Configuration option to disable os-prober?

Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Colin Watson]

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Hi,

Some people seem to want to disable os-prober for various reasons (e.g.
they have lots of test installations lying around that they don't
normally want to get in the way, or they don't want installations on
external drives to be included permanently in the boot menu, etc.). Now,
they can just remove the os-prober package, but that doesn't really
scale as other packages are allowed to depend on it too.

Perhaps we could have a configuration option for this? Patch attached.

Thanks,

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@ubuntu.com]

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Index: util/grub.d/30_os-prober.in
===================================================================
--- util/grub.d/30_os-prober.in	(revision 2402)
+++ util/grub.d/30_os-prober.in	(working copy)
@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@
 
 . ${libdir}/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib
 
+if [ "x${GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER}" = "xtrue" ]; then
+  exit 0
+fi
+
 if [ -z "`which os-prober 2> /dev/null`" -o -z "`which linux-boot-prober 2> /dev/null`" ] ; then
   # missing os-prober and/or linux-boot-prober
   exit 0

Re: Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Pavel Roskin]

On Wed, 2009-07-08 at 16:38 +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Some people seem to want to disable os-prober for various reasons (e.g.
> they have lots of test installations lying around that they don't
> normally want to get in the way, or they don't want installations on
> external drives to be included permanently in the boot menu, etc.). Now,
> they can just remove the os-prober package, but that doesn't really
> scale as other packages are allowed to depend on it too.
> 
> Perhaps we could have a configuration option for this? Patch attached.

Fine with me (but I'd like to hear from somebody who actually runs
Debian or Ubuntu).

Please provide ChangeLog entries for your patches so that nobody has to
put words into your mouth.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Isaac Dupree]

Pavel Roskin wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-07-08 at 16:38 +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Some people seem to want to disable os-prober for various reasons (e.g.
>> they have lots of test installations lying around that they don't
>> normally want to get in the way, or they don't want installations on
>> external drives to be included permanently in the boot menu, etc.). Now,
>> they can just remove the os-prober package, but that doesn't really
>> scale as other packages are allowed to depend on it too.
>>
>> Perhaps we could have a configuration option for this? Patch attached.
> 
> Fine with me (but I'd like to hear from somebody who actually runs
> Debian or Ubuntu).

I run Ubuntu... I can't say I've yet wanted to do anything that needed 
this patch, but it seems like the right idea to me... or,

er, hmm, Configure option versus runtime option?  I don't know from my 
cursory inspection if there's an issue here, but you (Colin) would be 
able to describe how/whether that's relevant

-Isaac

Re: Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Pavel Roskin]

On Wed, 2009-07-08 at 13:58 -0400, Isaac Dupree wrote:

> er, hmm, Configure option versus runtime option?  I don't know from my 
> cursory inspection if there's an issue here, but you (Colin) would be 
> able to describe how/whether that's relevant

I think the configurations options is the only way to go, as
grub-mkimage can be rerun by the OS scripts when the kernel is updated.
We already have similar "disable" options, such as
GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Robert Millan]

On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 04:38:23PM +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Some people seem to want to disable os-prober for various reasons (e.g.
> they have lots of test installations lying around that they don't
> normally want to get in the way, or they don't want installations on
> external drives to be included permanently in the boot menu, etc.). Now,
> they can just remove the os-prober package, but that doesn't really
> scale as other packages are allowed to depend on it too.
> 
> Perhaps we could have a configuration option for this? Patch attached.

Hi,

I'm unfamiliar with os-prober.  What other purposes are there for installing
it?  grub-mkconfig is the only one I can think of, so the situation you
describe sounds very unlikely.  Could you ellaborate?

I'm concerned about the number of options in grub-mkconfig in general.  It
has a tendency to grow a lot, and unfortunately they're not documented.

-- 
Robert Millan

  The DRM opt-in fallacy: "Your data belongs to us. We will decide when (and
  how) you may access your data; but nobody's threatening your freedom: we
  still allow you to remove your data and not access it at all."

Re: Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Colin Watson]

On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 07:31:21PM +0200, Robert Millan wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 04:38:23PM +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> > Some people seem to want to disable os-prober for various reasons (e.g.
> > they have lots of test installations lying around that they don't
> > normally want to get in the way, or they don't want installations on
> > external drives to be included permanently in the boot menu, etc.). Now,
> > they can just remove the os-prober package, but that doesn't really
> > scale as other packages are allowed to depend on it too.
> > 
> > Perhaps we could have a configuration option for this? Patch attached.
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'm unfamiliar with os-prober.  What other purposes are there for installing
> it?  grub-mkconfig is the only one I can think of, so the situation you
> describe sounds very unlikely.  Could you ellaborate?

Well, I happen to know that our graphical installer depends on it :-),
and sometimes people install it for testing purposes (or it accidentally
remains installed). More generally though I'm not a fan of "remove this
package" as a configuration mechanism.

> I'm concerned about the number of options in grub-mkconfig in general.  It
> has a tendency to grow a lot, and unfortunately they're not documented.

Maybe that's amenable to being addressed in itself - perhaps a manual
page? (info is fine for complete manuals for large systems but not
really great for quick-reference kind of things.)

