Bug#361929: grub and /usr

[Robert Millan]

Hi!

I have to apologise, because all this fuss is my fault.  I mistakenly
interpreted FHS and understood that GRUB should be in / rather than /usr
because it was essential for system boot.  However, this is not the case since
all files used during boot live in /boot/grub.

Rewriting grub-install, etc doesn't make sense.  In case of grub-install, we'd
have to diverge from upstream for no good reason, and introduce new bugs.  To
me, it's much worse than violating FHS, even if violating FHS is an RC bug.

Some alternatives that come to mind:

 - Can we edit /etc/kernel-img.conf during postinst?  A simple sed rule could
 turn all "/sbin/update-grub" into "/usr/sbin/update-grub".  I suppose policy
 mandates that we need user permission to do this, but we could add a debconf
 template for that.

 - Can we replace /sbin/update-grub with a dummy stub that just echoes:
 "WARNING: $0 doing nothing.  Use /usr/sbin/update-grub instead!"

 (fortunately, default $PATH gives preference to /usr, so this won't bother
 the user during shell invokations).

As for grub-installer, can't it just ensure PATH gives preference to /usr,
and then invoke the commands without an absolute path?

-- 
Robert Millan

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