From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from list by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.90_1) id 1lmOBf-00073A-UW for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 27 May 2021 18:09:07 -0400 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:56942) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lmOBd-00072R-WF for grub-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 27 May 2021 18:09:06 -0400 Received: from mail-wm1-x334.google.com ([2a00:1450:4864:20::334]:52925) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:128) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lmOBc-00068m-5i for grub-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 27 May 2021 18:09:05 -0400 Received: by mail-wm1-x334.google.com with SMTP id z130so1049949wmg.2 for ; Thu, 27 May 2021 15:09:03 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=colorremedies-com.20150623.gappssmtp.com; s=20150623; h=mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc; bh=2Y1vHoHSnQgmAh0S7FBTktgHB3bL60Ey5Mgc2rXxV70=; b=HgC5P0bvTunlxRScFToydQTTLUo7EXmiQs3RTjumCO5vEDZMfVMNB0JRPxuyh39NEw v3XHADgyGTgM0qjMNEzuJqAK6zT6d5ROHDhxf3PQjZDpF8ts3Z5Zqb9OHSTo7Je/QVxR 4Qq+fKHC5igwJhse2Hw/tL83nO5S4T91jylY/2f7wg5YjCBYbfFIKargxo1XyrVn5TUD CwB2DfD0AgFOY5Q5SAoJ7bhYsk7pp2xMLD+H7bt1FoFDz3xisvpbMVMCP5WKliU9Crv/ IhhQyo7GJAwvsDBJzxRRkRv4ge2EZ+wcSelR2y8NbcruKvcUKpeKLU/qnWd+GOefU3CJ XZAw== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=2Y1vHoHSnQgmAh0S7FBTktgHB3bL60Ey5Mgc2rXxV70=; b=jDT96LKcnBIBJikVuyIE1mQRRy000NloWmM5gY+J8czktAjSKb0RHuJFJoar3fiivw 4iq5hFAXyUNi9Pik9Fy49VPfURfcU3CBEVOmbeLrPkwhLGr7qXYmifAEyZjgr5WS39JJ EuP7dQLLdlIJItkI5nuuUWN2hGIW4BAYaKLjC6uCfNlVyYyp/0Kn6k6aCnK2bxzMwsnJ s7rvv/ZftBA6jbwXNJwqIPP/lkNBbMHJxVlfodegbku7jlEVs3CywW0jEV02hTS618lz k4l/LJx/1n8RmeyDDqz2bZnhV+HwZFudABamJf6eiUWrRL49ApT5XOPxq9fLe7TXeSkz KtcQ== X-Gm-Message-State: AOAM530QNV7+8abridtPJ07AZi70tvDHDOlEZQSQw2wfxPtP/Y1MGZfl Aja8nrPaddrJMvOuRjSzD/O84bX0zLD7fLw1Beevsw== X-Google-Smtp-Source: ABdhPJxMKEoKRm91pHDm0vj3uqn6av5Sm30lAQyqNeWzB37U6Yhr/lWQUzH5yncABsLFIKKQIyMxzMiwEUa/gl0xESE= X-Received: by 2002:a1c:638b:: with SMTP id x133mr10539674wmb.182.1622153341989; Thu, 27 May 2021 15:09:01 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <20210526091621.GB3985@mercury> <20210527085942.GA8422@mercury> In-Reply-To: <20210527085942.GA8422@mercury> From: Chris Murphy Date: Thu, 27 May 2021 16:08:45 -0600 Message-ID: Subject: Re: RFC: A partition for grubenv, etc. To: Michael Chang Cc: Chris Murphy , The development of GNU GRUB Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Received-SPF: pass client-ip=2a00:1450:4864:20::334; envelope-from=chris@colorremedies.com; helo=mail-wm1-x334.google.com X-Spam_score_int: -18 X-Spam_score: -1.9 X-Spam_bar: - X-Spam_report: (-1.9 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1, DKIM_VALID=-0.1, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE=-0.0001, SPF_HELO_NONE=0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: The development of GNU GRUB List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 27 May 2021 22:09:06 -0000 On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 2:59 AM Michael Chang wrote: > > On Wed, May 26, 2021 at 08:36:05PM -0600, Chris Murphy wrote: > > So is the next era going to be we recommend /boot on FAT? > > No. I meant a new partition type only for grubenv files and keep > everything else as is. The filesystem can be extX or FAT whichever is > writable by grub. For efi, we probably don't need to define new > partition, as we can reuse the efi system partition. Or use the same partition for consistency instead of yet another exception? But also, GRUB strictly speaking doesn't write to any file system. It's overwriting a sector or two, no file system metadata is updated, hence the problem. > It is easier to handle in script as we only need to point to the new > writable location if available, the concern to admin is that we also > have to define mount point for linux (eg /boot/grubenv). That'd be three partitions needed by BIOS GRUB: BIOS Boot, grubenv, and /boot. Plus ~440 bytes on LBA 0, quasi-partition. Seems like a lot. What about a FAT formatted file system at /boot/grub and everything just lives there? Deprecate BIOS Boot, use blocklists instead. Grubenv partition proposal isn't needed, it can just stay where it is, unchanged and can be reliably written to. And whether UEFI or BIOS, grub looks to /boot/grub/ for all modules and configuration files? -- Chris Murphy