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@ubuntu.com]

Re: Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Robert Millan]

On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 09:19:12PM +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 07:31:21PM +0200, Robert Millan wrote:
> > On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 04:38:23PM +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> > > Some people seem to want to disable os-prober for various reasons (e.g.
> > > they have lots of test installations lying around that they don't
> > > normally want to get in the way, or they don't want installations on
> > > external drives to be included permanently in the boot menu, etc.). Now,
> > > they can just remove the os-prober package, but that doesn't really
> > > scale as other packages are allowed to depend on it too.
> > > 
> > > Perhaps we could have a configuration option for this? Patch attached.
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I'm unfamiliar with os-prober.  What other purposes are there for installing
> > it?  grub-mkconfig is the only one I can think of, so the situation you
> > describe sounds very unlikely.  Could you ellaborate?
> 
> Well, I happen to know that our graphical installer depends on it :-),
> and sometimes people install it for testing purposes (or it accidentally
> remains installed). More generally though I'm not a fan of "remove this
> package" as a configuration mechanism.

Ok then.

> > I'm concerned about the number of options in grub-mkconfig in general.  It
> > has a tendency to grow a lot, and unfortunately they're not documented.
> 
> Maybe that's amenable to being addressed in itself - perhaps a manual
> page? (info is fine for complete manuals for large systems but not
> really great for quick-reference kind of things.)

We generate manpages dynamically using help2man.  Improving --help output
would improve the manpage, and it'd be nice to have all of this documented.

But this is just my "wish of the day".  It shouldn't be a stopper for adding
this option if you need it.

-- 
Robert Millan

  The DRM opt-in fallacy: "Your data belongs to us. We will decide when (and
  how) you may access your data; but nobody's threatening your freedom: we
  still allow you to remove your data and not access it at all."

Re: Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Robert Millan]

Looks like this one was forgotten.  I've committed it.

Btw, in the future please include ChangeLog entries when submitting patches.

On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 04:38:23PM +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Some people seem to want to disable os-prober for various reasons (e.g.
> they have lots of test installations lying around that they don't
> normally want to get in the way, or they don't want installations on
> external drives to be included permanently in the boot menu, etc.). Now,
> they can just remove the os-prober package, but that doesn't really
> scale as other packages are allowed to depend on it too.
> 
> Perhaps we could have a configuration option for this? Patch attached.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -- 
> Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@ubuntu.com]

> Index: util/grub.d/30_os-prober.in
> ===================================================================
> --- util/grub.d/30_os-prober.in	(revision 2402)
> +++ util/grub.d/30_os-prober.in	(working copy)
> @@ -22,6 +22,10 @@
>  
>  . ${libdir}/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib
>  
> +if [ "x${GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER}" = "xtrue" ]; then
> +  exit 0
> +fi
> +
>  if [ -z "`which os-prober 2> /dev/null`" -o -z "`which linux-boot-prober 2> /dev/null`" ] ; then
>    # missing os-prober and/or linux-boot-prober
>    exit 0

> _______________________________________________
> Grub-devel mailing list
> Grub-devel@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel


-- 
Robert Millan

  The DRM opt-in fallacy: "Your data belongs to us. We will decide when (and
  how) you may access your data; but nobody's threatening your freedom: we
  still allow you to remove your data and not access it at all."

Re: Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Felix Zielcke]

Am Sonntag, den 23.08.2009, 14:59 +0200 schrieb Robert Millan:
> Looks like this one was forgotten.  I've committed it.
> 
> Btw, in the future please include ChangeLog entries when submitting patches.
> 
> On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 04:38:23PM +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Some people seem to want to disable os-prober for various reasons (e.g.
> > they have lots of test installations lying around that they don't
> > normally want to get in the way, or they don't want installations on
> > external drives to be included permanently in the boot menu, etc.). Now,
> > they can just remove the os-prober package, but that doesn't really
> > scale as other packages are allowed to depend on it too.
> > 
> > Perhaps we could have a configuration option for this? Patch attached.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > -- 
> > Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@ubuntu.com]
> 
> > Index: util/grub.d/30_os-prober.in
> > ===================================================================
> > --- util/grub.d/30_os-prober.in	(revision 2402)
> > +++ util/grub.d/30_os-prober.in	(working copy)
> > @@ -22,6 +22,10 @@
> >  
> >  . ${libdir}/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib
> >  
> > +if [ "x${GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER}" = "xtrue" ]; then
> > +  exit 0
> > +fi
> > +
> >  if [ -z "`which os-prober 2> /dev/null`" -o -z "`which linux-boot-prober 2> /dev/null`" ] ; then
> >    # missing os-prober and/or linux-boot-prober
> >    exit 0
> 

Oh just noticed this now.
Doestn't grub-mkconfig need to export it so it's actually usable
in /etc/default/grub?

-- 
Felix Zielcke
Proud Debian Maintainer

Re: Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Colin Watson]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 03:22:41PM +0200, Felix Zielcke wrote:
> Doestn't grub-mkconfig need to export it so it's actually usable
> in /etc/default/grub?

Yes, that seems likely. Sorry about that.

2009-08-23  Colin Watson  <cjwatson@ubuntu.com>

	* util/grub-mkconfig.in: Export GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER.

Index: util/grub-mkconfig.in
===================================================================
--- util/grub-mkconfig.in	(revision 2514)
+++ util/grub-mkconfig.in	(working copy)
@@ -205,7 +205,8 @@
   GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND \
   GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID \
   GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY \
-  GRUB_GFXMODE
+  GRUB_GFXMODE \
+  GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER
 
 if test "x${grub_cfg}" != "x"; then
   rm -f ${grub_cfg}.new

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@ubuntu.com]

Re: Configuration option to disable os-prober?

[Felix Zielcke]

Am Sonntag, den 23.08.2009, 15:31 +0100 schrieb Colin Watson:
> On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 03:22:41PM +0200, Felix Zielcke wrote:
> > Doestn't grub-mkconfig need to export it so it's actually usable
> > in /etc/default/grub?
> 
> Yes, that seems likely. Sorry about that.
> 

Commited.

-- 
Felix Zielcke
Proud Debian Maintainer