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

[Felix Miata]

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/