Whirliwig’s Weblog

HAL abstracts hardware => Front-end = hardware-independent, function-based, Back-end = hardware-dependent, hardware-specific calls

HAL has a database which shows what it ‘knows’ about the hardware it abstracts, including all kinds of useful ACPI info.

Use ‘lshal’ to see (yep, ‘ls’ on ‘HAL’)

I’m pretty much in the dark about how GRUB does what it does.

I know:

/etc/default/grub is used to generate an initial GRUB /boot/grub/menu.lst, when /usr/sbin/update-grub is called

the installed menu.lst can then be edited to add lines in the defaults section (all of which is commented, but GRUB will still use these lines)

This is the only way to add more ‘altoptions’ lines, for example.

No matter how many altoptions lines you have in /etc/default/grub, only the last one is included in the resulting menu.lst

If you then edit menu.lst to add more lines, and re-run update-grub, the new alternative boot configs for each available kernel become available.

It’s almost like GRUB ignores /etc/default/grub after initial use, unless it changes…bit like make where /etc/default/grub is a dependency for menu.lst, as is menu.lst.

Anyway, here’s my /etc/grub/default:

# Kernel Options

kopt=”ro vga=773″

kopt_2_6_24=”ro vga=773 resume=swap:/dev/mapper/diddlysharp-swap_1″

## default grub root device

groot=(hd0,0)

## update-grub creates alternative automagic boot options

alternative=true

## update-grub won’t lock alternative automagic boot options

lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the

## alternatives

defoptions=quiet

## update-grub won’t lock old automagic boot options

lockold=false

## altoption boot targets option

altoptions=”(root-terminal) single”

altoptions=”(minimal) showopt single init=/bin/bash”

## All kernels should be put into the menu.lst

howmany=all

## update-grub should create memtest86 boot option

memtest86=true

## update-grub shouldn’t adjust the value of the default booted system

updatedefaultentry=false

If you can see this, then Whirliwig has posted his first post from DiddlySharp, his teeny-tiny Sharp MM10 running Debian. The program he used is called something poetic, but only half-heartedly, as it just appears as ‘Blog Entry Poster’ in the Applications Menu.

Hoorah!

Note to developers: please consider calling it ‘gBlogPost’: small enough to fit in a menu line, concise enough to please those who rail against the everything-has-to-have-a-stupid-name-usually-involving-an-animal-or-homely-noun brigade.

Or maybe ElephantSoup would be a better name.

Hoorah!