Re: change default os

[David WE Roberts]

On Sun, 24 Mar 2013 21:57:48 -0700, Jordan Uggla wrote:

> On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 12:09 PM, David WE Roberts
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>>
>> I have used the renumbering trick on several systems for some time and
>> it seems to work fine.
>>
>> Changing the order in which the '.d' files are run seems to change the
>> order in which the menu entries are built and is less invasive than
>> editing config files.
> 
> You have a different definition of "less invasive" than I do. I think
> changing a single configuration option, GRUB_DEFAULT, in
> /etc/default/grub is much less invasive than modifying the scripts in
> /etc/grub.d/, even just to rename them.
> 
> 
>> Given that the grub.cfg file starts with an explicit warning against
>> editing it directly, as does the documentation, I an confused as to how
>> it is a viable alternative.
>>
>> Please note that I am running Ubuntu Linux.
>>
>> On a regular basis the kernel is updated and the grub configuration is
>> updated.
>> So writing a manual grub.cfg would surely mean redoing this every time
>> you updated the kernel.
> 
> Writing a completely manual grub.cfg with Ubuntu would require that you
> either have a separate grub-installation in a different directory (often
> people even make a separate grub partition when they have many OSs so
> that they can keep their main grub installation independent of any OS)
> or that you make Debian/Ubuntu's update-grub script a symlink to
> /bin/true, then dpkg-divert update-grub. That said, if you're going to
> dpkg-divert something then you could in fact dpkg-divert the scripts in
> /etc/grub.d/ into a different order, and since you're telling dpkg about
> the renaming (rather than just using mv to move the files) it should
> continue to work on upgrades.
> 
> 
>> I haven't yet seen grub.d updated (at least not os_prober).
> 
> I have. How have you been checking if it has been updated?
> 
> 

<snip>

Just hit this condition yesterday when upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04.
I was told that the script I had moved had been changed, shown a 'diff' 
which was blank and asked if I wanted to leave or replace.

I opted for replace and got two versions of 30_os-prober - the new one and 
my original at 07_os-prober.

On reboot the Windows systems appeared above and below Linux in the menu.

I did a diff and confirmed that there were changes between the os-prober 
versions.

So I moved the new script over the old script.

Ran update-grub, rebooted, back to normal :-)

So no big hassle and much easier than with legacy grub.

As long as an upgrade to os-prober always behaves in this way then it 
seems a reasonable solution to me.

I haven't looked at dpkg-divert but it would have to be very simple for 
the non-*ix literate person to be easier than using the mv command.

I can follow what you describe above, but then I used to be a Unix system 
administrator back in the day.

Most modern users who mainly grew up with Windows would probably have 
bottled out with a glazed expression part way through.

Where possible, customisation should be via a simple graphical interface - 
there isn't much in Windows where you have to get down and dirty at the 
command prompt.

Cheers

David