On Sat, 29 Oct 2022 18:38:53 -0400 Felix Miata <mrmazda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > stan via users composed on 2022-10-29 11:55 (UTC-0700): > > >> I hadn't even looked into creating a new partition under > >> /boot/efi/EFI with a unique name, and what would be required for > >> it to work. Is it really as simple as changing GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR= > >> in /etc/default/grub, and everything else happens automatically? > > > How would dnf know about that changed name in order to install the > > shim? > > DNF knows because it's a front-end to RPM, which operates according > to the content of the grub2-efi rpm and /etc/default/grub, Grub's > config file. Pretend it has .conf appended if necessary to > understand. The value set for GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR= establishes the > location on the ESP where the efi file(s) must be located. This is good to know. I had assumed that the shim location was hardcoded in the rpm, so this is more flexible. > > > How would the OS be installed initially, since the defaults are for > > the current location? > > I have no idea whether the default location can be overridden > /during/ Fedora installation. As long as the location has been made > unique for each previous installation, it doesn't matter that the > default is used initially. Just make > > # dnf reinstall shim-* grub2-efi-* grub2-common > > part of your standard first boot order of business, and the efi > directory /should/ be good indefinitely. But, be on the lookout for > unexpected changes to /etc/default/grub that might change it. It seems that Fedora could facilitate this by appending a (random?) suffix to the GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR value during install, so that this step was automatically completed. A more sophisticated implementation might examine other entries, and append a sequential value, or ensure that the suffix was unique. > There remains the issue of whose bootloader has priority in firmware > memory, and on what occasions when OS maintenance activity has reason > to touch it. Efibootmgr is the utility for managing the NVRAM entries > while fully booted, while BIOS setup includes its own. My solution to > avoiding OS touching is to install any bootloader at all on a minimal > selection of installations, such as only one. On others that have a > bootloader installed, I omit the ESP from their fstabs, preventing > them from finding conditions prerequisite to touching. > > Finally, I build /boot/grub2/custom.cfg from scratch that uses volume > LABELs and symlinks to kernels and initrds, and customize > /etc/grub.d/ to cause its entries to head Grub's menu. I think this means that if you update any of the installed OSs, you have to recreate the custom.cfg menu to incorporate the changes. And that you have to have a custom utility you run in order to do that. Would you be willing to share that utility, and your customizations of /etc/grub.d? This will work great, but I wouldn't consider it trivial for a new user of Fedora. Thanks for the information, filling out my sketchy understanding. I now understand how to accomplish running multiple versions of an OS with a single EFI partition using grub. _______________________________________________ users mailing list -- users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
