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