bug#30916: Request: add a short description field for os-configuration

bug#30916: Request: add a short description field for os-configuration

[Martin Castillo]

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hi,

the grub entries for old system generations aren't very helpful. It
would be nice, if there was a field in the operating system declaration
stating what was changed in this generation, that would be added to the
boot entry label.

Martin
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bug#30916: Request: add a short description field for os-configuration

[ng0]

Martin Castillo transcribed 1.6K bytes:
> hi,
> 
> the grub entries for old system generations aren't very helpful. It
> would be nice, if there was a field in the operating system declaration
> stating what was changed in this generation, that would be added to the
> boot entry label.
> 
> Martin
> -- 
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> 

Hi,

Could you be a more specific what you think is missing?
Your request is written in a very open way, and the space in GRUB menus is
limited as far as I assume.


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bug#30916: Request: add a short description field for os-configuration

[Martin Castillo]

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Hi,

On 23.03.2018 15:15, ng0 wrote:

> Could you be a more specific what you think is missing?
> Your request is written in a very open way, and the space in GRUB menus is
> limited as far as I assume.

Sure,

Currently the grub menu looks like
GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.12 (beta)
GNU system, old configurations...

and in the submenu
GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.6 (beta) (#1, 2017-12-18 13:45)
GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.8 (beta) (#2, 2017-12-22 12:15)
GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.11 (beta) (#3, 2018-03-23 15:32)

but I'd like to have something like

GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.12 (beta) [Add ssh-service on port 2222]
GNU system, old configurations...

and in the submenu
GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.6 (beta) (#1, 2017-12-18 13:45)
GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.8 (beta) (#2, 2017-12-22 12:15) [Add user bob]
GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.11 (beta) (#3, 2018-03-23 15:32) [Add xfce]

where the description at the end comes from a field in the operating
system configuration (or the bootloader configuration).

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bug#30916: Request: add a short description field for os-configuration

[ng0]

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Martin Castillo transcribed 2.5K bytes:
> Hi,
> 
> On 23.03.2018 15:15, ng0 wrote:
> 
> > Could you be a more specific what you think is missing?
> > Your request is written in a very open way, and the space in GRUB menus is
> > limited as far as I assume.
> 
> Sure,
> 
> Currently the grub menu looks like
> GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.12 (beta)
> GNU system, old configurations...
> 
> and in the submenu
> GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.6 (beta) (#1, 2017-12-18 13:45)
> GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.8 (beta) (#2, 2017-12-22 12:15)
> GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.11 (beta) (#3, 2018-03-23 15:32)
> 
> but I'd like to have something like
> 
> GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.12 (beta) [Add ssh-service on port 2222]
> GNU system, old configurations...
> 
> and in the submenu
> GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.6 (beta) (#1, 2017-12-18 13:45)
> GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.8 (beta) (#2, 2017-12-22 12:15) [Add user bob]
> GNU with Linux-Libre 4.15.11 (beta) (#3, 2018-03-23 15:32) [Add xfce]
> 
> where the description at the end comes from a field in the operating
> system configuration (or the bootloader configuration).
> 
> -- 
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> 

So basically you want a field in the operating-system declaration where you
can _manually_ set a description of a certain maximum length which will be
added to the GRUB entry of the generated system generation?
I don't see automatic generation happening, as there's so much that can be
changed and automated summary would easily mess up the GRUB list. I wouldn't
want that. If anything, optional entry with a manual note is the way to do it.


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bug#30916: Request: add a short description field for os-configuration

[Martin Castillo]

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> So basically you want a field in the operating-system declaration where you
> can _manually_ set a description of a certain maximum length which will be
> added to the GRUB entry of the generated system generation?
yes

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bug#30916: Request: add a short description field for os-configuration

[Danny Milosavljevic]

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Hi Martin,

On Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:56:03 +0100
Martin Castillo <castilma@uni-bremen.de> wrote:

> ng0 wrote:
> > So basically you want a field in the operating-system declaration where you
> > can _manually_ set a description of a certain maximum length which will be
> > added to the GRUB entry of the generated system generation?  
> yes

I wonder whether this description can be generated instead - we have all
the information we need - the packages, the users that are there etc.

Or a description could be generated only if a custom description is not specified.

In fact it's easy to add this and would be a nice intro project for a
person interested in Guix development.  I can mentor.

The thing used to fill the Guix bootloader entries is <boot-parameters>.

There's a procedure "operating-system-boot-parameters" which is used
to generate <boot-parameters> instances from an <operating-system>
declaration.

