Bug#423217: grub-pc: Should not set itself up completely automatically on installation

[Frans Pop]

On Thursday 10 May 2007 18:21, Robert Millan wrote:
> On Thu, May 10, 2007 at 05:58:15PM +0200, Frans Pop wrote:
> > I also wonder how this works when the package is installed from
> > debian-installer which AFAIK takes care of setting up grub itself.
>
> grub-installer runs "grub-install" and "update-grub" again, and
> basicaly reinstalls grub one more time.

But also causes a delay in the installation. Doing things twice should in 
general be avoided if possible.

> > I would strongly suggest to either not set up grub automatically or
> > at least ask a debconf question whether the user really wants to set
> > up grub.
>
> The whole process is harmless, although maybe too verbose (and easy to
> miss-interpret).  Perhaps we should replace all this output with
> something like "echo Doing this" and "echo Doing that".

OTOH a lot of the output _is_ normally needed to check that there were no 
problems.

> Disabling it or adding an option to disable it seems like a bad thing. 
> Mainly because:
>   - User can always just install "grub" again and restore the old
> menu.lst. That is equivalent to a "disable" option.  OTOH, installing
> grub2 and not using it is usualy pointless.
>   - We need to provide a simple upgrade path for those users who don't
> even know what GRUB is.

These are only valid when current grub is already installed.

>   - When we add new features as default (e.g. gfxterm), it's not good
> if they're only default for new users and not existing ones.  This way
> we can't get proper QA for anything we add!

This is only valid for updates, not for new installs.

Note that in my chroot I did _not_ have grub installed, specifically 
because it is a chroot. I see no reason why grub needs to set itself up 
in that case and I think that there is a lot to say for preserving the 
behavior of the current grub in that case.
After all, for new users the installation system will take care of 
properly setting up grub on installation.

So:
- if current grub is installed, sure: make sure that it upgrades nicely,
  probably using debconf questions to inform users about what is happening
  and ask them if they maybe _do_ want to install grub-pc in their MBR or
  wherever grub is currently installed
  (but make sure you also cover the case where both grub and lilo are
  installed and lilo is active)
- if grub-pc is already installed, sure: do whatever is needed to
  upgrade current configurations (although I have my doubts about
  automatically setting new defaults in all situations)
- if nothing is yet installed, do nothing, just like current grub

> > However, this should be done in such a way that the question does
> > not get asked when grub-pc is installed by debian-installer.
>
> What do you mean with this?

I mean that is a debconf question is added, it should never be asked when 
grub-pc is installed during an installation by debian-installer because 
in that situation you are already sure it should be installed.
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