Proposed release goal: Switch to GRUB2

[Robert Millan]

On Wed, Apr 25, 2007 at 09:59:51AM -0300, Otavio Salvador wrote:
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> Hello,
> 
> We, the GRUB team, want to swtich to GRUB2 due many reasons, basicaly:
> 
>  - easier to maintain;
>  - better codebase;
>  - multi-arch support;
>  - active upstream;
> 
> Our current plan is to finish the update-grub2 merging on upstream
> side (being handled by Robert) and then upload a new package to
> Debian. This package after moving to lenny ought be set as default
> boot-loader in grub-installer (while we still offer grub as an option
> during the test cicle).

I would like to offer grub-legacy as an option (even in d-i) for the release.
It's good to have a fallback in case it is needed.  But of course, it's been
in maintainance mode only for a while now, and adding new features to it is
out of the question at this point (the same applies to upstream).

> The upgrade from grub to grub2 will be transparent since menu.list can
> be automaticaly converted to the new format and this will be in place
> when we start the default boot-loader change.

Also note that the user interface (grub-install + update-grub) is backwards
compatible.  The change could well remain unnoticed :-)

> After doing it, we intend to drop grub from archive since it's a bunch
> of patches difficult to maintain and hard to follow.

Let's see if we can try to prevent this from happening again.  I think the
key points are:

  - Fight wishlist requests.  grub2 is feature-rich, and upstream welcomes
    new development.  New features should be added and dealt with through
    upstream (unless they're debian-specific, of course).

  - Merge bugfixes in upstream, fast.  Jason and I have commit access and good
    relation which them.  I think that can help.

-- 
Robert Millan

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