customizing
+> /etc/systemd/sytem/getty.target.wants/getty at tty1.service with
+> s/TTYVTDisallocate=yes/TTYVTDisallocate=no/; same problem on Rawhide &
+> Factory; OT)
+
+> Such displeasures as 1-9 are the reason why in Grub Legacy vs. Grub2
+> discussions I point out that Grub2 is still v1.0 software. Just how much of
+> these observations are due to upstream decisions or yet-to-dos rather than
+> distro implementation decisions, implementor inexperience or bugs I won't try
+> to guess.
+
+After editing /etc/default/grub, grub2-mkconfig isn't too bright about 
+choosing a default kernel/initrd pair: 
+http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/Mdv/grub.cfg.04
+
+It selected initrd-prv and vmlinuz-prv as default, which are symlinks to the 
+previously installed kernel.
+
+Upstream still has a warning about use of vga= on cmdline, which is still 
+valid when KMS is disabled, and when non-Plymouth user wants kernel to use 
+specified vga= mode instead of 80x25 in the brief init period prior to KMS 
+initialization.
+-- 
+"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
+words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)
+
+  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
+
+Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/
+