Cleanup GNOME Hidden Boot Menu Integration - Fedora 33 System-Wide Change proposal

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https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/CleanupGnomeHiddenBootMenuIntegration

== Summary ==
GNOME integrates with Fedora's [[Changes/HiddenGrubMenu|hidden boot
menu feature]] to signal to the bootloader that boot was successful
and to request the menu to be shown the next boot when "Boot Options"
is selected in the Shutdown/Reboot dialog. Currently Fedora carries
downstream patches for this, which directly call the Fedora specific
grub2-set-bootflag helper. The goal of this change is to replace these
downstream patches with a clean bootloader agnostic solution which can
be submitted upstream.

== Owner ==
* Name: [[User:jwrdegoede| Hans de Goede]]
* Email: hdegoede@xxxxxxxxxx

== Detailed Description ==

GNOME has 2 integration points with the
[[Changes/HiddenGrubMenu|hidden boot menu feature]]:

# Requesting the menu to be shown the next boot when "Boot Options" is
selected in the Shutdown/Reboot dialog.
# Signalling the bootloader that the boot was successful.

To replace our downstream patches for 1. we can use the new(ish)
systemd DBUS API used by "systemctl reboot --boot-loader-menu=60".
This currently only works with sd-boot, but systemd has hooks to allow
integration with other bootloaders, see the
[https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/master/docs/ENVIRONMENT.md
SYSTEMD_REBOOT_TO_BOOT_LOADER_MENU env. variable documentation]. So we
can support this in grub2 with some relatively simply changes and then
replace our downstream patches for this with new patches using the
systemd DBUS API for this.

Replacing our downstream patches for 2. with an upstreamable
bootloader agnostic solution is somewhat involved. systemd has its
[https://systemd.io/AUTOMATIC_BOOT_ASSESSMENT/ Automatic Boot
Assessment] feature, which is somewhat similar in that it to deals
with boot success detection, but its behavior on failure is different
(auto fallback to an older kernel) and it is a sd-boot specific
feature. Still we can use some parts of this. The boot-complete.target
and the concept of having a systemd-bless-boot.service which Requires
that target to be reached before it runs. So replacing out downstream
patches for 2. will consists of 2 parts:

# grub2 changes: Add a grub2-bless-boot.service which Requires
boot-complete.target and which does the equivalent of
"grub2-set-bootflag boot_success" when that target is reached
# GNOME changes: Add a oneshot gnome-wait-for-boot-success.service to
boot-complete.target, this will start a simple helper which listens on
a unix socket until signalled, thus delaying the completion of
boot-complete.target until it is signalled; and in the places where
the downstream patches are currently directly calling
"grub2-set-bootflag boot_success" signal (write a byte) this unix
socket instead.

Also see this [https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2020-June/044800.html
mailinglist discussion].

== Benefit to Fedora ==

This change will remove some technical-debt in the form of a couple of
quick-and-dirty downstream patches from Fedora and will align GNOME's
integration with the [[Changes/HiddenGrubMenu|hidden boot menu
feature]] with our upstream first policy.

== Scope ==
* Proposal owners:
Create the necessary changes ASAP and submit these to Fedora's
[https://github.com/rhboot/grub2/ grub2] and
[https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/ GNOME] upstreams.

* Other developers:
The bootloader team needs to do a new grub2 build with the changes
added and the desktop team needs to add the GNOME changes to the GNOME
packages. I will coordinate this with both teams.

* Release engineering: [https://pagure.io/releng/issue/9557 #9557] (a
check of an impact with Release Engineering is needed)
* Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
This change does not impact upgrades, the interface between the OS and
grub2 still goes through the same unmodified grubenv settings. The
only changes are in how we make the grubenv changes and all parts
involved in that will be updated together.

== How To Test ==
# Tests
## Install Fedora Workstation in a fresh vm or select reclaim
diskspace -> delete all in the installer (do a single os install).
## Boot the system the grub menu should NOT show
## Login, wait 2 minutes then presss "CTRL + ALT + F6" followed by
"CTRL + ALT + DEL" to do a reboot from the text-console without going
through the GNOME reboot dialog. The grub menu should NOT show on the
new boot.
## Reboot from the GNOME reboot dialog inside gdm. The grub menu
should NOT show on the new boot.
## Open the GNOME reboot dialog, then press alt to change the "Reboot"
button into "Boot Options" and click the "Boot Options" button (while
keeping alt pressed). You should now get the grub menu, with a
countdown of 60 seconds.
## Boot the system and then press "CTRL + ALT + F6" followed by "CTRL
+ ALT + DEL" to do a reboot from the text-console without logging in,
this counts as a failed boot, so the menu should now show.
# EFI vs Classic PC BIOS boot
## All above tests should be done twice, once on an EFI system and
once on a system using Classic PC BIOS boot

== User Experience ==
The user experience will be unchanged, the goal of this change is to
remove some technical debt and reduce the number of downstream changes
Fedora carries.

== Dependencies ==
There are no dependencies outside of the grub2 and GNOME changes.

== Contingency Plan ==
* Contingency mechanism: If this is not ready / complete when we near
the beta freeze, then revert to using our downstream patches
* Blocks release? No (assuming we do the revert so we do not regress)

== Documentation ==
There are no functional changes, so no documentation changes are necessary.


-- 
Ben Cotton
He / Him / His
Senior Program Manager, Fedora & CentOS Stream
Red Hat
TZ=America/Indiana/Indianapolis
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