Bug#631224: grub2 should *never* auto write MBR

Arno Töll debian at toell.net
Wed Jun 22 09:07:54 UTC 2011


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> Please keep chroot-like environments in mind (e.g. lxc,
> Linux vserver, debootstrap, etc.). Installing grub-pc due
> to some unexpected dependency chain or just by accident
> should not make your host system unbootable.

That said, there are also use cases where one wants to install grub but
not the boot loader. For example in virtual machines running Xen with
pygrub. There you want Debian to update /boot/grub/{grub.cfg,menu.lst}
but not the boot loader.

There may be similar cases for embedded systems and some other
virtualization/chrooted magic. Why don't prompt the user in a - as for
me low priority - debconf template whether he wants to install the boot
loader or not with defaults to yes? Or, alternatively, query a variable
in /etc/default or something similar which lets the user override this
decision, like

if [ ! -e /boot/GRUB_DONT_TOUCH_BOOTLOADER ] ; grub-install-things fi

- -- 
with kind regards,
Arno Töll
IRC: daemonkeeper on Freenode/OFTC
GnuPG Key-ID: 0x9D80F36D
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