Allow system configuration without a bootloader

Allow system configuration without a bootloader

[kanichos]

Hello.

I am very happy with manually setting up my boot programs.  On UEFI systems I don’t use a standalone bootloader at all, because I think it is so unnecessary, and rely on Linux ‘EFI stub’ functionality.  I don’t ever want any automatic scripts to intervene.

For a couple of years I have used this:
(bootloader (grub-configuration (target "/dev/null")))
It works, but produces an ugly error during configuration.

I believe the field should actually be made optional.

Re: Allow system configuration without a bootloader

[Julien Lepiller]

Le 1 janvier 2020 10:31:08 GMT-05:00, kanichos@yandex.ru a écrit :
>Hello.
>
>I am very happy with manually setting up my boot programs.  On UEFI
>systems I don’t use a standalone bootloader at all, because I think it
>is so unnecessary, and rely on Linux ‘EFI stub’ functionality.  I don’t
>ever want any automatic scripts to intervene.
>
>For a couple of years I have used this:
>(bootloader (grub-configuration (target "/dev/null")))
>It works, but produces an ugly error during configuration.
>
>I believe the field should actually be made optional.

Have tried to use --no-bootloader when reconfiguring?

Re: Allow system configuration without a bootloader

[kanichos]

Yes, AFAIR it only works with ‘init’ and has no effect at all with ‘reconfigure’. 

02.01.2020, 00:12, "Julien Lepiller" <julien@lepiller.eu>:
> Le 1 janvier 2020 10:31:08 GMT-05:00, kanichos@yandex.ru a écrit :
>> Hello.
>>
>> I am very happy with manually setting up my boot programs. On UEFI
>> systems I don’t use a standalone bootloader at all, because I think it
>> is so unnecessary, and rely on Linux ‘EFI stub’ functionality. I don’t
>> ever want any automatic scripts to intervene.
>>
>> For a couple of years I have used this:
>> (bootloader (grub-configuration (target "/dev/null")))
>> It works, but produces an ugly error during configuration.
>>
>> I believe the field should actually be made optional.
>
> Have tried to use --no-bootloader when reconfiguring?

Re: Allow system configuration without a bootloader

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

"kanichos@yandex.ru" <kanichos@yandex.ru> skribis:

> Yes, AFAIR it only works with ‘init’ and has no effect at all with ‘reconfigure’. 

‘--no-bootloader’ should definitely work for ‘reconfigure’; could you
double-check and report a bug if it doesn’t work?

Now, if that’s useful, we could easily define a “noop” bootloader in
(gnu bootloader noop), along these lines:

  (define noop-bootloader
    (bootloader
     (name 'noop)
     (package #f)
     (installer #~(cons #t))
     (configuration-file #f)
     (configuration-file-generator #f)))

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Allow system configuration without a bootloader

[kanichos]

Yes, I just checked and it actually does work. I must have misremembered something.

I also should have looked into how the bootloaders are defined. Since it is just a public record type, I guess there is no problem whatsoever in reality.

Thanks.

03.01.2020, 01:28, "Ludovic Courtès" <ludo@gnu.org>:
> Hi,
>
> "kanichos@yandex.ru" <kanichos@yandex.ru> skribis:
>
>>  Yes, AFAIR it only works with ‘init’ and has no effect at all with ‘reconfigure’.
>
> ‘--no-bootloader’ should definitely work for ‘reconfigure’; could you
> double-check and report a bug if it doesn’t work?
>
> Now, if that’s useful, we could easily define a “noop” bootloader in
> (gnu bootloader noop), along these lines:
>
>   (define noop-bootloader
>     (bootloader
>      (name 'noop)
>      (package #f)
>      (installer #~(cons #t))
>      (configuration-file #f)
>      (configuration-file-generator #f)))
>
> Thanks,
> Ludo’.