Replacing grubby with grub2-mkconfig in kernel install process

[Peter Jones]

On 06/19/2012 11:57 PM, Adam Williamson wrote:
> On Tue, 2012-06-19 at 23:28 -0400, Ben Rosser wrote:
>
>>
>> So far, the only actual arguments against this (specifically, the
>> above solution to the problem) I've heard is that it breaks being able
>> to configure /boot/grub2/grub.cfg by hand. But that's the idea behind
>> grub2, for better or worse. The documentation specifically tells you
>> NOT to edit that file, but to instead edit configuration in /etc.
>>
>> Most of the other arguments raised in response to this seem to have
>> really been about grub2 itself, and if Fedora has to use it, so.. are
>> there any other thoughts on the actual matter at hand?
>
> grub2-mkconfig is inherently a more 'destructive' operation than grubby,
> is really my only thought. But I wouldn't mind the change much at all.
> pjones' opinion would be the most valuable to have, I guess.

I really don't see what the point would be.  We're going to have to keep
grubby for various reasons, not least pvgrub.  So switching to using
grub2-mkconfig to update grub2 config files has numerous downsides, most
obviously:

1) it means new-kernel-pkg would need to be even more complex
2) it means per-kernel command line changes aren't a thing we can really
    support, which means if for some reason you need a command line option
    to boot with one kernel that's installed and it needs to /not/ be there
    for another, we'll be writing a wrong config every time.

It seems to me that a lot of people are advocating to switch from one thing
they don't understand to another thing they don't understand.

I think what's actually needed is a small patch to grubby to make it keep
track of the bounding block the current default is in and add the new
bounding block there, so that we don't accidentally change the cosmetic
properties of the grub2 config file, which seems to be what's causing the
most aggravation here.  It probably wouldn't be difficult, but if you're
waiting for me to do it, cosmetics are currently pretty low on my priority
list.

So I'd be really glad to see a grubby patch from anybody who's commented
on this list.  It shouldn't be a lot of code or particularly difficult. If
somebody wants to work on it, I'd be glad to help them out with any
difficulties they come across.

-- 
         Peter