Adding systemd-boot support in debian-installer

[Luca Boccassi]

On Mon, 3 Jun 2024 at 02:47, Cyril Brulebois <kibi at debian.org> wrote:
>
> 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.

Given it's only shipping a script I thought it was supposed to be
'all', and also it would avoid the need to conditionalize
dependencies. I can change it if needed, just let me know.

> > 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.

Ah missed that packages_list - fixed in the latest push

> > 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.

Yeah I just copied it without giving it much thought, if it needs to
be changed let me know what is the right number and I'll fix it.

> 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.

Sure we can leave it as-is until there's at least some request to have
it, expert mode is fine for now.