Dave Miner writes:
> >> Addressing this is probably a combination of:
> >>
> >> - introduce GRUB on SPARC to reduce the reliance on DHCP vendor options
> >
> > Please don't: the current GRUB setup (having to edit/modify menu.lst for
> > each client) is a nightmare compared to the SPARC/pre-NewBoot way of having
> > vendor options to control settings. While this may be convenient for a
> > single system, it becomes very tedious when having to maintain large
> > numbers of systems
>
> The reasons to make the move on SPARC are relatively strong, and what
> you're pointing out is a deficiency in x86 that we should be looking to
> correct.
re-reading my mail, I see that it can be misunderstood: I don't oppose the
move to GRUB on SPARC, although it has its tedious points and the boot
archives introduce several new failure modes not seen before. If I recall
correctly from Jan Setje-Eilers' NewBoot presentation during the S10
PlatBeta final meeting, the move is motivated both by the need for ZFS boot
on SPARC and a simplification of the kernel <-> OBP interaction.
I'm only strongly opposed to the switch from DHCP vendor options to the
exclusive use of menu.lst, which is hardly a scalable/centrally
maintainable interface. Btw., per-host sysidcfg files have exactly the
same problem ;-( If we can retain (at least as an option) the ability to
use vendor options to configure the boot/installation even with GRUB,
that's fine with me.
Rainer
