current grub installation process

[honeymak]

hi guys...........the following is just very very superbly personal feeling about installing grub.......
maybe if u've got the reasons........just pls tell me.......


current grub ebuild needs a variable called..........something i don't remember......
so that the existence of the variable will be deciding whether grub will auto-mount /boot for u

just wondering "when" users will install/upgrade grub?......during installation.......
and this auto-mount "feature" is restricting a plain emerge.......coz during installation........
u r inside a chroot where u have everything already mounted........and <chroot>/boot as well........

but u can't just install grub plainly without any kind of pain coz u r gonna need to specify the total manual process,
i.e. export the variable something AND emerge --config urself.........

emerge grub used to be smooth process.......
and i dun c any plain users like me will install grub anytime later than the installation process...i.e.......under plain system......w/o chroot

and u r evaluating the NAME of the variable.........not the content.......
sooner or later........this will be some privilege escalation.......

why not following the USE flag tradition?.......consistent......less error prone.......

hm........i m not flamming anything............just.......as i said......
if u really really have good reasons........pls tell me........
maybe i m just another gentoo kido......

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[John R. Graham]

Are you referring to the DONT_MOUNT_BOOT environment variable? I tend to agree. It's a very USE flag like thing and should probably be a USE flag.

That said, I think that, for the normal user, the grub install process is pretty smooth and automatic. The grub ebuild does not need the DONT_MOUNT_BOOT environment variable because, if it doesn't exist, then /boot is mounted, which is the default behavior--and a reasonable default at that. The elog comments tell the user that he has to run grub-install or else perform a manual install.

It all seems pretty straightforward to me. What else would you like to see different?

The grub ebuild is actually a pretty interesting read. There are several advanced features controlled by environment variables in there that go beyond the normal USE flag configurability and most (but not all) of these are explained in the elog output. The comments are pretty good, too.

- John
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[honeymak]

but if ur /boot is located phy. at another partition during installation phase........u will be problematic.......
coz it's noway to have /boot unmounted

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[John R. Graham]

I guess I don't understand what you're saying. During the standard Handbook install, grub is installed after a proper /etc/fstab is set up, which allows the grub ebuild (via the mount-boot elcass) to properly find and mount the boot partition, regardless of where it is, and automatically install the grub files.

If you're talking about an upgrade of grub after the Gentoo system is fully up and running and you follow the guideline that /boot should not be mounted during normal operation of the system, well then, the grub ebuild will mount it for you, regardless of where it is.

So, I guess I don't understand what part of the grub install is problematic or what part is worse than it used to be.

- John
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[honeymak]

hahaha..........i found that it's changed........
i don't need to export that special variable during installation.....

hm......something's changed...........
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[John R. Graham]

Changed for the better, sounds like.

- John
_________________
I can confirm that I have received between 0 and 499 National Security Letters.