From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from list by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.71) id 1SMC0F-0006vW-UM for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:39:59 -0400 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:43021) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMC0D-0006ud-Hf for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:39:59 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMC0B-0006lj-BH for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:39:57 -0400 Received: from mail-wg0-f41.google.com ([74.125.82.41]:38458) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMC0A-0006iW-Uy for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:39:55 -0400 Received: by wgbds1 with SMTP id ds1so2157086wgb.0 for ; Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:39:51 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:references :in-reply-to:x-enigmail-version:content-type; bh=ann4pc51OPM/v7a+PbA77UW7dyyBq3WCMWNc4JRj5Y8=; b=Kaus7g3ZJPrv6mYLnMkGhYS2JJR3+gctStODc/LCoiNjLkE4sIlkwSOpoHKd3WSlh3 6heIzLdX6HadApziHq4cO6ogAX7yQeULt/2NvtCIF2xHAImzXTpCTr/AGC/XXevuby9+ b1mbyBL+CJmjE7FywH/j20ORb226qqm/a4AUNXcN/r+OstdtH6g3mBHBg7mLhoz1uxsf OGTFt41I1BgCVI/Huh723GBOxvvOxtj/CkaVxLaEKrEhwIBjUV38fTM5aenwk02R+r84 nnleXApvc1x6UQh5vsTxM/noMxT5e+38/GEqN+aR+30dKqP/ztEzwUoF7Hng3L5iLcnY yA7A== Received: by 10.180.102.129 with SMTP id fo1mr9785091wib.6.1335159591732; Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:39:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from fedora.x201.phnet (186-118.79-83.cust.bluewin.ch. [83.79.118.186]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id j3sm31421815wiw.1.2012.04.22.22.39.49 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:39:50 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4F94EB07.1020405@gmail.com> Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:39:19 +0200 From: =?UTF-8?B?VmxhZGltaXIgJ8+GLWNvZGVyL3BoY29kZXInIFNlcmJpbmVua28=?= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:11.0) Gecko/20120329 Thunderbird/11.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: grub-devel@gnu.org Subject: Re: Some suggestions for improvements in GRUB References: In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 1.4 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha512; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enigA1D5CB23D853F4C1AF4209A5" X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 74.125.82.41 X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list Reply-To: The development of GNU GRUB List-Id: The development of GNU GRUB List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:39:59 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enigA1D5CB23D853F4C1AF4209A5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 23.04.2012 07:23, Chris Murphy wrote: > On Apr 22, 2012, at 12:49 PM, Karthik Krishna wrote: > >> Hi there, >> >> I am an engineering student from India. I have been using Linux Distro= s for some time. With its varied uses i have come to like GRUB very much.= But i wish to say that there are certain things that are not user friend= ly and needs a bit of change. >> >> First of all, if a drive is deleted or edited using any partition mana= ger, GRUB does not know anything about it. And so in the ensuing part of = booting, it shows a boot error. i have been seeing this as my friends kee= p coming to me to "FIX" their boot. The problem lies in GRUB's steep lear= ning curve in the fixing department. when the grub error screen comes up= , one has to come up with a plan to go to the internet and see the requir= ed grub error codes and relevant data to fix it. Thereby restoring grubs = working. But the thing is you need an another PC/laptop with a working i= nternet to see the codes or relevant data. i have been doing this for som= e time. i see that people who wish to use Linux have a hard time using it= fully, especially when it comes to its boot-loader. >> >> The onset of boot-loader problems really bogs down the motivation to m= ove forward. >> >> So I wish to develop GRUB a bit so that it may be easy to use even in = the case of error handling. I just dont know where to start. I know assem= bly, a bit of c and c++. I have heard of nasm and used gcc. So how do i d= evelop it? I wanted to make a code that automatically detects partitions = and checks it with a library of partitions to see if it has been changed = or not. So that way the user is given the freedom of not doing anything r= ather letting GRUB doing the work for the user. i can develop the code us= ing a simple algorithm. i want to make grub more smarter when it comes to= handling errors and freeing the user. > > Brilliant.=20 > > I've been wondering if it's possible to get the existing grub-mkconfig = script and os-prober code, etc. wrapped into a GRUB module, and have it d= ynamically create a grub.cfg at boot time. It would not need to write out= a grub.cfg, but use it as a "master" cfg, while incorporating any locate= d grub.cfg on-disk in a separate menu. That way, there's both.=20 See os-prober.cfg > But I agree, I know way way way way too much about GRUB to get reliable= booting. mkconfig is leap years beyond the asylum of having to hand writ= e menu.lst but even more automatic is better. > > For UEFI systems, I think GRUB2 is way too complicated, IMO. "All" that= 's needed there is a way to make up for the fact so many UEFI implementat= ions have no interface to choose the bootloader for other OS's. And a pre= ttier menu, kinda like rEFIt (now rEFInd) or the way Apple does it, for b= asic mode UI would be so much of a better experience. Fine, have an advan= ced menu to get to for people who need a GRUB prompt, but I don't think m= ost users need to be interacting with GRUB as much as they have been hist= orically. The task of loading kernel into memory and launching it (avoiding firmware bugs all the time) is almost the same on EFI and BIOS, you can't just remove it and leave only menu. The reason while such OS choosers are so "simple" is that they don't handle real OS loading at all, that's all they are: OS-choosers. They don't load kernels. An equivalent on BIOS would be mbldr, not GRUB > > Chris Murphy > _______________________________________________ > Grub-devel mailing list > Grub-devel@gnu.org > https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel > --=20 Regards Vladimir '=CF=86-coder/phcoder' Serbinenko --------------enigA1D5CB23D853F4C1AF4209A5 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iF4EAREKAAYFAk+U6yMACgkQNak7dOguQgn/pAEAtKi95fgwjLJK/l3qB5Kha4MV psQepLnFycYzgPADb7UA/3F9y0945aqNQ2M7gaBWHQjQRTEUlqvgx21MO6zaV+qZ =WJ0w -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enigA1D5CB23D853F4C1AF4209A5--