Re: GRUB 2.12 release, etc.

[Glenn Washburn]

On Tue, 14 Jun 2022 17:48:39 +0800
Xiaotian Wu <wuxiaotian@loongson.cn> wrote:

> Hi Daniel.
> 
> Thank you for your release plan.
> 
> I would like to ask, can GRUB-2.12 add a new LoongArch architecture support?
> 
> LoongArch is a RISC instruction set from China. Currently, Linux-5.19 
> adds LoongArch CPU support and will support complete EFIStub in version 
> 5.20.
> 
> On GRUB, including 2 patch sets:
> 
> 1. Add the basic support of LoongArch so that GRUB can run on the 
> LoongArch machine. See 
> https://github.com/loongarch64/grub/tree/dev/patchwork/base
> 
> 2. Add the loader for kernel, but it depends on a series of patch of 
> Loadfile2. See https://github.com/loongarch64/grub/tree/dev/patchwork/efi
> 
> These patchs are already available, and tested on CLFS and Archlinux for 
> LoongArch.
> 
> If we plan to support LoongArch in GRUB-2.12, I will update these patchs 
> and release the 4th version of the patch for review.

I think it would be great to have LoongArch in GRUB. It should be a hard
requirement that support for the architecture be added for the make
check tests. This will require that QEMU have support for LoongArch. It
looks like the current release of QEMU does not have support for
LoongArch, but there is a patch series[1] which adds it. I presume that
will get accepted at some point. I'd suggest the tests be made assuming
that (or some other patch LoongArch patch series) will get accepted.
The INSTALL file can be updated to indicate that QEMU > 7 is required,
or something like that. Also, if there's any special build requirements
those should also be noted in the INSTALL file and docs/grub*.texi
should be updated for the new arch. For example, what's the minimum GCC
version needed to compile?

Glenn

[1] https://patchew.org/QEMU/20210920080451.408655-1-git@xen0n.name/

> Thanks
> 
> 在 2022/6/11 上午1:20, Daniel Kiper 写道:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am going to release GRUB 2.12 around October 2022. I will publish
> > exact dates closer to the release and at least month before freeze date.
> > If you think some features and fixes should land in the GRUB 2.12 please
> > replay to this email.
> >
> > I am not going to release any of earlier released versions with recent
> > security fixes on top of them. Though if somebody wants to step up and
> > prepare them I am happy to create relevant branch in the GRUB git 
> > repository.
> >
> > Daniel
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Grub-devel mailing list
> > Grub-devel@gnu.org
> > https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel
> 
> 
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