Bootloader localization

[Miguel <rosen644835@gmail.com>]

Hi everybody!

I've been working on these patches and I've been able to generate a
derivation with the format expected by Grub during bootloading, use it
in the grub.cfg file. I removed the test for the folder inside the
configuration file and added a check for the "locale" output during
the file generation. Maybe it is not quite elegant, but I'm open to
ideas. Now there are 4 patches instead of 3.

What do you think?

Best regards,
Miguel

PS: I CC'ed the mailing list too looking for other ideas.

El Tue, 23 Apr 2019 15:17:02 +0200
Miguel <rosen644835@gmail.com> escribió:
> Hello Guix!
> 
> As a Grub translator, I've been hacking a little bit in order to
> provide locale information to Grub. I use Guix in a daily basis, as my
> main computer operating system, and I this is a key step in order to
> provide a better experience to the all kind of users, who may do not
> know other languages than their native one.
> 
> My current idea, implemented in the following patches, is something
> along these lines:
>   1. Store locale information into boot-parameters file. This patch
>   contains a quite silly test that requires wiser review.
>   2. Provide this information to the bootloader at the configuration
>   time. This, ideally, should provided at installation time too, but
>   I'm stuck seeing my first messages in english when grub asks for the
>   whole-disk encryption passphrase as I don't know how to create a
>   working core.img yet.
>   3. Add a snippet to the generated grub.cfg file with the language
>   information. Some configurations, as /boot in a separate partition,
>   does not work with this patch, but take it as a proof of concept.
> 
> Lacking points:
>   1. No support for other bootloaders yet. I don't know any of them
> too much, but I'm unaware of their localization support.
>   2. Grub installation process is not transactional enough. I have
> some ideas for that, to be discussed in another thread, although one
> key point is tightly related with this topic: /boot/grub/locale
>   generation. Having this folder as a derivation would make explicit
>   the dependency, but I have to work more on this and I'm open to any
>   ideas.
> 
> WDYT?
> 
> Best regards,
> Miguel