Re: grub-mkconfig fails on every non i386-pc because of gfxterm/vbe

[Felix Zielcke <fzielcke@z-51.de>]

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Am Mittwoch, den 03.06.2009, 16:55 -0400 schrieb Pavel Roskin:
> On Wed, 2009-06-03 at 11:43 +0200, Felix Zielcke wrote:
> > I wonder why nobody on this list noticed this yet.
> > Jordi reported this already on Debian a while ago [0]
> > 
> > It fails with `No suitable backend could be found for gfxterm.'
> > The problem is that gfxterm is used when nothing is explicitly specified
> > and the fonts were compiled, but the fails because vbe.mod only gets
> > compiled for i386-pc whereas gfxterm.mod gets compiled for every arches.
> 
> It looks like a conflict between grub-mkconfig and 00_header.
> grub-mkconfig sets GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT to gfxterm because gfxterm.mod
> is present, but 00_header refuses to use it because vbe.mod is absent.
> 
> Or maybe Debian sets GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT to gfxterm somewhere.

No, by default we don't set GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT at all.

> > I suggest as Jordi to just change the `exit 1' to ´exit 0' and telling
> > the user that it falls back to native terminal:
> 
> I believe it's a wrong fix, as it would not prevent adding the gfxterm
> code to grub.cfg.

Yes it won't. It would only prevent it from completely failing if
gfxterm isn't avaible.

> I believe the fix belongs to grub-mkconfig (if it's not a Debian
> specific issue).  Setting defaults in grub-mkconfig should be done very
> carefully, as the numbered scripts treat those defaults as explicit
> requests by the user.

So you would prefer something like the attached patch?
Though then we'll need to tell people to explicit enable gfxterm.

-- 
Felix Zielcke

[-- Attachment #2: mkconfig-gfxterm.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 754 bytes --]

2009-06-03  Felix Zielcke  <fzielcke@z-51.de>

	    * util/grub-mkconfig.in: Don't use gfxterm by default if not
	    explicit specified by the user.

diff --git a/util/grub-mkconfig.in b/util/grub-mkconfig.in
index ff92590..8f84074 100644
--- a/util/grub-mkconfig.in
+++ b/util/grub-mkconfig.in
@@ -137,13 +137,7 @@ if [ "x${GRUB_TERMINAL}" != "x" ] ; then
 fi
 
 case x${GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT} in
-  x)
-    # If this platform supports gfxterm, try to use it.
-    if test -e ${grub_prefix}/gfxterm.mod ; then
-      GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=gfxterm
-    fi
-  ;;
-  xconsole | xserial | xofconsole | xgfxterm) ;;
+  x | xconsole | xserial | xofconsole | xgfxterm) ;;
   *) echo "Invalid output terminal \"${GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT}\"" >&2 ; exit 1 ;;
 esac