Chris Murphy <lists(a)colorremedies.com> writes:
On Tue, Apr 5, 2022 at 8:54 AM Ben Cotton <bcotton(a)redhat.com>
wrote:
> Legacy BIOS support is not removed, but new non-UEFI installation is
> not supported on those platforms. This is a first step toward
> eventually removing legacy BIOS support entirely.
What is the distinction between "support is not removed" and "removing
support entirely"? i.e. what are the additional steps for entirely
removing support?
A project decision that it's not supported, and to stop building the
bootloader packages for it entirely.
And what's the approximate time frame for it?
Unclear. Sooner would be better for us, but I know that's not
realistic. At least a release, probably multiple. Reasoned suggestions
(i.e., other than "never") would influence this.
"Support is not removed" seems incongruent with "new
installations are
not supported." What continues to be supported?
Existing installations.
Will grub-pc still be built and updated?
Yes.
Will grub2-install still work on BIOS systems?
Probably - I'm not about to sabotage it. But it wouldn't be supported
for making new installations. I'm aware that users comfortable doing
installs outside anaconda (or with customized anaconda) can circumvent
this, and I'm not interested in trying to stop them - that's an
adversarial relationship neither of us want.
> syslinux goes away entirely
If the installation media used BIOS GRUB, syslinux could still go
away. What consideration has occurred to switch from syslinux to BIOS
GRUB for installation media? Is BIOS GRUB being deprecated? Or is it
being discontinued in Fedora?
(I wasn't involved in the decision of what bootloader to use for legacy
live media and can't speak to it.)
If security vulnerabilities in BIOS GRUB are discovered, and
grub2-install doesn't apply the most recently available fixes, I
consider this an unsupported configuration. We can't say "support is
not removed" while removing the ability to apply security fixes to the
embedded bootloader.
I don't think I understand this paragraph, but taking a guess: I don't
intend to break anything about existing installations, including
security update delivery.
This is removal of support. No mere deprecation.
This is a semantic issue that I don't think it will be useful to argue.
Be well,
--Robbie