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

Sun Feb 3 19:05:24 CET 2013

On 2013-02-02 10:08 (GMT) Barry Jackson composed:
+
+> Felix Miata wrote:
+
+>> 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
+
+> You removed the png by using --no-suggests
+
+One cannot remove what is not present. What I did was block installation of 
+packages that the grub2 package does not declare to be required. Grub2 should 
+not be configured to show user an error resulting from its own installation 
+misconfiguration. That looks like a bug.
+
+>> 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.
+
+> If that is what you want then:-
+> # urpme os-prober
+
+Why was it installed when I did 'urpmi --no-suggests grub2' if it's not 
+required?
+
+# urpme os-prober
+To satisfy dependencies, the following 2 packages will be removed...
+	grub2-yada
+	os-prober-yada...
+
+>> 3-Grub2 menu uses same awful spindly-looking font responsible in large
+>> part for my distaste for *buntu
+
+> Yes could be a lot better, but it's mainly a choice based on licensing,
+> probably will be improved in the future.
+
+What's wrong with nice legible BIOS native fonts?
+
+>> 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 ....
+
+> grub2 does not pay any attention to legacy menu.lst - it's a totally
+> different, unrelated bootloader.
+
+> If you want grub2 to use an existing legacy menu.lst then you can use
+> grub2-menulst2cfg tool to create a grub.cfg from menu.lst.
+
+> Usage: grub2-menulst2cfg [INFILE [OUTFILE]]
+
+Nice in theory, but the root device is off by -1. Default menu.lst cmdline 
+includes root=LABEL=22cauldrn instead of UUID or device name, which is 
+apparently disregarded by grub 2.
+
+menuentry 'Cauldron defkernel' {
+   legacy_kernel   '(hd0,22)/boot/vmlinuz' '(hd0,21)/boot/vmlinuz' 
+'root=LABEL=22cauldrn' 'splash=verbose' 'noresume' 'video=1152x864' 'vga=794' 
+'3' ''
+   legacy_initrd '(hd0,22)/boot/initrd' '(hd0,21)/boot/initrd'
+}
+
+It works when I s/hd0,21/hd0,22/g.
+
+>> 5-semi-legible blue on black graphical progress bar instead of normal
+>> complement of startup messages when splash=verbose
+
+> The font colours were chosen to complement the background image which
+> you chose not to install.
+
+I saw no fonts in that progress bar. I asked for no progress bar.
+
+>> 6-post ESC, startup messages are inappropriately tiny
+
+> Sounds like the same issue I used to have when I was using nvidia
+> graphics with nouveau.
+> Using intel I don't see this.
+
+# lspci | grep VGA
+00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated 
+Graphics Controller (rev 02)
+
+>> 7-tty text is too tiny to use (same as startup messages; screen's
+>> preferred mode 1600x1200 used instead of legible mode 1152x864)
+
+> Probably configurable in /etc/defaults/grub but off hand I don't know
+> the variable name - should be in the maunual somewhere.
+
+grub2-menulst2cfg picked up the ones that work in Grub Legacy (vga= 
+((http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt)) & video= 
+((http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/fb/modedb.txt))), which are kernel 
+parameters. They do the same thing loaded via Grub2 as when loaded via Grub 
+Legacy.
+
+>> 8-KDM is on tty2, the location I reserve for certain class of recurring
+>> activities, instead of where expected on tty7
+
+> Dunno - I have never seen this.
+
+Booting with 3 on cmdline and later doing startx or init 5? On current boot I 
+used 3 on cmdline, logged in on tty2 & tty3, did startx on tty3, and found X 
+is running on tty3. On exiting the X session I did init 5. That put KDM on 
+tty1. On openSUSE & Fedora the problem is essentially the same, e.g.: 
+https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=768788
+
+>> 9-preferred initial runlevel as evidenced by menu.lst cmdline options
+>> was not specified
+
+> Again menu.lst is nothing to do with grub2
+
+Maybe grub2-menulst2cfg should be used instead of grub2-mkconfig when grub2 
+is added to a system with grub previously installed.
+-- 
+"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/
+