From: Lilah Tascheter <lilah@lunabee.space>
To: guix-devel@gnu.org
Subject: extlinux and a bootloader system rewrite
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:44:44 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <f26d51d7408604d031db08df5e63729527a108e4.camel@lunabee.space> (raw)
heyall!
I've been working on a large bootloader subsystem rewrite to get
everything working together nicer and support future bootloaders
better. however, extlinux is being a bit of an issue.
extlinux installs its second stage (ldlinux.sys) by copying it into the
root (or boot) filesystem, and then copying the on-disk block offset
into the bootblock first-stage. this relies on the now-heavily
discouraged practice of assuming files just stay in the same physical
spot. it requires special treatment with btrfs, will break if anything
rearranges the file-system, and will most likely never work on disk
images.
it hasn't been updated since 2014 and kinda shows.
a possible solution would be re-implementing its installer and instead
installing ldlinux.sys to a separate partition, or maybe see if it
could re-use GRUB's method of installing in the partition gap or even
editing the disk image installer to work in an losetup'd container or
some shit. but, honestly, I don't know if that would actually help
anyone.
does anyone use extlinux on guix still? would anyone mind if I just nix
it (guix it?) entirely in the patch series? grub supports every case
extlinux would support anyway.
thanks!
leila
next reply other threads:[~2024-04-23 1:45 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2024-04-23 1:44 Lilah Tascheter [this message]
2024-04-29 19:04 ` extlinux and a bootloader system rewrite Vagrant Cascadian
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
List information: https://guix.gnu.org/
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=f26d51d7408604d031db08df5e63729527a108e4.camel@lunabee.space \
--to=lilah@lunabee.space \
--cc=guix-devel@gnu.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).