(operating-system-bootcfg calls operating-system-boot-parameters)
(perform-action calls operating-system-bootcfg)
(perform-action is in the top-level guix script)

<boot-parameters> are serialized to disk into:

/var/guix/profiles/system-704-link$ cat parameters 
(boot-parameters (version 0) (label "GNU with Linux-Libre 4.14.14 (beta)") (root-device "dayas:/") (kernel "/gnu/store/fnk2xhicbrjsvbq082p6x0ch6npkrg0z-linux-libre-4.14.14/bzImage") (kernel-arguments ("crashkernel=256M" "modprobe.blacklist=pcspkr,snd_pcsp" "quiet" "acpi_osi=Linux" "clocksource=acpi_pm" "allow-discards" "root_trim=yes")) (initrd "/gnu/store/nvhkdssz1m1p8xrggi78y8pd7jz4p3ng-raw-initrd/initrd") (bootloader-name grub) (store (device "dayas:/") (mount-point "/")))

But I wouldn't change the serialization format or what fields <boot-parameters> contain.

Just change operating-system-bootcfg to take a "description" parameter.
And change operating-system-boot-parameters to take a "description" parameter and
use it to calculate the label.

And change perform-action to calculate the value for to "description" parameter in this way:
- Taking it from <operating-system> (or the command line?) 
- Falling back to an automatic value (comparing it to the previous generation) otherwise.

That's it.

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bug#30916: Request: add a short description field for os-configuration

[ng0]

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Danny Milosavljevic transcribed 2.9K bytes:
> Hi Martin,
> 
> On Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:56:03 +0100
> Martin Castillo <castilma@uni-bremen.de> wrote:
> 
> > ng0 wrote:
> > > So basically you want a field in the operating-system declaration where you
> > > can _manually_ set a description of a certain maximum length which will be
> > > added to the GRUB entry of the generated system generation?  
> > yes
> 
> I wonder whether this description can be generated instead - we have all
> the information we need - the packages, the users that are there etc.

But how much space do we have in the GRUB descriptions? I have computers with 800x600 or what
it was resolution for the screen, and while this would be a nice feature I wonder if there's
some implications in GRUB menu readability.
I'm not an expert in GRUB, I can boot without a menu, but GRUB is a small operating system
on its own :)

> Or a description could be generated only if a custom description is not specified.
> 
> In fact it's easy to add this and would be a nice intro project for a
> person interested in Guix development.  I can mentor.
> 
> The thing used to fill the Guix bootloader entries is <boot-parameters>.
> 
> There's a procedure "operating-system-boot-parameters" which is used
> to generate <boot-parameters> instances from an <operating-system>
> declaration.
> 
> (operating-system-bootcfg calls operating-system-boot-parameters)
> (perform-action calls operating-system-bootcfg)
> (perform-action is in the top-level guix script)
> 
> <boot-parameters> are serialized to disk into:
> 
> /var/guix/profiles/system-704-link$ cat parameters 
> (boot-parameters (version 0) (label "GNU with Linux-Libre 4.14.14 (beta)") (root-device "dayas:/") (kernel "/gnu/store/fnk2xhicbrjsvbq082p6x0ch6npkrg0z-linux-libre-4.14.14/bzImage") (kernel-arguments ("crashkernel=256M" "modprobe.blacklist=pcspkr,snd_pcsp" "quiet" "acpi_osi=Linux" "clocksource=acpi_pm" "allow-discards" "root_trim=yes")) (initrd "/gnu/store/nvhkdssz1m1p8xrggi78y8pd7jz4p3ng-raw-initrd/initrd") (bootloader-name grub) (store (device "dayas:/") (mount-point "/")))
> 
> But I wouldn't change the serialization format or what fields <boot-parameters> contain.
> 
> Just change operating-system-bootcfg to take a "description" parameter.
> And change operating-system-boot-parameters to take a "description" parameter and
> use it to calculate the label.
> 
> And change perform-action to calculate the value for to "description" parameter in this way:
> - Taking it from <operating-system> (or the command line?) 
> - Falling back to an automatic value (comparing it to the previous generation) otherwise.
> 
> That's it.



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bug#30916: Request: add a short description field for os-configuration

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

What about offering a way to specific the label of the new menu entry,
or otherwise a suffix or prefix of the label?

That is, you’d do:

  guix system reconfigure -m "The config that works just fine, I think." config.scm

and that string would be used as the label itself in the GRUB menu, or
as a prefix/suffix of the automatically generated label.

Thoughts?

Ludo’.