Bug 488386 – sys-boot/grub-2.00_p5107-r1: more configurable menu generation

• Status: RESOLVED UPSTREAM
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Alex Efros 2013-10-17 16:26:42 UTC]

I've developed a patch which implement few related features:
- ability to define which linux kernels and in which order will be shown in top menu instead of one auto-detected latest kernel
- ability to show kernel version in simple menu items, to distinguish between several items added by previous feature
- ability to use custom kernel command line parameters for some kernels instead of GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT

Here is my real use-case explaining needs in these features. I'm experimenting with switching between proprietary nvidia driver and nouveau. My main kernel is 3.10.1-hardened-r1 (for proprietary nvidia driver), and I've also compiled experimental kernel with "_nouveau" local version: 3.10.1-hardened-r1_nouveau.

First issue - auto-detect of latest kernel choose 3.10.1-hardened-r1_nouveau, which is wrong for me, and only way to change this is add some fake local version for main kernel just to make sure it will be sorted before "_nouveau" string.
Second issue - main kernel need "vga=" parameter, while nouveau kernel need "video=" parameter, but there is no way to configure this.
Third issue - I'd like to have both normal and nouveau kernels in main menu, in manually defined order.

All these features configurable using /etc/default/grub using two new variables (GRUB_SIMPLE_VERSION and GRUB_MENU_LINUX) and one user-defined function (grub_cmdline_linux_custom). Example:

    # Add kernel version to simple menu entries
    GRUB_SIMPLE_VERSION=true

    # Manually define list of simple menu entries instead of auto-detecting
    # latest kernel.
    GRUB_MENU_LINUX="
        /boot/vmlinuz-3.10.1-hardened-r1
        /boot/vmlinuz-3.10.1-hardened-r1_nouveau
    "

    # Append parameters to the linux kernel command line for non-recovery entries
    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="vga=0x315"

    # Append parameters to the linux kernel command line for non-recovery entries
    # for some kernels (instead of GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT)
    function grub_cmdline_linux_custom {
        local -A CMDLINE

        CMDLINE[3.10.1-hardened-r1_nouveau]="video=800x600"

        echo ${CMDLINE[$1]}
    }

I've also sent this patch upstream: https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?40291

[Comment 1 Alex Efros 2013-10-17 16:27:32 UTC]

Created attachment 361140 [details, diff]
patch which implement these features

[Comment 2 Mike Gilbert 2013-10-17 23:06:07 UTC]

Thanks for the effort, but I'm not implementing new features at a distro level. Feel free to reopen if/when this is accepted upstream.