GRUB gone crazy after Fedora 41 beta update (file error)

The Water Cooler
22

Did you also use the grub-customizer ?

23

Yes, I think some files in /etc/grub.d/ might have been modified by grub-customizer, which prevented grub from regenerating grub.cfg after the update.

24

It fixed the problem, thank you all!

Now I just can’t edit entries, but I’ll see later and without grub-customizer.

25

As mentioned above the the customizer is not made for RHEL based Linux systems. Youcan manipulate the paths in the config file and check if you can make it run.

/etc/grub-customizer/grub.cfg

Soruce: FAQ #1397 : Questions : Grub Customizer
Then you can start Grub Customizer using the menu or by running gksu grub-customizer / sudo grub-customizer

On some distributions, this may fail (“bootloader not found”), because some of the commands / directories doesn’t exist on the expected names. Please make sure, these commands are accessible:

grub-mkconfig
grub-install

and these pathes/files:

/etc/grub.d
/boot/grub
/boot/grub/grub.cfg
/etc/default/grub

If not, there may be alternative commands/pathes, if Grub2 is installed. Please try to find them out and create a config file at /etc/grub-customizer/grub.cfg containing this content (the values of this example are valid on fedora 16 - change them, if they are different):

MKCONFIG_CMD=grub2-mkconfig
INSTALL_CMD=grub2-install
MKFONT_CMD=grub2-mkfont
CFG_DIR=/etc/grub.d
OUTPUT_DIR=/boot/grub2
OUTPUT_FILE=/boot/grub2/grub.cfg
SETTINGS_FILE=/etc/default/grub
DEVICEMAP_FILE=“/boot/grub2/device.map”
MKDEVICEMAP_CMD=“grub2-mkdevicemap --device-map=/dev/stdout”

It says that the examples are valid for F16 :face_with_spiral_eyes:

26

(Committing a little thread necromancy…)

I have a question, given… everything preceding this message:

In light of the unsuitability of grub-customizer for Fedora / RHEL systems,

Why is it (still!) in the Fedora repos!?!?

$ sudo dnf info grub-customizer     
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Available packages
Name           : grub-customizer
Epoch          : 0
Version        : 5.2.5
Release        : 2.fc41
Architecture   : x86_64
Download size  : 880.1 KiB
Installed size : 3.3 MiB
Source         : grub-customizer-5.2.5-2.fc41.src.rpm
Repository     : fedora
Summary        : Graphical GRUB2 settings manager
URL            : https://launchpad.net/grub-customizer
License        : GPL-3.0-or-later
Description    : Grub Customizer is a graphical interface to configure the grub2
               : /burg settings
               : with focus on the individual list order - without losing the dy
               : namical behavior
               : of grub.
               : 
               : The goal of this project is to create a complete and intuitive 
               : graphical
               : grub2/burg configuration interface. The main feature is the boo
               : t entry list
               : configuration - but not simply by modified the grub.cfg: to kee
               : p the dynamical
               : configuration, this application will only edit the script order
               :  and generate
               : proxies (script output filter), if required.
Vendor         : Fedora Project

“Here, have this official, distro-blessed package that will almost certainly break your boot setup if you actually install and use it. Have fun now!”

Kind of makes the whole “no warranty express or implied” disclaimer work overtime, don’t you think?

(Edit: Also, ‘dynamical’ is not a word, even if you say it twice.)

1 Like
27

Well, that’s a great question.

I think, if it’s still in Fedora’s repos, there are good reasons. It allows to easily install a theme or edit the settings for newbies. Plus, you can fix this error 99% of the times by resetting the changes done to the order and names. BUT it would be great if grub customizer prevented users, otherwise it leads to discussions like this.

28

That is true for Ubuntu and Debian based Linux Distributions. Unfortunately the file structure for Fedora Linux is a bit different what causes this issues. The correct would be to fork the project and write it so that is fedora conform.

In the other hand there will be made changes about the grub config files in the next Fedora Linux versions. Might be after that it works.

In open source, a good criticism is always welcome if you make them in form of a pull request. This way with a few clicks, it can be changed, the issue you are mentioning.

29

Sure. And normally, that’s my approach. I open a lot of PRs.

But I’m not going to open a PR to correct wording in a package description, when I vehemently believe the package should be REMOVED from the repo!

30

I don’t! In my experience, intertia is the primary/only reason most of our packages remain in the repos — once a package gets in there, it’s very difficult to dislodge. People act like you’re threatening to murder their child, whenever it’s suggested that something is, maybe, not really a good fit for Fedora (anymore).

I’m willing to assume grub-customizer was once useful in the past, maybe. (Otherwise, I do question why it would’ve been submitted in the first place, if it was always this broken.) But past utility doesn’t automatically make it useful, or not-dangerous, today.

Remember, Qt4 is still there in even the rawhide repo. Despite being on downstream package release 78 and counting, because the last upstream release was in May 2015, nearly 10 years ago.

But at least it can be argued that Qt4 has a niche audience, and “isn’t hurting anyone” by haunting the repos like the ghost of frameworks past.

grub-customizer, OTOH, is actively hurting users.

Sure, if the package weren’t broken, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. And if the package got fixed, and then someone wanted to package it for Fedora, I’d happily sponsor them myself.

But until such time as it’s not a danger to unwary users, having it lurk there on the off chance that “it might get better” seems pathological.

2 Likes