Bug 413803 – sys-boot/grub-2: please support bzImage* prefixed kernels and non-version-suffixed kernels

• Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Robin Johnson 2012-04-27 22:58:27 UTC]

All of the infra kernels follow the much older tradition of kernel filenames matching 'bzImage*'
eg:
/boot/bzImage-2.6.32-hardened-r10-infra15.amd64

Please also support systems that don't have a version suffix, eg a symlink of /boot/kernel pointing to the latest kernel.

[Comment 1 Mike Gilbert 2012-04-28 03:03:45 UTC]

(In reply to comment #0)
> All of the infra kernels follow the much older tradition of kernel filenames
> matching 'bzImage*'
> eg:
> /boot/bzImage-2.6.32-hardened-r10-infra15.amd64

That should be a simple change to the glob list in 10_linux. See line 156.

Can you change that locally and give it a shot? If it works, I can send a patch upstream.

> Please also support systems that don't have a version suffix, eg a symlink
> of /boot/kernel pointing to the latest kernel.

I think there are actually two use cases here:

1. /boot/kernel is a regular file.
2. /boot/kernel is a link to a regular file with a version in the file name.

In case 2, do you care if two menu entries are generated for the same kernel?

It would be great if you could propose this feature upstream, but I can make that communication if you prefer.

[Comment 2 Robin Johnson 2012-04-28 18:08:21 UTC]

Created attachment 310349 [details, diff]
grub-2.00-beta~3-10_linux-kernel-naming-flexibility.patch

Here's a patch that implements it and makes the control of kernel naming customization. Applies on top of current Gentoo ebuild.

If it's acceptable to you, could you please get merged to upstream. Notice that it removes the need

[Comment 3 Mike Gilbert 2012-04-28 20:43:51 UTC]

(In reply to comment #2)
> If it's acceptable to you, could you please get merged to upstream. Notice
> that it removes the need

I gave it a quick test, and it doesn't seem to break existing behavior, which is good.

One problem I noticed is that it does not detect an initramfs (initrd) image without a version. Is that something you will need, or can we ignore that for now?

[Comment 4 Robin Johnson 2012-04-28 21:03:22 UTC]

Nice catch. My test system didn't have initramfs, but we do need to cover that case. I'll respin.

[Comment 5 Robin Johnson 2012-04-28 21:42:08 UTC]

Created attachment 310361 [details, diff]
grub-2.00-beta~3-10_linux-kernel-naming-flexibility.patch

Take 2 on the patch, now with initramfs support.
Might need some fuzz to apply.

[Comment 6 Mike Gilbert 2012-04-29 04:52:16 UTC]

Patch sent upstream. Thanks again.

[Comment 7 Mike Gilbert 2012-06-25 03:43:58 UTC]

Upstream is not interested in applying any patches to support "flexible" kernel naming. Unless someone wants to commit to maintaining a custom version of 10_linux for Gentoo, this isn't going to happen.