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

[Felix Miata]

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/