Feature changed by: Daniel FAIVRE (geomaticien) Feature #314975, revision 7 Title: Enhanced YaST--> Boot Loader Tool openSUSE Distribution: New Priority Requester: Important Requested by: Dustin Falgout (falgout) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: The current boot loader configuration tool provides only the minimum amount of grub2 customization options. This seems to be a pattern among most distros and I think openSUSE could get ahead of the game in this area by providing a tool that allows the user to customize every aspect of their grub2 menu including themes. An example of concept would be the grub-customizer available in Ubuntu's repos but developed inline with YaST's "it just works" philosophy. Also related to this, current behavior of the YaST boot loader tool either (a.) ignores other linux distros that are already installed (Windows isn't affected by this) or (b.) it creates menu entries named openSUSE with mixed and matched kernel boot perimeters (useless). This should be improved so that the user does not have to manually configure menu entries at every install, especially a new user. Use Case: -You have been using Linux exclusively for two years and tried a lot of distros. -You currently have Ubuntu and Debian installed. -After reading yet another positive article concerning openSUSE, you decide to install it. -Install is straight-forward. You modify your partition setup choose, mount points, etc. -Now you are presented with a nice outline of your selections and decide you click on grub setup just to double check things (having visited the grub rescue menu twice in the past). -Bootloader setup looks solid. You have the customer /boot setup, you adjusted the timer and made sure to enable os_prober. You go ahead and install. -Install complete and you reboot. You are presented with a nice openSUSE themed grub menu that at first glance looks to have all three distros' menu entries and their respective sub menu. - Wait a minute, what's this? All of the entries say openSUSE 12.3 and then list the kernel. You realize that the first entry is your new opensuse and its correct. The remaining entries is a mixture of settings from all three (kernels, boot parameters, etc) and that they are useless. -It has been almost a year since you had to touch anything grub related and you are drawing a blank on what to do so you boot into openSUSE to research a fix. -Your first attempt is just to reinstall grub and run mkconfig again. To your surprise you get the same result. - You do a little more searching and realize that since your first attempt is a no go you need to boot into ubuntu or debian and run mkconfig from there. -You print out your grub menu entry from ubuntu (thank goodness you used a completely new /boot and didn't overwrite ubuntu's under the impression openSUSE would recognize the others!) Anyways, I think you get the idea here. All of this could have been avoided with correct os_prober behavior and you would't have wasted time refreshing your memory on grub to find a solution. I'll make the second one short. After reboot you are presented a grub menu with only openSUSE listed and no sign of your other two distros. Now if we are the user from the previous scenario this is a pretty easy fix. What about someone who hasn't been using linux for 2 years but for 2 months or weeks? Should we expect them to just figure it out? Obviously, its not hard to figure out and years ago the popular response would be "of course they need to figure it out." That was then and this is now. IMHO if a distro incorrectly sets something up or breaks your existing configuration then its the distros responsibility to ensure an easy solution whenever it is possible. If the boot loader tool was enhanced and fully featured, both scenarios would be non- issues from the start saving the user from hassle and wasted time. Even as a completely new user, (to whom grub issues are the most daunting) it would just take one quick search of openSUSE grub to direct them to the enhanced bootloader tool. Its a cakewalk from there because the tool is presented in a way that is easy to understand and yet allows full configuration. These and issues like them would be made irrelevant before they start. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: To stay ahead of the pack and continue to be the best distro for new users and experienced users alike. Discussion: #1: Vyacheslav Blinov (dant3) (2013-05-15 19:51:00) Happened to me somewhat like in story above. I am expirienced openSUSE user, but this was my first ubuntu/openSUSE install and I had hard times figuring out that to do. + #2: Daniel FAIVRE (geomaticien) (2014-05-19 00:09:04) + I have a root partition on a software raid and Yast does NOT manage + this correctly : errors messages says that "Yast cannot handle my + configuration" despite a manual configuration of the boot loader works + perfectly. Yast SHOULD handle every boot configuration that could be + handled by the bootloader. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/314975