[syslinux] Bootloader data in /boot vs package systems (and atomic updates)

[Ady]

> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 4:49 PM, Ady <ady-sf at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>     FWIW and just as one example, ArchLinux has its own script
> 
> Looks like the canonical source is here:
> https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk/syslin
> ux-install_update?h=packages/syslinux
> 
> Right.  Hmm.  The painful thing will be transitioning the existing 
> package, as it would obviously break everything if the updated RPM 
> just removed the extant files from /boot.
> 
> I'm debating a bit whether or not this is worthwhile to do, or if I 
> should just focus more on GRUB, or if I should patch Anaconda+OSTree 
> to work around it.  Maybe both of the latter two.
> 
> Anyways, definitely a useful data point that Arch keeps the data in 
> /usr and copies it to /boot via a wrapper.
> 

Another FWIW...

In some (Debian or Ubuntu -based) distros, when GRUB2 is already 
installed in the VBR and the user installs extlinux so to replace it 
(installs the relevant packages and executes the EXTLINUX installer), 
the cfg files and several c32 modules are also installed and 
configured at the same time.

Possibly os-prober is involved, among others (debconf?, udev?). I 
don't know any particular details, or which situations / cases are 
adequately supported and which ones don't. I just know that the 
result is more than just ldlinux.sys being installed.

Regards,
Ady.