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

Mon Feb 4 13:23:47 CET 2013

On 03/02/13 18:05, Felix Miata wrote:
+> 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...
+>
+
+Right, sorry - I agree - I never really envisaged anyone not wanting 
+os-prober installed, however it should really be a Suggests - I will 
+change that.
+
+However I should have pointed out that it can be disabled in 
+/etc/defaults/grub with
+
+GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true
+
+>>> 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?
+
+Try commenting out the line in /etc/defaults/grub
+
+#GRUB_THEME=...
+
+and also temporarily rename /boot/grub2/fonts
+
+Run "grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg"
+after changing anything in /etc/deafult/grub before rebooting.
+
+
+Is that better for you?
+
+>
+>>> 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.
+>
+That looks like an upstream bug - I will investigate.
+
+>>> 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.
+>
+
+OK remove the theme as above and set:
+
+GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="3"
+
+... for runlevel 3 and just remove the "splash" on that line for verbose 
+output.
+
+>>> 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)
+>
+
+Hmm - dunno then - I do see a drop in size which appears to happen after 
+grub2 has handed over to the kernel.
+
+>>> 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.
+
+I'm suspecting this is not a grub2 issue but I may be wrong.
+>
+> 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?
+
+I think that startx and init are deprecated in favour of proper systemd 
+commands now.
+
+> 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
+>
+
+I don't think this is grub2 related.
+Graphical desktop should default to tty1 now, however I have seen an 
+issue where it moves to tty7 after stopping and re-starting 
+prefdm.service. I have not checked this recently.
+
+>>> 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.
+
+Yes that could be an option, although for the majority of users I 
+suspect that os-prober does what is needed.
+