Re: RFC: 1.97 roadmap

[Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>]

On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 09:35:13AM +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 06:10:40PM +0200, Robert Millan wrote:
> > I think it's time we begin the discussion on GRUB 1.97.  What do we want to
> > see in it, and a rough schedule.  1.97 is meant to be a point release, without
> > any major changes (I mean, except for those we already have ;-)), and it should
> > happen soon (like this month or so).
> 
> Robert asked me on IRC about Ubuntu's release schedule. Our feature
> freeze is 27 August; after that I can squeeze in bug-fixes but it gets
> progressively harder. I understand that 1.97 is probably not feasible by
> then; if we have an up-to-date snapshot at that point then I can
> probably manage to justify resyncing at least some newer snapshots up to
> 24 September (beta freeze).

I think it would be feasible to release 1.97 shortly after 27 August.

>   * Integrated hiddenmenu.
>     Mark asked me yesterday if there was anything we could do to have
>     "sleep" detect key state (ideally a shift key state rather than
>     Escape) rather than having to wait for a key press, so that the
>     timeout could be reduced to zero in our configuration; if anyone has
>     any bright ideas about the keyboard layer then this would be very
>     nice.

We can add an (optional) interface to input terminals that would allow
such check.  However, it would have to be provided by at_keyboard.mod
rather than BIOS console.  This means you'd also want to enable usb
keyboard support, which is not ready.

So, possible yes, but not with 1.97.  If you can help us get USB more
widely tested, this could be supported sometime after.

>   * Some way to support a quieter boot when the menu isn't being
>     displayed, without the status messages as GRUB loads
>     (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/386922). I
>     don't at all mind if this isn't the default, as I understand that
>     there are debugging considerations; being able to check a shift key
>     state would help here.

Some of the messages come from code in e.g. MBR that can't access configuration
files.  I guess you'll have to patch boot/i386/pc/*.

>   * Unicode menu font by default. (I believe this is done.)

Yes, I think Felix already enabled it as default.

>     The driver
>     for this is from some of our OEM distributors, so while Gettext
>     support would be nice we can certainly cope without it by having our
>     custom engineering people just drop in alternative text, since the
>     OEM typically knows what locale they're shipping to.

Ok.  In that case, I don't consider gettext essential for 1.97.

-- 
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."