Handbook Talk:AMD64/Blocks/Bootloader

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A comment [[User:Larry|Larry]] 13:52, 13 May 2024 (UTC)
: A reply [[User:Sally|Sally]] 14:50, 19 May 2025 (UTC)
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Found typo in article

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This discussion is done as of June 04, 2017.

Did it mean »Be sure to read through« the the EFI stub kernel article ...? --Charles17 (talk) 07:11, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

Fixed. Thank you! --Maffblaster (talk) 05:19, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

Please adjust ESP path

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This discussion is done.

Please change

--- BEGIN ---

Presuming the ESP is mounted at /boot/efi (as suggested earlier), execute:

root #mkdir -p /boot/efi/efi/boot

root #cp /boot/efi/efi/gentoo/ /boot/efi/efi/boot/

--- END ---

to

--- Begin ---

Presuming the ESP is mounted at /boot (as suggested earlier), execute:

root #mkdir -p /boot/efi/boot

root #cp /boot/efi/gentoo/ /boot/efi/boot/

--- END ---

Reason: Such alternative mountpoint (cit: "mounted at /boot/efi") is in fact not being used int the whole installation guide. The mountpoint for ESP is /boot and nothing else. --Charles17 (talk) 16:57, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for adjustments.--Charles17 (talk) 15:32, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

Misspelled command

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This discussion is done.

grub_install should be grub-install

Mathis Winterer (talk) 10:32, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

Broken lilo.conf FileBox

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This discussion is done as of 2023-09-12.

All /etc/lilo.conf shows broken

'"`UNIQ--pre-00000001-QINU`"'

instead actual content. --Winterheart (talk) 23:24, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

This has been fixed. Thank you for drawing attention to it! --Maffblaster (talk) 08:29, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

Grub UEFI Secure boot Problem

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This discussion is done as of 2024-03-01.

I was going through the handbook trying to set up secure boot on grub, this section has some issues, if you do --modules=${GRUB_MODULES} you will get an error grub install error more than one install device. If you put --modules="${GRUB_MODULES}" then it works just fine, also where am I supposed to get the sbat.csv, I found some arch linux bug discussion and made my own but the wiki doesn't make it clear.

root #grub-install --target= --efi-directory= --modules=${GRUB_MODULES} --sbat /usr/share/grub/sbat.csv

--MarksWorld (talk) 09:20, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Bug https://bugs.gentoo.org/925902 --Andrew Ammerlaan (talk) 09:26, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

To answer the question about where to get sbat from: I'm reading that the presence of the file seems more important than the actual contents - so maybe one could just use the file from that link in the bug until the bug is resolved ? -- Ris (talk) 15:45, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Resolved, the grub package now installs an sbat.csv in the expected location (talk) 17:00, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Adjust GRUB_PLATFORMS to use package.use

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This discussion:

• provides a proposal that can be merged as is, but as of 2024-12-15,
• that proposal has not remained unchanged and uncontested for 30 days.

Since there's been a push towards using package.use recently, we should try and convert the rest of the Handbook to using package.use for USE_EXPAND as well:

Proposed changes - Please make edits here until a final revision is agreed upon.

A note for UEFI users: running the above command will output the enabled GRUB_PLATFORMS values before emerging. When using UEFI capable systems, users will need to ensure the USE_EXPAND option for GRUB_PLATFORMS is enabled for sys-boot/grub (as it is the case by default). If that is not the case for this setup, ensure the USE_EXPAND option for GRUB_PLATFORMS is added to /etc/portage/package.use before emerging GRUB so that the package will be built with EFI functionality:

root #echo '*/* GRUB_PLATFORMS: ' >> /etc/portage/package.use/00grub

root #emerge --ask sys-boot/grub

If GRUB was somehow emerged without enabling , the line (as shown above) can be added to package.use and then dependencies for the world package set can be re-calculated by passing the --update --newuse options to emerge:

Please note that due to talk pages not inheriting Handbook variables (yet), there may be missing pieces but they will be there when this is added to the Handbook.

--csfore (talk) 16:45, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

LGTM, please add.

Immolo (talk) 00:34, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

Adjust bootloader order to reflect current popularity

Talk status

This discussion is still ongoing as of 2024-12-16.

Currently our recommended bootloader order is a bit puzzling, as GRUB and systemd-boot combined likely take up the vast majority of the bootloader market share, so the Handbook should be updated to reflect this.

My suggested order is:

1. GRUB
2. systemd-boot
3. EFI Stub
4. LILO
5. syslinux (should this even be included if we don't have install instructions and just point users to the Wiki page?)

The reason why I suggest GRUB to be the default recommendation is just because most users are likely familiar with it, or have heard of it at the very least.

I do not mind systemd-boot being recommended first though, if that is what is decided on, as it is pretty easy to install.

--csfore (talk) 20:49, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

IMO drop LILO and syslinux. Maybe mention refind?

--Kangie (talk) 21:33, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

I did some research and it doesn't seem like refind includes XFS drivers so we'll have to mention that /boot has to be on one of the FSes it supports.

--csfore (talk) 23:07, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Here's what I'm thinking:

Make GRUB, systemd-boot, and EFI stub the three main options/alternatives, with a brief paragraph at the end that would basically say:

"For other options that will not be covered in the Handbook, see the full list of available bootloaders."

--csfore (talk) 23:29, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

I like this idea. on the point of LILO, it is mostly useless everywhere but it does provide a benefit for low memory installs on x86 (<32mb). We should highlight that in the cleanup table.

Immolo (talk) 00:08, 17 December 2024 (UTC)