I ran into the well-known problem of grub-vanilla failing due to missing libzfs.so.2. zfs-utils is installed, but it gives libzfs.so.4 instead of libzfs.so.2. I am also aware of grub-vanilla being not exactly under maintenance by Manjaro. For testing, I downgraded zfs-utils to a package I have in storage until libzfs.so.2 came up, but that version is an 0.8 oldie.
My original reason to use grub-vanilla was: I have a UEFI multiboot laptop. However, Manjaro’s grub is a “slave” only, while the master grub on my laptop is in my Tumbleweed installation. All grub’s have OS_PROBER disabled. The Tumbleweed grub generates grub menu entries for the other OS’s via /etc/grub.d/40_custom (config file switching). When setting up that boot structure, the Manjaro silent boot contained in their patched grub package did unfortunately disturb the desired clean and visible boot procedures.
So my questions now are:
Let’s presume I want to switch to the grub package as patched by Manjaro. Then I would like to know how to convince this grub to fully ignore silent boot and behave like grub-vanilla. And I would like to get your help in safely switching from grub-vanilla to grub.
OR:
Is there any chance grub-vanilla could be fixed so as to depend on libzfs.so.4 instead of libzfs.so.2? Would this expose the recent vulnerabilities of grub?
Thanks in advance for your help. I did a forum and wiki search before asking, but couldn’t really get to grips.
Sorry, I don‘t remember precisely, since that happened at the time when Manjaro went for this silent boot. I remember one had to hit a key to get to the grub menu, which didn’t work since Manjaro grub is only the second grub menu showing up after Tumbleweed’s. Whatever it was, there must have been a reason for Jonathon to introduce grub-vanilla.
I would switch from grub-vanilla to Manjaro‘s grub and give it a try again.
Please, can you point to some wiki or forum post on how to do this safely? grub-vanilla is installed, I have my grub config (to be saved somewhere). So how to remove grub-vanilla and install grub (EFI)? What about that grub environment stuff?
My steps were:
(0) Boot into Manjaro using the existing grub-vanilla. No chrooting necessary thereafter.
(1) Save my /etc/default/grub, even though I expected it get saved to grub.pacsave in step 2.
(2) Uninstall grub-vanilla. Check that /etc/grub.d and /boot/efi/EFI/manjaro get cleaned.
(3) Install grub, e.g. using pamac.
(4) Clear the grub environment variables by
sudo grub-editenv /boot/grub/grubenv create
Check that the environment is empty by
sudo grub-editenv /boot/grub/grubenv - list
(4) Install the actual bootloader. In my case of EFI booting, do a
This puts grubx64.efi into /boot/efi/EFI/manjaro.
(5) Edit /etc/default/grub to one’s liking. In my case, copying grub.pacsave over grub was sufficient.
(6) Update the grub config via
sudo update-grub
All works fine, even in my use case where Manjaro is the “second” of two Linux’s on my laptop, and where Tumbleweed is the “first” one whose grub has menu entries for Manjaro via config file switching. The glitch of the old Manjaro grub introduced some time ago is gone; that glitch was related to using an auto-hide-the-grub-menu feature.
Thanks again for encouraging me to switch to grub now instead of grub-vanilla.
First, after initial attempts with Mint and Ubuntu, I just didn‘t want anything but a rolling distro.
Second, why two? That‘s easy, two independent ”suppliers“, two independent desktops (Xfce Manjaro, Plasma Tumbleweed), two independent sets of repos (Arch, openSUSE). ”Two“ for all those mishaps when something goes wrong, either with any software at updates, or due to my faults.
That was kinda rhetorical question
As for me, I use Ubuntu as a safe haven when I bork my Manjaro install. Maintaining 2 rolling distros is too much hassle to me.
