[Grml-devel] grml-rescueboot

[Ryan Finnie]

On 6/16/20 12:18 AM, Michael Prokop wrote:
>> What I'd like to propose is to genericize grml-rescueboot as
>> grub-loopback-iso.  This package could be aware of distros (e.g.
>> continue to say "Grml Rescue System" for grml-*.iso).  I also have a few
>> additional wanted updates, namely fixing the grub dependencies so it can
>> be used on arm64 UEFI (which it also would otherwise work fine on).  The
>> grml-rescueboot package could remain and depend on grub-loopback-iso, as
>> it has the update-grml-rescueboot script which *is* Grml-specific.
> 
>> If this is something we agree can be pursued, I'm willing to do the work
>> (conceptually, https://github.com/finnix/grub-loopback-iso-pkg is about
>> 80% of the work done already, but would need more work to be a proper
>> transitional from grml-rescueboot).  I just wanted to make sure this is
>> something Grml is not opposed to.
> 
> I very much appreciate your efforts, thanks for reaching out to us!
> 
> I'm absolutely not opposed to it, I'm just wondering how the
> bugreports against grub-loopback-iso are supposed to be handled
> then. Should a team be formed and bug reports are forwarded to the
> according teams (Finnix, Grml, Ubuntu,...)? Bugreports against Grml
> ISOs e.g. could be reported against grml-rescueboot then, but what
> about other distributions though? Which distributions should be
> "supported" then?
> 
> Do you have an overview which distributions support loopback boot
> nowadays and could/would be supported within grub-loopback-iso?

I think the proposed grub-loopback-iso should be treated as a generic
tool, "supporting" any loopback.cfg-compatible distro ISO.  I proposed
having Grml-specific detection basically as acknowledgement for Grml
being first to do it :), but otherwise there doesn't need to be any
distro-specific code in the package itself (i.e. the Grub submenu for a
Finnix iso would just be something like "Loopback ISO (finnix-120.iso)".

As for which distros currently support loopback.cfg, it appears to be
"just" Debian and their derivatives, and Ubuntu and their derivatives
(yes Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian, but their image build system has
diverged from Debian so much that it's essentially entirely different,
but still builds compatible loopback.cfg files).  I thought Fedora had
it, and I've found various discussions about it, but apparently it was
never implemented.

As for package maintenance in Debian, it could be something like a Salsa
team, or you could add me to Uploaders, or I could just go through you
for updates (I don't anticipate regular maintenance being that much).

Let me get something together in the next few days based on the
grub-loopback-iso work from a few weeks ago, so we can have a specific
proposal to discuss.

>> [1] In 2014 I had apparently forked grml-rescueboot as
>> grub-loopback-iso, but never got it into Debian.  And at some point it
>> was added as a grml-rescueboot git branch?
>> (http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-rescueboot.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/grub-loopback-iso)
>>  So it was known about and maybe was discussed at some point, but I
>> honestly don't remember.  I had updated my grub-loopback-iso and was
>> looking for sponsors when Paul reminded me of grml-rescueboot again.
> 
> I think this dates back to the work around
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=750072
> :)

Oh wow, I literally don't even remember that bug!  That puts a lot of
stuff in perspective now, thanks.


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