From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail-px0-f183.google.com (mail-px0-f183.google.com [209.85.216.183]) by speech.braille.uwo.ca (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7042210AAE for ; Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:14:03 -0500 (EST) Received: by pxi13 with SMTP id 13so1321227pxi.24 for ; Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:14:02 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:date:from:to:subject :message-id:mail-followup-to:mime-version:content-type :content-disposition:user-agent; bh=shIxM2seC+uP0bXEbEpy05WzAt3fLIDGm5NAfM+zM8U=; b=DbuvYvp6UnzGg2LdwBxGAxION64BNJRB82A3+9Y/RMpYeMl88E08TWLyNPjWpaUzGC YSlgNQA0d+s8ivnLDNoHRhP/QhIr+M30oH3L8HMxVZDLp+KvbqiRQBrqx6HCSGdMEiI9 XUrIo5SJdRVVDaxW5wt/HHdQDVH72AEUGKBww= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=date:from:to:subject:message-id:mail-followup-to:mime-version :content-type:content-disposition:user-agent; b=sxpPFdTsSXadxvhT5NkZp1ccIaXF4HZ1TirdcpF13UGCWNauA38tKihym/Iy0TkKpl FGuGA32VAD8XkDT0ETVpySybddSEW9uRAU7f1RYPz1NDZh+m5x3+TmpjiIuG9lPW/IWE WGvnlg9wE2sryfDlx5H/gmGr41QSuKTRwC2qg= Received: by 10.114.7.9 with SMTP id 9mr2620283wag.71.1259367242802; Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:14:02 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (069-064-234-003.pdx.net [69.64.234.3]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 20sm1492243pxi.3.2009.11.27.16.14.02 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:14:02 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:14:00 -0800 From: Zachary Kline To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca Subject: grub2 impressions Message-ID: <20091128001400.GA4428@blackbird> Mail-Followup-To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-BeenThere: speakup@braille.uwo.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12 Precedence: list Reply-To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Id: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:14:04 -0000 Hi All, I've just decided to take the plunge and switch my dual boot ArchLinux system from using grub-legacy to grub2. My initial impressions are below, for what it's worth. I should note here that I've never felt it necesary to have grub beep at the boot menu or any other such feature. I just set an infinite timeout and go. Superficially, menu.lst has gone, replaced by grub.cfg. The syntax of device specifications has been made a bit irregular. Disks are still numbered at 0, partitions are numbered at 1. One wonders if the developers plan on regularizing the disk numbers at some point? So, for instance, /dev/sda1 is (hd0,1) and sda5 is (hd0,5). That aside, the command syntax is different. You'll be using set a lot, to change variables like your timeout or the default menu entry. "set timeout=0", for instance. Menu entries are defined by blocks enclosed in braces, instead of the title keyword. menuentry "Arch Linux" { set root=(hd0,5) linux /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro initrd /boot/kernel26.img } This is the entry I use to boot ArchLinux over here. I still need to figure out how to get that to use uuids, but for now this certainly does the job. The documentation provided with my ArchLinux package of 1.97.1 is incomplete. There's a skeleton info menu with a few introductory nodes already filled in, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, there's a sample configuration file included (at least in my package). Overall, I'm happy I switched. I'm sure the system will be going through some pollishing before it's officially bug free (TM), butoverall I like being on the leading edge when it comes to these things. I quibble with the developers to an extent over minor cosmetic issues, but that's neither here nor there. I hope this helps anyone who might want to give this a try. All the best, Zack.