manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Jack Hill]

Greetings,

This email records some thinking that we had on IRC today. raghavgururajan 
and I have use cases for a Guix-managed grub.cfg, but without Guix-managed 
grub boot binaries. This is to support booting a Guix system with an 
external grub, where there is no place for Guix to install grub. For 
raghavgururajan, this is because their whole disk is a luks encrypted 
volume and they are using libreboot's grub. For me, this is for using Grub 
on the Linode VPS provider that has an external grub and prefers disks 
that are raw filesystems without partition tables.

We came up with the idea to add an option to the bootloader part of an 
operating system definition to skip installing the book binaries. Thoughts 
this idea, what the configuration interface should be, or what the 
implementation should look like?

Best,
Jack

Re: manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Raghav "RG" Gururajan]

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Hello Guix!

Yes, there should be a way to make "guix system" to generate and maintain grub configuration (grub.cfg) in /boot directory but not actually installing the bootloader in the disk. It would be awesome, if this can be implemented in version 1.0 before it get released.

Regards,
Raghav "RG" Gururajan.


‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Tuesday, 12 February 2019 14:04, Jack Hill <jackhill@jackhill.us> wrote:

> Greetings,
> 

> This email records some thinking that we had on IRC today. raghavgururajan
> and I have use cases for a Guix-managed grub.cfg, but without Guix-managed
> grub boot binaries. This is to support booting a Guix system with an
> external grub, where there is no place for Guix to install grub. For
> raghavgururajan, this is because their whole disk is a luks encrypted
> volume and they are using libreboot's grub. For me, this is for using Grub
> on the Linode VPS provider that has an external grub and prefers disks
> that are raw filesystems without partition tables.
> 

> We came up with the idea to add an option to the bootloader part of an
> operating system definition to skip installing the book binaries. Thoughts
> this idea, what the configuration interface should be, or what the
> implementation should look like?
> 

> Best,
> Jack


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manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Clément Lassieur]

Hi Jack and Raghav,

Could you try this?

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(bootloader-configuration
     (bootloader
      (bootloader
       (inherit grub-bootloader)
       (installer #~(const #t)))))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Clément

Re: manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Raghav "RG" Gururajan]

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Hi Clement!
>
> Thanks! Will do.
>
> @Jack. Can you also try this and let me know. My system is running dd command for 2TB HDD. So gonna take a while.
>
> Thanks!
-------- Original Message --------
On 14 Feb 2019, 12:15, Clément Lassieur wrote:

> Hi Jack and Raghav,
>
> Could you try this?
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> (bootloader-configuration
> (bootloader
> (bootloader
> (inherit grub-bootloader)
> (installer #~(const #t)))))
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> Clément

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Re: manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Raghav "RG" Gururajan]

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Hi Clement!

The following is the error I got.

config-fail.scm:9:0: error: inherit: unbound variable
hint: Did you forget a `use-modules' form?

-------- Original Message --------
On 14 Feb 2019, 13:07, Raghav "RG" Gururajan wrote:

> Hi Clement!
>>
>> Thanks! Will do.
>>
>> @Jack. Can you also try this and let me know. My system is running dd command for 2TB HDD. So gonna take a while.
>>
>> Thanks!
> -------- Original Message --------
> On 14 Feb 2019, 12:15, Clément Lassieur wrote:
>
>> Hi Jack and Raghav,
>>
>> Could you try this?
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> (bootloader-configuration
>> (bootloader
>> (bootloader
>> (inherit grub-bootloader)
>> (installer #~(const #t)))))
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>> Clément

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Re: manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Raghav "RG" Gururajan]

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@clement

This is the actual error.

/etc/config-fail.scm:9:0: error: extraneous field initializers (bootloader-configuration)

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Saturday, February 16, 2019 6:58 PM, Raghav "RG" Gururajan <raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> wrote:

> Hi Clement!
> 

> The following is the error I got.
> 

> config-fail.scm:9:0: error: inherit: unbound variable
> hint: Did you forget a `use-modules' form?
> 

> -------- Original Message --------
> On 14 Feb 2019, 13:07, Raghav "RG" Gururajan < raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> wrote:
> 

> > Hi Clement!
> > >
> > > Thanks! Will do.
> > >
> > > @Jack. Can you also try this and let me know. My system is running dd command for 2TB HDD. So gonna take a while.
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > On 14 Feb 2019, 12:15, Clément Lassieur < clement@lassieur.org> wrote:
> > 

> > > Hi Jack and Raghav,
> > > 

> > > Could you try this?
> > > 

> > > --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> > > (bootloader-configuration
> > > (bootloader
> > > (bootloader
> > > (inherit grub-bootloader)
> > > (installer #~(const #t)))))
> > > --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> > > 

> > > Clément

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Re: manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Clément Lassieur]

Hi Raghav,

Raghav RG Gururajan <raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> writes:

> @clement
>
> This is the actual error.
>
> /etc/config-fail.scm:9:0: error: extraneous field initializers (bootloader-configuration)

Yes, you need to use the (gnu bootloader) module.

I actually use the (gnu) module as shown in the docs, which exports (gnu
bootloader) and some other stuff too.

