Adding systemd-boot support in debian-installer

[Cyril Brulebois]

Hi,

Luca Boccassi <bluca at debian.org> (2024-06-03):
> I've created a udeb that adds an expert menu item to allow choosing
> systemd-boot (in the NEW queue):
> 
> https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/systemd-boot-installer

The `Architecture: all` in control vs the 64-bit EFI logic in the script
seems odd at first glance. Looking at other *-installer, they tend to
have a restricted arch list in most cases.

I have no strong feelings either way, just something that caught my eye
when I first looked into the repository.

> A couple of PRs for minimal support:
> 
> https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer-utils/-/merge_requests/12

OK, spotted the todo in the script when I spotted the upload; a
versioned dependency will do the trick once the d-i-utils part is
reviewed/merged/uploaded.

> https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/d-i/-/merge_requests/17

TIL: builscript.

ACK on the .mrconfig part, but I think this misses an addition to
packages/po/packages_list (to be confirmed with Holger Wansing). Might
be best to get rid of the fuzzy parts still mentioning nobootloader
beforehand though. Just something that needs taken care of at some
point.

> https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/-/merge_requests/46
> 
> It does not show up in non-expert mode, which is fine for now,
> especially as secure boot signing is not yet available.
> 
> After it's been in the testing image like this for a while, and after
> we have secure boot integration finished up, would it be ok to show a
> question in the non-expert install too? GRUB would still be the
> default of course, the question would select it by default, and allow
> to switch to sd-boot if chosen. Where would be the best place to add
> this?

I have close to no knowledge about the details around menu items at the
moment. Looking at the good old GRUB vs. LILO duo, I see they had
different numbers (7400 for GRUB, 7500 for LILO), not sure whether we
should have the same numbers for grub-installer and for
systemd-boot-installer.

I'm also not sure whether we should offer a choice between those two
different booting methods in the course of a normal (non-expert)
install.


Finally, I'm Cc-ing GRUB people to let them know.


Cheers,
-- 
Cyril Brulebois (kibi at debian.org)            <https://debamax.com/>
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant
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