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nixCraft 🐧 (nixcraft@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 09-Jul-2024 07:01:07 JST nixCraft 🐧

Red Hat is working on a new scheme to replace the GRUB bootloader with a fast, secure, Linux-based, user-space solution: nmbl (for no more boot loader). You can just use #Linux kernel to boot https://pretalx.com/devconf-cz-2024/talk/W3AVCT/
In conversation about 5 months ago from mastodon.social permalink
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1. No more boot loader: Please use the kernel instead DevConf.CZ
  
  We are working on a new scheme to replace the GRUB bootloader with a fast, secure, Linux-based, user-space solution: nmbl (for no more boot loader). Most people are familiar with GRUB, a powerful, flexible, fully-featured bootloader that is used on multiple architectures (x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le OpenFirmware). Although GRUB is quite versatile and capable, its features create complexity that is difficult to maintain, and that both duplicate and lag behind the Linux kernel while also creating numerous security holes. On the other hand, the Linux kernel, which has a large developer base, benefits from fast feature development, quick responses to vulnerabilities and greater overall scrutiny. We (Red Hat boot loader engineering) will present our solution to this problem, which is to use the Linux kernel as its own bootloader. Loaded by the EFI stub on UEFI, and packed into a unified kernel image (UKI), the kernel, initramfs, and kernel command line, contain everything they need to reach the final boot target. All necessary drivers, filesystem support, and networking are already built in and code duplication is avoided. We will showcase the work done so far, and ask you for your feedback and use cases.
- John Maxwell (jmax@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 09-Jul-2024 07:03:17 JST John Maxwell
  in reply to
  
  @nixCraft - My first linux machine booted the kernel directly from floppy.
  (0.12.6 IIRC, but that was a long time ago)
  
  In conversation about 5 months ago permalink
- GoatsLive (goatslive@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 09-Jul-2024 07:10:19 JST GoatsLive
  in reply to
  
  @nixCraft My only question is, why did it take so long!
  
  In conversation about 5 months ago permalink
- hexaheximal (hexaheximal@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 09-Jul-2024 08:01:16 JST hexaheximal
  in reply to
  
  @nixCraft This just sounds like a classic case of Red Hat coming up with a solution in search of a problem and then pushing it on other distributions. This isn't anything new.
  You can already jump from UEFI to the Linux kernel without GRUB; this is a solved problem.
  
  In conversation about 5 months ago permalink
- FOSSilized_Daemon (fossilized_daemon@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 09-Jul-2024 13:38:41 JST FOSSilized_Daemon
  in reply to
  
  @nixCraft I just use syslinux. I don't know how this'll impact multiboot setups.
  
  In conversation about 5 months ago permalink
- Artur (h0m3@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 09-Jul-2024 21:50:23 JST Artur
  in reply to
  
  @nixCraft efistub to boot the kernel "works" today but you need to pass kernel parameters as UEFI options which is not supported by all UEFI BIOS. I briefly used EFIStub to boot the kernel but my dell laptop reminded me why Im still on grub hahaha.
  Hope that this project can address, also curious how boot parameters will be handled
  
  In conversation about 5 months ago permalink

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