Clément

> Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
>
> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
> On Saturday, February 16, 2019 6:58 PM, Raghav "RG" Gururajan <raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> wrote:
>
>> Hi Clement!
>> 
>
>> The following is the error I got.
>> 
>
>> config-fail.scm:9:0: error: inherit: unbound variable
>> hint: Did you forget a `use-modules' form?
>> 
>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> On 14 Feb 2019, 13:07, Raghav "RG" Gururajan < raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> wrote:
>> 
>
>> > Hi Clement!
>> > >
>> > > Thanks! Will do.
>> > >
>> > > @Jack. Can you also try this and let me know. My system is running dd command for 2TB HDD. So gonna take a while.
>> > >
>> > > Thanks!
>> > -------- Original Message --------
>> > On 14 Feb 2019, 12:15, Clément Lassieur < clement@lassieur.org> wrote:
>> > 
>
>> > > Hi Jack and Raghav,
>> > > 
>
>> > > Could you try this?
>> > > 
>
>> > > --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> > > (bootloader-configuration
>> > > (bootloader
>> > > (bootloader
>> > > (inherit grub-bootloader)
>> > > (installer #~(const #t)))))
>> > > --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>> > > 
>
>> > > Clément

Re: manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Raghav "RG" Gururajan]

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@clement

Thanks! Btw, shouldn't the first line be "(boot loader (bootloader-configuration)" in the code snippet you sent??

-------- Original Message --------
On 16 Feb 2019, 17:11, Clément Lassieur wrote:

> Hi Raghav,
>
> Raghav RG Gururajan <raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> writes:
>
>> @clement
>>
>> This is the actual error.
>>
>> /etc/config-fail.scm:9:0: error: extraneous field initializers (bootloader-configuration)
>
> Yes, you need to use the (gnu bootloader) module.
>
> I actually use the (gnu) module as shown in the docs, which exports (gnu
> bootloader) and some other stuff too.
>
> Clément
>
>> Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
>>
>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>> On Saturday, February 16, [2019 6](tel:20196):58 PM, Raghav "RG" Gururajan <raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Clement!
>>>
>>
>>> The following is the error I got.
>>>
>>
>>> config-fail.scm:9:0: error: inherit: unbound variable
>>> hint: Did you forget a `use-modules' form?
>>>
>>
>>> -------- Original Message --------
>>> On 14 Feb [2019](tel:2019), 13:07, Raghav "RG" Gururajan < raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> wrote:
>>>
>>
>>> > Hi Clement!
>>> > >
>>> > > Thanks! Will do.
>>> > >
>>> > > @Jack. Can you also try this and let me know. My system is running dd command for 2TB HDD. So gonna take a while.
>>> > >
>>> > > Thanks!
>>> > -------- Original Message --------
>>> > On 14 Feb [2019](tel:2019), 12:15, Clément Lassieur < clement@lassieur.org> wrote:
>>> >
>>
>>> > > Hi Jack and Raghav,
>>> > >
>>
>>> > > Could you try this?
>>> > >
>>
>>> > > --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>>> > > (bootloader-configuration
>>> > > (bootloader
>>> > > (bootloader
>>> > > (inherit grub-bootloader)
>>> > > (installer #~(const #t)))))
>>> > > --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>> > >
>>
>>> > > Clément

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Re: manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Clément Lassieur]

Raghav RG Gururajan <raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> writes:

> @clement
>
> Thanks! Btw, shouldn't the first line be "(boot loader (bootloader-configuration)" in the code snippet you sent??

Well, I just gave the value of the bootloader field, but with this your
config.scm should look like:

(operating-system
[...]
  (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
               (bootloader
                (bootloader
                 (inherit grub-bootloader)
                 (installer #~(const #t))))))

[...]
)

Re: manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Raghav "RG" Gururajan]

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Ah! Got it. Thank you!
-------- Original Message --------
On 17 Feb 2019, 13:26, Clément Lassieur wrote:

> Raghav RG Gururajan <raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> writes:
>
>> @clement
>>
>> Thanks! Btw, shouldn't the first line be "(boot loader (bootloader-configuration)" in the code snippet you sent??
>
> Well, I just gave the value of the bootloader field, but with this your
> config.scm should look like:
>
> (operating-system
> [...]
> (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
> (bootloader
> (bootloader
> (inherit grub-bootloader)
> (installer #~(const #t))))))
>
> [...]
> )

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Re: manage /boot/grub/grub.cfg without installing grub binaries to disk

[Clément Lassieur]

I'm unsure it's related.  It's talking about an error while building
xxx-etc.drv.  Maybe you should have a look at the actual log?

See "View build log at..."

Raghav RG Gururajan <raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> writes:

> @Clement
>
> The code didn't work. I have attached the error with this email.
> -------- Original Message --------
> On 18 Feb 2019, 09:16, Raghav "RG" Gururajan wrote:
>
>> Ah! Got it. Thank you!
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> On 17 Feb 2019, 13:26, Clément Lassieur wrote:
>>
>>> Raghav RG Gururajan <raghavgururajan@protonmail.ch> writes:
>>>
>>>> @clement
>>>>
>>>> Thanks! Btw, shouldn't the first line be "(boot loader (bootloader-configuration)" in the code snippet you sent??
>>>
>>> Well, I just gave the value of the bootloader field, but with this your
>>> config.scm should look like:
>>>
>>> (operating-system
>>> [...]
>>> (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
>>> (bootloader
>>> (bootloader
>>> (inherit grub-bootloader)
>>> (installer #~(const #t))))))
>>>
>>> [...]
>>> )