Re: ostree host from scratch w/o anaconda

[Colin Walters <walters verbum org>]

On Wed, Jun 17, 2015, at 12:18 AM, Touseef Liaqat wrote:
> At this point I assumed we need to install boot loader and run following
> command which I think is not supposed to be called directly, which is
> causing some errors.
>
> $ ostree admin instutil --sysroot=/mnt/ostreeroot/ grub2-generate

What we do with Anaconda/OSTree is that Anaconda is responsible
for installing the bootloader code:
https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/blob/86a5c8ffd175b28c9e9e98207c900e5daa40431c/pyanaconda/bootloader.py#L1381
then it calls into ostree to configure it:

https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/blob/86a5c8ffd175b28c9e9e98207c900e5daa40431c/pyanaconda/packaging/rpmostreepayload.py#L297

> 2) I am confused on how to replicate _copyBootloaderData (in
> rpmostreepayload.py) manually on my
> side. What should be returned by .getTargetPhysicalRoot() and
> .getSysroot()?

physical root = /mnt/ostreeroot
sysroot = /mnt/ostreeroot/ostree/deploy/$osname/deploy/$deployment

> 3) Any suggestion where to look for help on creating Host from scratch
> without anaconda, and how bootloader works in ostree world? Is this the
> right direction I am going so that at the end I could create photon ostree
> host? Am I executing the above commands in right way?

You're pretty close.  This list is the right place.  The actual bootloader
integration with GRUB2 is pretty ugly.  We could do a lot better when
using a bootloader that directly parses the Bootloader Spec.  But
the BLS has issues with multi-booting among other things.  See:

http://www.redhat.com/archives/anaconda-devel-list/2014-July/msg00002.html

for a thread on this in the Fedora world.  Other people use OSTree
with syslinux/u-boot, and rely on generating the config file, which works OK.

I really don't like GRUB2, but it has a lot of momentum owing to the UEFI support
and being the default on both Ubuntu and Fedora/RHEL among others.