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doc: Add section about ostree and bootloaders
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jmarrero committed Dec 8, 2023
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# Bootloaders
{: .no_toc }

1. TOC
{:toc}

# OSTree and bootloaders

The intended design of OSTree is that it just writes new files into `/boot/loader/entries`. There is a legacy GRUB script (shipped on Fedora as `ostree-grub2`) that is intended only for the cases where the system GRUB does not support the `blscfg` verb.

In the happy path then, the flow of an OS update is just:

- ostree writes a new set of files in `/boot/loader/entries` (during `ostree-finalize-staged.service` on system shutdown)
- On system start, GRUB reads those files

And that's it.

## OSTree and grub

For historical reasons, OSTree defaults to detecting the bootloader; if some GRUB files are present then OSTree will default to executing `grub2-mkconfig`.

[Commented out for now, as this can lead to the system not booting in some cases.]: #
[This can be avoided by setting `sysroot.bootloader=none` (except this should not be set on s390x).]: #

## GRUB and os-prober

A specific component of GRUB that can significantly impede the reliabilty of OS updates is the `os-prober` aspect, which scans all system block devices. If one doesn't care about dual booting, avoiding this is a good idea.


# Anaconda

Until very recently the Anaconda project only supported setting up the bootloader (e.g. GRUB) on its own, which requires `grub2-mkconfig` etc. As of recently, Anaconda now [supports bootupd](https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/pull/5298).

# bootupd

As of recently [the bootupd project](https://github.com/coreos/bootupd/) ships [static grub configs](https://github.com/coreos/bootupd/tree/main/src/grub2) and in this case, the `sysroot.bootloader` should be set to `none` (except on s390x).
And assuming that the system grub has the `blscfg` support, which it does on Fedora derivatives per above.

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