Re: [gentoo-dev] grub:2 keywords

[Mike Gilbert]

On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Jeroen Roovers <jer@g.o> wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:15:23 -0400
> Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 3:01 PM, Mike Gilbert <floppym@g.o>
>> wrote:
>> > 3. grub2-install calls grub2-bios-setup which installs boot.img into
>> > the MBR and embeds core.img into the sectors immediately after the
>> > MBR.
>>
>> Ok, that isn't all that unlike grub1 - that is what stage1.5 is.  It
>> just sounds like these aren't static files that are copied out of
>> /boot/grub, but rather they're built on-demand from other files there.
>>  Grub1 figures out which static stage1.5 you need based on where /boot
>> is.  They probably went to a more dynamic model so that they can
>> support stuff like LVM+MD+LUKS+etc without having every permutation of
>> static code.  I'm not sure how smart the bootloader code ends up being
>> - it wouldn't surprise me if at time of install the installer does all
>> the work and just loads a simple bootloader on the diagnostic cylinder
>> with just enough smarts to find /boot if it hasn't changed.
>
> And if in this complex transition something goes wrong, we could opt
> for the solution Ubuntu provided years ago, which was to add to the
> grub1 boot loader configuration an entry which would call the grub2
> boot loader, so that grub2's correct function could be ascertained
> before the definitive switch to grub2 and removal of the grub1 code.
>

That is exactly what Doug (cardoe) proposed, and he is working on the
docs for that.