Re: Support for howmany option in grub2

[Michal Suchanek]

2009/10/3 Vladimir 'phcoder' Serbinenko <address@hidden>:
> Michal Suchanek wrote:
>> 2009/10/3 Vladimir 'phcoder' Serbinenko <address@hidden>:
>>
>>> Robert Millan wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 08:04:51PM +0200, address@hidden wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Hello,
>>>>> I am using Debian GNU/Linux as my primary system. As a loader I am using 
>>>>> GRUB.
>>>>> Actually I have upgraded to GRUB2. I don't know, if it was feature of 
>>>>> original
>>>>> (legacy) GRUB or it was functionality provided by debian scripts 
>>>>> (update-grub),
>>>>> for generating menu.lst. There was feature - howmany. This option 
>>>>> specifies
>>>>> number of kernels, that user wants to have in boot menu. Script, that 
>>>>> modifies
>>>>> menu.lst, use this variable. I like this feature, because I have usually 
>>>>> more
>>>>> kernels, but I want to see only last two versions in GRUB menu. I have 
>>>>> created
>>>>> patch, that add support for this to /etc/grub.d/10_linux. I have created 
>>>>> this
>>>>> patch against version shipped with Debian (1.97~beta3-1) - I don't know if
>>>>> there are some Debian specific modifications. Also there should be 
>>>>> variable
>>>>> GRUB_HOW_MANY propagated from /etc/default/grub (my patch don't do
>>>>> this).
>>>>> Kernel and it's rescue variant is counted as one kernel.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have already reported this bug to Debian BTS:
>>>>> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=548600
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Does anyone else think we want an option for this?  It seems like "feature
>>>> creep".
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Many kernels encumber view and may make menu difficult to navigate (I
>>> have to scroll through a lot of linux kernels before I get to FreeBSD).
>>> But choosing kernels would involve heuristics which are likely to fail
>>> if e.g. user is in the middle of git bisect
>>> But the core issue is a bad menu organisation. I think we need two-level
>>> menu. It seems Bean is already working on issue but I haven't followed
>>> that thread closely
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I guess it should be possible one way or another once the new menu
>> system is ready.
>>
>> It should be possible to sort the non-linux extra boot options into a
>> separate list and thus make them easier to reach, for example.
>>
>>
> I would prefer two level OS/kernel choice. E.g. I first choose that I
> want linux from hdX,Y and then I choose the exact kernel. Perhaps normal

Typically (hdX,Y) is not what people are familiar with so I would
avoid showing that in the menu altogether.

Also note that grub is typically installed by a particular
distribution and the scripts only know how to add kernels for the
distribution or loaders for additional OSes as per OS prober.

> keypress enter in first-level menu would boot most recent kernel and

Often the menu is hidden completely if no choice of kernels is desired
by default.

> e.g. hitting F6 will offer kernel choice

I think hitting enter twice is not too much of a burden compared to
searching for F6.

However, we will need multiple "default" kernels if multiple kernel
lists are available.

Thanks

Michal